Selecting a Google Compute Engine Virtual Machine Type and Size


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Deployments on public clouds continue to be supported but the content for third-party public cloud deployments is no longer updated.

For the latest Tableau Server deployment content, see the Enterprise Deployment Guide(Link opens in a new window) and the Deploy(Link opens in a new window) section of Tableau Server help.

For those customers who have access, we recommend Tableau Cloud. For more details, see:

Introduction

The Google Cloud Platform offers many types of Google Compute Engine (GCE) virtual machines (VMs) in various sizes. Choosing the right VM for your workload is an important factor for a successful Tableau Server deployment. You can choose from a wide range of VMs. For a complete list of all available VM types and sizes, see the Machine Types(Link opens in a new window) page at the Google website.

It is important to select a VM that can run Tableau Server. The VM must meet the Tableau Server hardware guidelines (a minimum of 8 cores and 128 GB of RAM).

At minimum, a 64-bit Tableau Server requires a 4-core CPU (the equivalent of 8 Google Compute Engine vCPUs) and 64 GB RAM. However, a total of 8 CPU cores (16 Google Compute Engine vCPUs) and 128 GB RAM are strongly recommended for a single production Google Compute Engine VM.

The Windows Operating system will recognize these 16 vCPU as 8 cores, so there is no negative licensing impact.

Typical VM types and sizes for development, test, and production environments

  • n2-standard-16
Component/Resource Google Cloud Platform

CPU

16+ vCPU

Operating System

  • Tableau Server 2021.3.0 and later:

    • Windows Server 2016

    • Windows Server 2019

    • Earlier versions:

  • Tableau Server 2020.1.0 - 2021.2.x:

    • Windows Server 2012

    • Windows Server 2012 R2

    • Windows Server 2016

    • Windows Server 2019

  • Tableau Server 2019.1.0 - 2019.x:

    • Windows Server 2008 R2

    • Windows Server 2012

    • Windows Server 2012 R2

    • Windows Server 2016

    • Windows Server 2019

Memory

128+ GB RAM (4GB RAM per vCPU)

Storage

Two volumes:

30-50 GiB volume for the operating system

100 GiB or larger volume for Tableau Server

Storage type

SSD persistent disk, 200GB++

For more information about SSD persistent disks, see Storage Options at the Google Cloud Platform website.

Disk latency

Less than or equal to 20ms as measured by the Avg. Transfer disk/sec Performance Counter in Windows.
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