Tableau Server on Windows Help

The Data Server manages connections to published data sources on Tableau Server. To make Data Server highly available, configure one or more Data Server processes to run on multiple nodes of the cluster.

Process	Data Server
Status	Status of the Data Server process is visible on the Status Page. For more information, see View Server Process Status
Logging	Logs generated by the Data Server process are located in C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\logs\dataserver. For more information, see Tableau Server Logs and Log File Locations

What happens if a Data Server process fails? Queries running through the Data Server process will fail, resulting in a failed view rendering, extract refresh, or alert. Subsequent requests, including a retry of the failed operation, should succeed as long as a working Data Server is available to accept rerouted requests.

Tableau Server is not dependent on Data Server to function; however, without a running Data Server, workbooks on the server lose the ability to query or to connect to published data sources. Any view that does not use Data Server for any of its data sources will still function correctly.