Troubleshoot Backing up Tableau Server

TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS

• The Backup process does not have permission to the backup folder
• Reapplying folder permissions
• Using a non-default location
• Anti-virus
• Other Common Causes

The Backup process does not have permission to the backup folder

When using the default location, the configuration of folder permission is handled by the Tableau server installation process.

The default location for the backup files is as below:

Reapplying folder permissions

In some organizations, Group Policy or other system management solutions are used to standardize permissions and accounts on application servers. If your organization runs a such a solution, be sure to configure the system to accommodate the folder permissions required by the Run As User account. If the folder permissions for the Run As User account have been changed, you can use Tableau Configuration Utility to reapply the permissions. See:

• TSM (2018.2 or later on Windows, 10.5 or later on Linux) - Change the Run As Service Account
• Pre-TSM (Tableau Server 2018.1 or earlier on Windows) - Reapplying Permissions

Using a non-default location

If the backup file location has been changed, then you will need to ensure the following permissions:

Windows

Linux

Anti-virus

The use of anti-virus / end point security programs typically will require an exception created for Tableau Server as they may prevent the writing of the backup file.  Not having an exception may also impact server performance.
See Improving Performance by Using Antivirus Exclusions

Other Common Causes

Other causes of backup failures occur due to the permission settings of the user account executing the commands. 
For Windows, set permissions according to Required Run As User Account Settings: 

• Verify Registry Permissions
• Verify the Local Security Policy

For Linux, set permissions according to System User, sudo Privileges, and systemd

Note: Make sure to stop Tableau Server before performing the above steps. 

Disk Space

Another common cause of backup failures is not having enough disk space to perform the backup.

If not enough disk space is available, try one of the following options: 

Reduce the size required for the backup 

You can reduce the size required for the Tableau Server backup by removing old log files and remnant repository files. 

Important: Running tabadmin/tsm cleanup will remove all log files, including those which may be necessary for Tableau Support to assist with troubleshooting if reclaiming disk space does not resolve the issue.  This command when the server is started will remove the majority of old content and will remove the current logs when the server is in a stopped state.  We recommend performing tabadmin ziplogs / tsm maintenance ziplogs and moving the logs to a safe location prior to running the cleanup command.

TSM (2018.2 or later on Windows, 10.5 or later on Linux):

1. Open the command prompt as an administrator (terminal on Linux) on the initial node.
2. Enter the following commands to clean up remnant repository files: 
   • tsm status 
   • If the status is stopped, type tsm start 
   • tsm maintenance cleanup 
3. Enter the following commands to clean up log files: 
   • tsm stop 
   • tsm maintenance cleanup

Pre-TSM (Tableau Server 2018.1 or earlier on Windows):

1. Open the command prompt as an administrator, then navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder, located by default at C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\[Version]\bin
2. Enter the following commands to clean up remnant repository files: 
   • tabadmin status 
   • If the status is stopped, type tabadmin start 
   • tabadmin cleanup 
3. Enter the following commands to clean up log files: 
   • tabadmin stop 
   • tabadmin cleanup

If cleaning up the service log files and repository does not leave enough disk space for a successful back-up, consider increasing the available storage space by temporarily moving files to another drive. 

Point the backup to a folder on a larger drive - Pre-TSM only (Currently not available with TSM)

By default, Tableau Server uses a temp folder on the C:\ drive to store the temporary files for its backup (.tsbak). If the C:\ drive does not have sufficient disk space, you can make Tableau Server use a folder on a different drive, and save the final backup on a drive with more available disk space. The following example uses a shared drive called H:\temp. 

1. Open a command prompt as an administrator and navigate to the Tableau Server bin folder. 
2. Type the following commands, and if the path includes a space, use quotes around the full path: 
   • tabadmin stop
   • tabadmin backup C:\temp\backupfilename.tsbak -d -t "H:\temp dir\backup"

Note: Disk space check is performed during the backup job process however may not perform correctly for work/additional nodes that contain at least one of the Tableau Server processes below and is currently being investigated.

• Repository
• Data Engine
• File Store