Architecture#

Processes to Know#

Tableau Server is built with multiple components that interact with each other to serve and manage visualizations. Below are the key components of Tableau Server:

1. VizPortal (Application Server)#

• Manages the web application.
• Handles REST API calls.
• Supports navigation and search.
• Redirects requests to port 443 when SSL is enabled.

2. Backgrounder#

• Executes server tasks like extract refreshes, subscriptions, flow executions, and alerts.

3. Cache Server#

• Provides a shared external query cache.
• Stores key-value pairs from previous queries to speed up future requests.

4. Data Server#

• Manages connections to data sources.

5. Data Engine (Hyper)#

• Creates data extracts.
• Processes queries to data extracts.

6. File Store (Filestore)#

• Stores data extract files.
• Replicates extracts to data engine nodes.

7. Gateway#

• A web server (Apache) that handles requests from browsers, Tableau Desktop, tabcmd, and other clients.
• Port: 80.

8. Index and Search Server#

• Based on OpenSearch.
• Handles the fast retrieval and display of content metadata on Tableau Server.

9. Repository (PostgreSQL)#

• Main database of Tableau Server.
• Stores workbook and user metadata.
• When Tableau Catalog or Metadata API is enabled, stores content metadata and external resource metadata.
• Ports: 8060 – 8061.

10. VizQL Server#

• Loads and displays views.
• Calculates and runs queries.

11. Cluster Controller#

• Monitors components, detects failures, and handles failover if necessary.

12. Advanced Management#

• This is an optional set of tools for monitoring and optimization.

13. VizData (2024.2)#

• Handles connections and queries of the published data sources instead of Data Server

Tableau Process Scenario#