Welcome

Tableau Bridge – How does it do it?

Dave Reeck

Sr. Product Manager

Tableau / Data Management

# T C 1 8

3 things I (heart)

One more thing: Making Bridge delightful…

1. What does Bridge do• 2 main jobs, 3 supporting jobs

2. How does it do that• Security, Scaling and Sharing

3. What’s coming next?• Future features that help you stay in the know

What does Bridge do?

Bridge connects your on-prem data to Online

1. Bridge has 2 jobs…• Refresh On-premises data

• Live query local extracts

2. Three more jobs too…• Installation

• Authenticate

• Manage clients

Refresh On-Prem Extract – how does it…

Analogy:

Principal:

Client Owner* is in control (of what’s running on a client)

Typical use cases: (more on this later)

• Private Publisher

• Centrally Managed

Note:

- Secured outbound connections only

- DB creds managed locally

Live Query local data

Analogy:

Principal: admins manage pools of clients

Typical use cases: (more on this later)

• Centrally Managed

Note:

- Secured outbound connections only

- Creds passed as part of the query

Installation

• Bridge is a free, separate installer• Updated as often as weekly

• Install all you want, we’ll make more…

• The latest is always at: www.tableau.com/support/releases/bridge

• Bridge installation can be scripted

• Bridge runs on Windows only• Best practice: Use an always on VM

• Machine specs: Desktop (2core, 4g ram)

• Bias towards more ram

• Bias towards more clients/vms

Authentication & ID

• Sign into Bridge with an Online ID• SAML or Username/password

• Currently signed in? Bridge uses that ID.

• Signed in as the wrong ID? Use Unlink

• Signing in makes you the client owner• Sign in as a service account

• Bridge re-authenticates automatically• AUTH tokens typically used

• Securely stored creds used otherwise

• Admins can force re-authentication

Managing your client(s)…

Client UI

• Authentication and Status

• Extract credentials and local errors

• About Dialog – find your version #

Bridge Settings page - admin only

• Which clients, what are they doing?

• Are my live queries load balanced?

So… How does it?

How does Bridge scale up?

• Add more clients• Tableau’s Online site has 500+ active users/day

• Fleet of 6 Site Admin managed clients

• 4 for live queries

• 2 for extract refresh

• Also: ~100 individuals using their own clients

• 4 Core 64gb Ram on managed VMs

• Estimator: ~100-150 active users/client• Your Mileage May Very, Maybe Very Much

• Use your Actions by All Users Site Status viz

• And… for live query – pool for redundancy

How to share Bridge(s) on your site

• 3 Models for multiple creators• Private Publishers

• Centrally Managed

• Mixed

• Depending on the model…• Creator roles may need extra support

• Site admins may have new responsibilities

• Viz viewers get Bridge connections for free• A Bridge connected viz will just work

AND/OR

“Private Publisher” Model

1

23

OR EDIT:

4

5

Centrally-Managed Bridge Deployment

1

2 3

4

5

How can you make a fleet of Bridge Clients?

• Install as many clients as you like• Client is freely available

• Use a single (service) account to sign in

• Run Bridge as a Service• Requires the signed in user is local admin

• Keeps bridge running after sign out

• On reboot Bridge re-connects automatically

• Script installation if desired• Example of ‘passive’ install script

• After install, please sign in

• Host your clients on a VM• Make an image with bridge

• Host your clients in the cloud w/ VPN

How does Bridge stay secure?

• Keeps your firewall intact• Bridge only uses outbound connections

• Extract refresh polls online

• Live Query uses Web Sockets

• All connections secured• SSL and TLS 1.2

• Certificate validation

• Locking down further• Filter connections to Internet Domains

What’s coming next?

How to recover if things go wrong…

Check for email notification• Goes to data source owner for extracts

• Suggested actions to recover

• Can also be found in Online Alerts…

• “Unknown Failures”? • Check the client for “failure details”

• E.g.. table is no longer accessible

• What if the email never shows up?• May be caused by endless extract…

• In 2019.1 we will time out after 8 hours

• Can be configured per client..

