Connect Tableau

Connect Tableau

Integrate Tableau Cloud and Tableau Server with Bigeye. If the tableau instance you're connecting to is Tableau Server, you must first enable the metadata API.

1. To enable the Metadata API on Tableau Server, use the tsm maintenance metadata-services enable command through the Tableau Services Manager (TSM) command line interface (CLI). For details, see Tableau Metadata API.
2. Choose the Tableau user you wish to use and generate access token

Before connecting Tableau to Bigeye, we recommend you create a dedicated user for Bigeye. The user must have permission to access the metadata API. Once connected, Bigeye can view metadata for all workbooks and sheets that the user has access to in Tableau. If you want to limit the workbooks that Bigeye profiles, limit that user’s view permissions in Tableau.

Once you have identified the user you wish to use - go to that user’s Account Settings page https://[tableau_cloud_prefix].tableau.com/#/site/[your site name]/user/external/[username]/settings and under Security find the section labeled Personal Access Tokens’

From there - generate a token for Bigeye to use in order to authenticate with Tableau. We recommend you name the token something like Bigeye_connection_token

When you generate this token, Tableau displays a Token Secret. Store this token securely for future use as you will need it when you connect Tableau to Bigeye.

3. Add Tableau as a BI tool in Bigeye

From your settings page, navigate to add source - BI tool to set up your connection to Tableau. At this time, Tableau is Bigeye's flagship BI tool offering - stay tuned for additional tools soon, and feel free to reach out to your support team to request the BI tool your team uses most!

Once you are in the BI tool connection modal, provide the following information:

1. Name: You can define this name - this is how your Tableau site appears in Bigeye.
2. Tableau URL: Copy and paste the URL you see when you access the homepage of your Tableau instance. This must look something like: https://[tableau_cloud_prefix].tableau.com/#/site/[your site name].
3. Personal access token name: The name of the token you created for the Tableau user you wish to use to connect to Bigeye.
4. Personal access token secret: The token secret that you saved when generating the token in Tableau.
5. Timeout (seconds): We recommend you leave this at the default, but you can increase or decrease this setting should you so choose.

Verify that your Tableau site has connected successfully and Bigeye has recognized the workbooks that your designated user has access to. If you run into an error on either connection or recognizing workbooks, go back and double check you have the correct access token name and secret, and confirm the user you have entered has the correct permissions in Tableau.

View your Tableau sources in the Catalog

Now that you have connected successfully, you will see your Tableau sources listed under ‘BI tools’ in the catalog. Clicking into the source shows you all of the workbooks in that site, as well as their relative popularity. Popularity scores for workbooks follow the same logic as Popularity scores in the catalog, so you will see your most viewed workbook at 100% popularity, and other workbooks will show scores relative to the most views.

From here, you can see your Tableau reports included in your overall Lineage information. For more on how Lineage works at Bigeye and how to leverage it to prioritize and solve problems, check out our Lineage section.