The document discusses how to analyze data from the Tableau Server repository by accessing the backend Postgres database. It describes the tables and views contained in the repository that provide information on user activity, server performance, and background tasks. It also provides tips on connecting to the repository database, examples of useful views and tables to query, and how to share insights from the repository data with other users.

1. Analyzing the Tableau Server
Repository
Brittany Fong
@bfongdata

2. User GroupDC
Tableau Ambassador
Hi, I’m Brittany...

3. What are Tableau Server admin dashboards?
Traffic/usage
Actions taken by users
Background tasks
Server
performance

4. What are Tableau Server admin dashboards?

5. How does it work?
Postgres Database

6. How do I access the back-end data?
● Two levels of access
○ “tableau” username can connect to the 19 database views
○ “readonly” username can connect to everything ( 93 tables 19 views)
● Tableau Server administrator needs to use tabadmin dbpass to enable one or
both of the usernames
Tabadmin dbpass --username readonly ‘passwordhere’
Tabadmin restart
Tableau’s instructions - Collect Data with the Tableau Server Repository:
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/perf_collect_server_repo.htm

7. How do I connect to the Tableau Server repository?
Server that holds
the repository

8. Working with the Postgres database

9. What information is in the Tableau Server
repository?93 tables and 19 views
Tableau’s Workgroups Data Dictionary
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/data_dictionary.html

10. Data connections made easy!
● Use the data connections already made by Tableau
○ Make sure you COPY the workbook and save it somewhere else!!
○ Older than Tableau 10.0
■ ProgramFilesTableauTableauServer<server version>wgserverz5WEB_INFadmin
○ Version 10.x and newer
■ Google “Russell Christopher Admin Views”
■ C:/ProgramDataTableauTableauServerdatatabsvctemp
○ Workbook name: tabbed_admin_view.twb

11. Views or tables?
● Helpful views
○ _customized_views
○ _subscriptions
○ _users (joins users and system users)
● Helpful tables
○ historical_events - record of the majority of actions that happened on the server (actor is the
user who did the activity, join to historical_event_types)
○ background_jobs - what is happening in the background (data extracts time, subscriptions)

12. Before you get started
● All times are in UTC time (-5 hours to EST)
● The repository contains user activity information down to the view level (ie no
details to see what a user filtered on or selected)
● Double check your numbers!
● Where are your dashboards going to “live”?
● How long is data stored?
○ Hist_ tables can be controlled but by default the repository will hold 183 days worth of event
history
○ _background_tasks tables automatically keep last 30 days

13. What should I be worried about?
● Hitting Tableau Server, which could impact performance
○ Add another repository
○ Isolate the repository database
■ Use a load balancer
○ Restore to a separate server
○ Create an extract if the data doesn’t need to be live

14. How can a product owner
see who has access to their
content (Tableau Server project)?

17. Are users looking at the
content I’m publishing?

22. How many extracts are on
the server and how long do
they take to run?

28. How many subscriptions
have been set up, and are
they running successfully?

30. Next steps
Share your data!
If you share this data with your users they can
find their own insights!

31. Sharing your data
Show your users how to explore their own Tableau Server repository data by
Creating published data sources
●Join the tables for your users
●Change field names to make fields clear
●Add folders, comments to fields or calculations
●Row-level permissions
○ USERNAME()
○ ISMEMBEROF()

32. Next steps
Go mobile - high level overviews

33. Go Analyze your Tableau Server!
Brittany Fong | @bfongdata | www.bfongdata.com | fong.brittany@gmail.com

34. Summary of Presentation Links
Connecting to the Tableau Server repository
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/perf_collect_server_repo.htm
Admin view 10.x
http://tableaulove.com/admin-view-twb-files-go-tableau-server-v10/
Admin view 9.x and below with test version of workbook
https://community.tableau.com/message/532535
Create Custom Administrative Views
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/adminview_postgres.htm
Workgroups Database
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/data_dictionary.html
How long is data stored?
https://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/adminview_postgres.htm
Shareable Data Sources for Tableau Server
https://community.tableau.com/docs/DOC-9974