Best Upgrade Method for TS

What is the best upgrade method for Tableau Server ?

There are a few upgrade methods in tableau official documentation here: https://www.tableau.com/support/server-upgrade

The best one based on my experiences helping so many customers in upgrading is the “blue/green upgrade”.

Blue/Green upgrade is the best because no errors so it’s simple and fast. The only cons is that you need to find another machine / VM to use this method. Since most of my customers already using a VM, this is not a big problem at all. They just request a new VM and some of them return the old VM if they can only have 1 production VM.

Blue/Green upgrade “simplified” how-to:

(1) Find a new machine / VM, install the OS, install a new version of Tableau Server, follow all the steps until the tableau server is up and running. You should specify the same Identity Store type and Run As service account as you use in existing Tableau Server.

(2) Backup existing Tableau Server Data, you can run the backup on a running Tableau Server, no need to stop it.

tsm maintenance backup --file tsDataBackup.tsbak --append-date

(3) Copy the Backup File (tsDataBackup.tsbak) to the New Machine / VM at C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\files\backups\ (default folder in Windows)

(4) Stop Tableau Server in the New Machine / VM

tsm stop

(5) Restore the Backup File in the New Machine / VM Tableau Server

tsm maintenance restore --file tsDataBackup.tsbak

(6) Start the New Machine / VM Tableau Server

tsm start

(7) Repurpose the Old Machine / VM Tableau Server into development / UAT / DR or do clean un-install of the Tableau Server and return the machine / VM to the infra team.

That’s it, of course this is the “simplified” how-to, for in-depth how-to check these excellent documentations:

https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/server-upgrade-blue-green.htm

https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/backup_restore.htm

https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/db_restore.htm

https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cli_maintenance_tsm.htm

And my blog on Tableau Server Backup Best Practices:

https://gemshare.org/2021/01/31/ts-backup-best-practices/

Enjoy your error-free upgrade.