Tableau Server High Availability: Delivering mission-critical analytics at scale with Tableau Services Manager (TSM)

Please note: If you are running Tableau Server from version 10 to version 2018.1 (without Tableau Services Manager), please see the High Availability Whitepaper for Tableau 10.

Today, self-service analytics and data-driven decision-making are the norm in organizations worldwide. Users and decision makers have come to depend on immediate access to data and self-service tools to answer their questions in real time and rely on these systems daily. This reliance on data requires a high degree of availability and stability of the underlying systems. This whitepaper outlines the high-availability and disaster-recovery features in Tableau Server 2018.2, after the release of the Tableau Services Manager (TSM). It also describes how to architect, configure, and deploy on a variety of hardware to ensure stability and reliability.

There are two common strategies for achieving HA. The first is eliminating single points of failure, so that the system can be robust to unexpected failures. We know that failures happen in real life and the best way to protect against these failures is to ensure redundancy in the system. The second is detecting when there are failures and triggering reliable failover mechanisms as necessary. Tableau Server employs both techniques to achieve HA.

We understand how important it is for users to readily see and understand their data. We also realize there will always be events that threaten the availability of business intelligence systems, whether related to hardware, software, networks, or even human error. That is why we have built Tableau Server with high availability out of the box and made it easy to configure and setup. At a minimum, Tableau Server processes will automatically restart to keep your system running in the event of component failure. A properly configured multi-node deployment also uses redundant processes to achieve server high availability.

Keep reading to learn about Tableau Server processes, architectural considerations, monitoring, disaster recovery, and more, to ensure high availability and stability for your data-driven enterprise.