Viewing tableau server when one data source is missing

0
votes

I have a dashboard in Tableau which pulls data from about 10 tables in a SQL database.

These tables are refreshed at various times of day. There are occasions where one of them is not available (or has been deleted and awaiting rebuild)

However when I open my tableau dashboard on the server it wont let me see any of it. Not seeing the data from the missing table is fine but the majority of the data that does not come from that table is unavailable too.

I get this error

An unexpected error occurred. If you continue to receive this error please contact your Tableau Server Administrator.

TableauException: [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 11.0][SQL Server]Invalid object name 'dbo.survey_order_info_fy16_TV_L'. The table "[dbo].[survey_order_info_fy16_TV_L]" does not exist. Unable to connect to the server "dbedwro.vistaprint.net". Check that the server is running and that you have access privileges to the requested database.

"survey_order_info_fy16_TV_L" being the missing table but not one I'm bothered about right now.

Is there an option that might help me see all the other data?

1
tableau-api

1 Answers

1
votes

I am not sure if it's possible to avoid this behavior. If there isn't there is a workaround for that by creating extract of these tables and storing them on the Tableau server. You can then use these extracts instead of the tables on the DB and just refresh them either by schedule if you know when the tables are available again or from the SQL server (eg. with SSIS by triggering the refresh once the data is available again).

Advantage of that would be that

  • you can refresh them independently and always have the latest data
  • it performs better than an SQL connection
  • you don't jam your SQL server with connections (in case you have a lot of users accesing)
  • you can filter and select if you didn't want your users to get access to the full dataset

disadvantages:

  • you will have to create one extract per table, and replace all data sources in workbooks you already use

It's a matter of creating a workbook, connecting to the source (adding filters or hiding fields) and publishing it to the server. Details of that can be found here: http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/online/mac/en-us/publish_datasources.html