In general, Tableau Server is relatively easy to administer. This is in large part due to having very few configuration items you can adjust. The less you can tweak, the less chance you’re going to break something. Sometimes this leaves much to be desired, but thankfully there are some ways to accomplish this high-level of customization using Tableau Server’s command line utility, tabadmin.

Recently I was helping a client based out of Silicon Valley move their Tableau Server from one data center to another. Along the way, I discovered we had to switch the domain on which Tableau Server ran as well as change all the user accounts over to the new domain. All of these are tasks that aren’t intuitive, well documented or obvious to accomplish in Tableau Server.

Tableau doesn’t recommend changing domains on an existing install. If there were an official recommendation I assume it would be to stand up the new server and manually migrate all of the users, workbooks and data sources. With a large implementation, like my clients in this case, that isn’t feasible; however, help is on the way!

Be advised – Tableau does not support such customization and may not provide support if this goes haywire. Please make sure to back up your instance before and after all activities, so you have a point to return to in the event this causes any unforeseen issues.

Pre-requisites

• There must be a two-way trust between the domains
• You need admin rights on both boxes
• You’ll need the Run-As (aka Service Account) username and password

Steps

1. Back up existing Tableau Server environment (reference)
2. Copy backup to new server
3. Restore backup on new server
4. Execute the following on the new server to change the domain for all users:

tabadmin stop
tabadmin set wgserver.domain.default
tabadmin set wgserver.domain.fqdn
tabadmin set wgserver.domain.nickname
tabadmin config
tabadmin start

5. Login and test (workbooks, extracts, data server, user accounts are on the new domain, etc.).
6. Revel in your accomplishment!

As always, if you have any questions please do reach out.

Thanks!