Before the upgrade
- Read what has changed between your version and the new one. See Review what’s changed.
- Check the health of the current server. Fix known problems first, so you can tell old issues from new ones. See the health check checklist.
- Record how things perform today: key refresh times and dashboard load times.
- Take a full backup, and make sure you can restore it.
- Test the upgrade in a separate environment with your own content. See Test the upgrade.
- Agree a window and a rollback plan, and tell users.
During the upgrade
- Follow Tableau’s documented steps for your setup.
- Consider a blue-green approach for larger deployments, which keeps the old environment available until the new one is proven. See Using a blue/green approach.
- Keep a log of what was done and when.
After the upgrade
- Check every node and process is running.
- Open your most important dashboards and run your most important refreshes.
- Compare with your notes from before: are refreshes and load times the same or better?
- Watch closely for the first two weeks. Some issues only appear under a normal working week.
Reduce the risk
A VizBolt Deployment Audit before a major upgrade gives you an independent view of the platform’s condition and what to fix first. After the upgrade, VizBolt Server Intelligence watches for anything that starts to drift.
Common questions
How do I prepare for a Tableau Server upgrade?
Read what has changed, check the health of the current server, record current performance, take and test a backup, test the upgrade in a separate environment and agree a rollback plan.
What is a blue-green Tableau Server upgrade?
An approach where you build the new version alongside the old one and switch over once it is proven, keeping the old environment as a fallback.
What should I check after upgrading Tableau Server?
That all processes are running, key dashboards and refreshes work, and performance matches what you recorded before the upgrade.
Further reading: Tableau Help, Upgrades; Test the upgrade; Using a blue/green approach for upgrading Tableau Server. Tableau and Salesforce are trademarks of Salesforce, Inc.