Tableau Server is essentially a communication tool which shares data connections and visualizations with the end-users or clients. So, now that we have learned about the functioning of each component in a Tableau server. Let us understand how all these components work in tandem. For this, we will club the server components into layers or tiers. So, we have five layers or sections in the Tableau Server; customer data, data connectors, main components, gateway, and clients.

Data Server

The primary component of Tableau Architecture is the Data sources it can connect to it.

Tableau can connect to multiple data sources. These data sources can be on-premise or remotely located. It can connect to a database, excel file, and a web application all at the same time. Tableau can connect data from heterogeneous environments. It can blend the data from multiple data sources. It can also make the relationship between various types of data sources.

Data Connectors

It consists of a number of optimized data connectors for databases. There are also common ODBC connectors designed for any systems without a native connector. It offers two modes in support of interacting with data: Live connection or In-memory. Clients can switch among alive and in-memory connection as they desire.

Tableau Architecture

So, let us first get the bigger picture clear in our heads; let’s talk about the entire architectural framework that Tableau operates in. It can be categorized into three main segments. The segments are –

Data Sources

Tableau Server

Tableau Desktop and the clients.

Data Source

The first section of Tableau architecture is where a user can extract data from a gamut of data source options available like SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Excel file, MySQL, Teradata, etc. A user can establish a data connection in two ways; a live data connection which sends instant queries to the data source and gets results instantly. Another way is to extract data from the data source and have a local copy of it as a temporary database.

Tableau Server and Desktop

Before getting to Tableau Server, let us first discuss the Tableau Desktop as it is the platform through which a user gets the ball rolling for further actions to take place. Because depending on the user’s request the actions for all the other architectural components are assigned. Tableau Desktop acts as an authoring tool where users create visualizations, workbooks, and dashboards using the data from the data source in Tableau Traning. These workbooks or visualizations can be shared to users in many ways. It can be shared to static users (just to view), to a web or mobile clients, workbook packages can be shared to the Tableau Reader where users can view as well as edit the visualizations.

Clients

The clients are the end users using Tableau through a web, mobile devices, on-cloud, on-premise, or on a command-line interface for development. These end-users interact mainly with Tableau Server for accessing workbooks or visualizations. The server components then work as per the client’s request and return the outcome.

Learn more at tableau online Training This course provides in-depth coverage of Tableau Server distributed architecture and High Availability configuration. The knowledge and skills acquired are best geared toward those architecting and administering enterprise deployments of Tableau Server as well as those who will be involved in customer installations of Tableau Server. Note: This class is taught using a Windows server environment.