Upgrading Tableau Server

Tableau Server upgrades and migrations are designed to be as easy as possible. However, there are some things you should know before beginning your upgrade.

The Pre-Upgrade Checklist article contains important procedures you should perform before you follow the steps in this article. You can also optionally deploy your new version of Tableau Server in a test environment using the data you currently have in production. See Creating a Test Environment for Tableau Server article for steps.

About Tableau Server Upgrades

There are two things to keep in mind when you upgrade Tableau Server:

• Active server installations can’t be upgraded: New versions of Tableau Server will not install on the same machine where an active Tableau Server already resides. To upgrade to a new version, you need to either uninstall your earlier version of Tableau Server or install the new version on a different machine.
• Uninstall removes the server software, not your data: When you use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall your existing version of Tableau Server (as part of the upgrade process), your data is not removed. The new Tableau Server Setup program will automatically import all of your existing data, including your content, users, and configuration settings.

Choosing the Type of Upgrade

The exact steps you take to upgrade Tableau Server depend on what you want to do with your existing content and whether you’re moving to new hardware as part of the upgrade. There are three different approaches you can take—each is covered in this article:

• “Same machine” upgrade that preserves your existing content.
• “Same machine” upgrade that removes your existing content.
• “New machine” upgrade in which your existing content is migrated to the new machine.

Follow these steps if you have an existing Tableau Server installed and you want to replace it with the new version and automatically import all of your existing content.

The steps below assume that you’ve followed the procedures described in the Pre-Upgrade Checklist article, including checking your maintenance expiration date, removing any workers from your configuration, and creating a backup file.

Step 1

Uninstall the existing server software using Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel.
Your data and configuration settings on the machine will be preserved.

Step 2: Distributed Installations Only

This step only applies if you are running a distributed installation of Tableau Server. If you are upgrading a worker that is hosting data extracts, refer to the Upgrading a Data Extract Worker article then return to Step 3, below. Otherwise, for worker servers that are not hosting data extracts, do the following:

• Use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall the 6.x worker software.
• Delete the Tableau folders under Program Files and ProgramData.
• Run version 7.0 of the Tableau Server Worker Software installer on all machines that you want to add to the Tableau Server cluster.

Step 3

Download and run the new server installer. If you have a distributed installation, this step is on your primary Tableau Server.
Be sure to select the same path as the previous installation. This allows the installer to detect your previous server content and automatically import your configuration settings and data.

Step 4: Version 5.2 Upgrades Only

If you are upgrading from Tableau Server 5.2 and your current version of Tableau Server is configured to use the extract storage engine, you’ll be prompted to move your extracts to the Tableau data engine. Do the following.

• When the Tableau Server Configuration dialog box opens, select the Storage tab.
• On the Storage tab, select Upgrade the extract storage to the Tableau Data Engine (recommended).

A message opens, explaining how the built-in Tableau data engine works. Click OK.
 

Step 5: Distributed Installations Only

If you are running a distributed installation of Tableau Server, add the workers back to your Tableau Server configuration by following the steps below.

• On the primary server, open the configuration utility by selecting Tableau Server 7.0 > Configure Tableau Server on the Start menu.

• In the Configuration Utility, select the Servers tab and click Add.

• In the next dialog box, type the IP Address for one of the worker machines and specify the number of VizQL, Application Server, Data Server, and Background processes to allocate to the machine. To assign one or more background processes to a server, you must also assign it at least one application server process.

• By default, the repository and extract storage are hosted on the primary machine; however, you can select the Extract Storage on this host and Repository on this host checkboxes to use this server for extract storage and the repository.
• Click OK.
• Repeat these steps for each worker machine.
• When you're finished adding workers, click OK again to save the changes, then start the server on the primary machine.

Follow these steps if you have an existing Tableau Server installed and you want to replace it with the new version, but you do not want to automatically import your existing content.

The steps below assume that you’ve followed the procedures described in the Pre-Upgrade Checklist article, including checking your maintenance expiration date, removing any workers from your configuration, and creating a backup file.

Step 1

Uninstall the existing server using the Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
Uninstalling removes the application software, but leaves your data and configuration settings on the machine.

Step 2

Manually delete the versioned Tableau Server directory. The exact location of the directory depends on your operating system.

• 32-bit:  C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server
• 64-bit:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server and C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server

Important: Deleting this directory removes your existing content so that the new installer does not try to import it into the new server.

Step 3

Download and run the new Tableau Server installer. This performs a fresh installation.

Step 4: Distributed Installations Only

Run the latest version of the Tableau Server Worker Software installer on all machines that you want to add to the Tableau Server cluster.
Add the workers to your Tableau Server configuration by following the steps in “Installing Worker Servers” in the Tableau Server online help.

Follow this procedure if you have never installed Tableau Server on the computer, but you want to migrate your content from your earlier version of Tableau Server. The steps below assume that you’ve followed the procedures described in the Pre-Upgrade Checklist article.

Step 1

Download and run the new Tableau Server installer on the new computer. This performs a fresh installation.

Step 2

Now you will use the .tsbak file you created as part of the Pre-Upgrade Checklist to populate your new Tableau database.

• Copy the .tsbak file to the bin directory of your new Tableau Server (for example, C:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\7.0\bin).
• On your version 7.0 primary Tableau Server, open a command prompt as an administrator and type the following:

• Do one of the following:

• Start the server by typing the following:
  
  tabadmin start

Step 3: Distributed Installations Only

Run the latest version of the Tableau Server Worker Software installer on all machines that you want to add to the Tableau Server cluster.
Add the workers to your Tableau Server configuration by following the steps in “Installing Worker Servers” in the Tableau Server online help.

Rolling Back to a Previous Installation

If for any reason you need to roll back to the prior installation, refer the Rolling Back to an Earlier Installation of Tableau Server article.