Tableau Server on Windows Help

Server administrators can create site role limits to set a maximum number of licenses of each type (Creator, Explorer, or Viewer) that can be consumed on a given site. After a server administrator sets a site role limit, site administrators can add users (thereby automatically consuming licenses) up to that site role limit. If a user is a member of multiple sites across the server, then that user will count against each site's role limit, but will only consume one license (which corresponds to the highest site role they have on the server). Server administrators do not count against site role limits.

To learn more about the capabilities of each site role, see User-based licenses in the Tableau Server help Licensing Overview. For information for server administrators on how to set up site role limits, see Site Settings Reference.

Create role limits on a site

Before you can enable site administrators to manage their users, you can View Server Licenses to determine how to allocate licenses across the Server, or Add Capacity for new users to the Server.

Server administrators can configure site role limits through the Settings page in the web UI, or through the REST API.

To set a site role limit on a site:

1. Go to the General tab of the Settings page for your site.
   • If you have a single site, on the side navigation, click Settings and General.
   • If you have multiple sites, select the site you want to configure and click Settings and General.
2. Under Managing Users, specify that Server and site administrators can add and remove users.
3. Under Limit the number of users to: select Site Role Limit
4. Set a limit for Creators, Explorers, and Viewers.
5. Click Save

Server administrators can set site role limits within the following restrictions:

• A site role limit cannot exceed the number of licenses of that type that have been activated on the server
• A site role limit cannot be less than the number of users of that site role already present for that site
• If a limit is set for any license type, a limit must be set for every license type.
• If the limit for a role is left blank, the server license limit is used.

When site role limits are met

If a user is added to a site as an Explorer, they will consume an Explorer license, unless the site has met its role limit set for Explorer. When this happens, a few different things can occur:

• If there are available licenses at a higher tier, the user will be added to the site as an Explorer, but will consume a Creator license.
• If no higher licenses are available, the user is added to the site as an Unlicensed user.

Site role limits can be affected by users consuming licenses that are different than their given site roles (Viewers consuming Explorer licenses, for example). In this case, administrators can unlicense those users, then update the site role quotas. For more information on how to troubleshoot licensing issues, see Troubleshoot Licensing.