Strategies for Auditing Underlying Data Source Tables in Tableau Server

Scenario 1: Individual Investigation (Quick Check)

If the customer needs to find the underlying tables for a specific workbook or data source:

• Solution: Use the Lineage (Tableau Catalog) tab.

• How: Navigate to the Workbook or Data Source on Tableau Server and click the Lineage tab. It visually maps the connection to the specific database and physical tables.

• Benefit: No technical knowledge or SQL is required. It works for both Live and Extract connections.

Scenario 2: Bulk Auditing (Server-Wide Inventory)

If the customer needs a full list of every table used across the entire Tableau Server:

• Solution: Use the Tableau Metadata API.

• How: Use GraphQL queries (via the GraphiQL interface) to pull upstreamTables. This is the most efficient way to automate a global inventory.

• Benefit: Bypasses the limitations of the Repository database and can "see through" Extract (Hyper) files to find the original source tables.

Scenario 3: Direct Repository Query (PostgreSQL)

If the customer insists on querying the public.data_connections table:

• Constraint: The tablename and server columns might be Null 

• For Extracts: Data is stored locally as a .hyper file, so there is no external "server" or "table" recorded in those specific columns.
• For Custom SQL Live Connections: Tableau often encapsulates the schema/table details within an encrypted XML blob in the details column.