Version: Added in version 2026.3.0.

The Insights Service supports Tableau insights on Tableau Server. It generates insights by querying data through the VizQL Data Service (Headless BI). On Tableau Server, it is used by the Tableau Agent in Dashboards Insights capability. It works together with the Time Series Service, which must run on the same node.

The Insights Service is available if you have a Server+ license. The VizQL Data Service must also be deployed.

Server Configuration

The Insights Service is automatically installed on the initial node.

Process	Insights Service (insightsservice)
Status	Status of the Insights Service is visible on the Status Page and can be accessed using the TSM CLI to view. For more information, see View Server Process Status
Logging	Logs generated by the Insights Service are located in C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\logs\insightsservice. For more information, see Tableau Server Logs and Log File Locations The log file is named insightsservice_<nodeid>.log and rotates at 100 MB, keeping 5 backups

Impact if the Insights Service fails

If the service stops unexpectedly, Tableau Server restarts it automatically. If it fails more than 3 times within 60 seconds, it is disabled and is not automatically restarted again. A process that is still running but has stopped responding is not restarted automatically. While the service is down, only Insights are unavailable; the rest of Tableau Server keeps working, though tsm status will show the Insights Service as not running. Requests that were in progress when it failed return an error and are not retried.

Topology and Configuration

The Insights Service has the following topology requirements:

• Required on the same node: every node that runs the Insights Service must also run the Time Series Service (timeseriesservice) and the VizQL Data Service (vizqldataservice). The VizQL Data Service in turn requires the VizData Service (vizdataservice) on that node. TSM enforces this when you change the topology and adds a missing required service automatically.

• Recommended colocation: no additional services beyond those required above.

• Should not share a node with: no restrictions.

• Number of instances: by default, 1 instance runs on the initial node (on upgrade, it is added to the first node that runs the VizQL Data Service). The service is optional and supports multiple instances; the standard limit of 8 instances of a process per node applies.

High availability

The default Insights Service is a single instance, running on the initial node. To make the Insights Service highly available, configure 1 instance on each of at least two nodes. Each of those nodes must also run the Time Series Service, VizQL Data Service, and VizData Service.

We recommend adding instances on additional nodes rather than running several instances on one node.

If multiple Insights Service processes are running, the failure of a single process does not affect the other instances, and new requests can be routed to the remaining healthy instances. Requests that were in progress on the failed instance return an error and are not retried.

Performance and Scale Recommendations

The Insights Service is lightweight and has no admin tuning settings. The limiting factor is VizQL Server CPU, not the Insights Service. If Insights are slow, monitor and scale VizQL Server and VizQL Data Service capacity before adding Insights Service instances.