• \My Tableau Bridge Repository\Configuration…

• extractRefreshTimeout" : "00:08:00"

How to keep Bridge up to date

Bridge Settings page will show versions

• Highlights for versions that can be updated

• Other notifications in Online UI

Extract Refresh Dashboard

10/7/18 10/8/18 10/9/18 10/10/18 10/11/18 10/12/18 10/13/18

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

Avg

.R

un

tim

e(

se

c)

HowMuchTimedidExtractsTake?

10/7/18 10/8/18 10/9/18 10/10/18 10/11/18 10/12/18 10/13/18

45 46 4642 43 42 42

HowManyExtractsSucceededorFailedbyDay?

InProcess

1

Success

77

ExtractRefreshesforBridge

St at usofJob Ext ract

0K 2K 4K 6K 8K

AvgRunt ime(sec)

Error HelpEntryPages

SessionInfo+VizQLErrors+VizClientErrors

sites+(latest)

DataTab_DataGrid_Update-TelemetryProduction

BranchHealth(Automuter-RunsDefects)

GA-Helpview s-v2018

Null 1,069

3

1

1

2

1

1

1

WhatExtractshaveruninthelast24hours?Ext ract Id TaskName St at usofJob Minut eofCreat edAt Minut eofCo.. runt ime_s..

Null 653056 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018800PM October14,..

653057 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018800PM October14,..

653058 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653059 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653060 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653061 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653062 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653063 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653064 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653065 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018803PM October14,..

0

1

0

0

1

1

10

0

482

0

Runt ime(sec)

1417to9001

BackgrounderId

All

Creat edAt

10/14/2018120000AMto10/20/201..

Ext ract

All

TaskName

All

Knowing is half the battle…

• How many refreshes worked?

• How long are they taking?

• Which extracts have run recently

• What kinds of failures are happening the most?

• Most of the failures we see need to be resolved by the customers

10/7/18 10/8/18 10/9/18 10/10/18 10/11/18 10/12/18 10/13/18

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

Avg

.R

un

tim

e(

se

c)

HowMuchTimedidExtractsTake?

10/7/18 10/8/18 10/9/18 10/10/18 10/11/18 10/12/18 10/13/18

45 46 4642 43 42 42

HowManyExtractsSucceededorFailedbyDay?

InProcess

1

Success

77

ExtractRefreshesforBridge

St at usofJob Ext ract

0K 2K 4K 6K 8K

AvgRunt ime(sec)

Error HelpEntryPages

SessionInfo+VizQLErrors+VizClientErrors

sites+(latest)

DataTab_DataGrid_Update-TelemetryProduction

BranchHealth(Automuter-RunsDefects)

GA-Helpview s-v2018

Null 1,069

3

1

1

2

1

1

1

WhatExtractshaveruninthelast24hours?Ext ract Id TaskName St at usofJob Minut eofCreat edAt Minut eofCo.. runt ime_s..

Null 653056 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018800PM October14,..

653057 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018800PM October14,..

653058 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653059 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653060 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653061 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018801PM October14,..

653062 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653063 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653064 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018802PM October14,..

653065 UpdateExtract Success October14,2018803PM October14,..

0

1

0

0

1

1

10

0

482

0

Runt ime(sec)

1417to9001

BackgrounderId

All

Creat edAt

10/14/2018120000AMto10/20/201..

Ext ract

All

TaskName

All

Questions?

Cloudy with 100% Chance of Data

R E L AT E D S E S S I O N S

Thursday | 2:15 – 3:15 | MCCNO – L2 - 214

Deploying Tableau at enterprise scale in the cloud

Wednesday | 10:15 AM - 11:15 AM | MCCNO - L3 - 349

Tableau Bridge – How does it do it?

S E S S I O N R E P E AT S

Wed | 3:30-4:30 | MCCNO - L2 - 242

Tableau Bridge – How does it do it?Thurs | 12:30-1:30 | MCCNO - L2 - 242