UW Tableau Server Infrastructure Upgrade

June 2, 2020

In the coming days the UW Tableau Team will upgrade the underlying hardware that supports the UW Tableau Server, https://bitools.uw.edu. We expect this migration to have a low impact on users of the Transitional and Production Tableau sites, but for transparency, we want to share some specific details about the work, and request your help!

Why Upgrade?

The current UW Tableau Server hardware is approaching the end of its warranty period. Operating on out-of-warranty hardware poses a risk to UW Tableau users, so we are planning to replace the hardware.

Additionally, the outdated server hardware doesn’t allow us to update to the latest versions of Tableau software (i.e. 2020.1 and 2020.2). Since we cannot upgrade to the latest Tableau versions, we cannot take advantage of all of the latest features.

For both of these reasons, we are planning to upgrade to new hardware and the latest version of Tableau Server.

How are you impacted?

The current UW Tableau server url (i.e. https://bitools.uw.edu) will not change, and we will do our own thorough internal testing of the migration. When the upgrade is complete, we expect very low impacts to you as a result of the server upgrade. However, if you have configured your servers to grant access to Tableau Server IPs, you will have to update the IPs on your local servers. The new IP addresses are listed below.

Our request is that during our testing phase, after the new server is set up with a backup of all existing projects, but before we redirect all Tableau users to the new server, we ask that Tableau Project Owners (Transitional Project Publishers and Editors) check your projects to confirm that you aren’t observing any issues.

We will ask you to test: 

  • Workbook data connections
  • Dashboard accessibility and interactivity

We will ask you to update: 

  • Data source connections on your servers to allow the new Tableau Server IPs to have access:
    • If you have configured a local database to allow the current Tableau Server’s IP address to access your servers, you will have to update those configurations for the new Tableau Server’s IP address, or your data sources will no longer update.
      • Old IPs:
        • 172.16.102.113
        • 172.16.102.114
        • 172.16.102.103
      • New IP:
        • 172.16.103.202

Additionally, after the upgrade is complete, please help us by triaging and communicating any issues that your Transitional Server project users identify. Please forward any issues that are the result of the upgrade to help@uw.edu with “Tableau Server Upgrade” in the subject line.

What is the Timeline?

[UPDATE] We are targeting June 29 for the completion of this work.

Here is a rough timeline that we will update as we get closer:

  • 6/12: At the end of the day, publish a back-up of latest bitools content to new server
  • 6/15-6/19: A select group of partner-publishers will help us test the new server
  • 6/22-6/26: We will open testing to the entire population of Transitional partner publishers
  • 6/26 11 PM: Code/Publishing Freeze in place. Anything published to the server after ~11pm Friday night risks not being available on the new server.
  • 6/29: We will implement a freeze period with no new updates published to bitools. We will back-up latest bitools to the news server, re-point bitools URL to new server, and direct all traffic to the new server

Testing Period on the New Server:

We will publish a back-up copy of the latest BI Tools content (workbooks, data sources, permissions, etc.) on or around 6/12/2020. We will ask publishers to test their workbooks and functionality on the new server, and confirm that data source connections work.

However, it is important to know, you should not publish any new work to this new server during the testing period.

All new work published to the 6/12 backup on the new server will be erased when we make our final production back-up prior to go-live on 6/29.

Questions?

If you have any questions about this change, please feel free to write to us at help@uw.edu with “Tableau Server Upgrade” in the subject line.

Additionally, if you have any questions about our UW Tableau service, please explore the FAQs on IT Connect: Tableau Help