Activating Tableau Server in a Disconnected Air-Gap Environment

Published: 03 Jan 2014
Last Modified Date: 27 Apr 2023

Question

How to offline activate or offline deactivate Tableau Server in a disconnected (air-gap) environment.

Environment

Tableau Server
Offline Activation
Offline Deactivation
Air-Gap/Disconnected Computer

Answer

Offline Activation using ATR

Follow the step described in the Tableau Online Help to Activate Tableau Server Offline - Adding a License to create the OfflineActivationRequestFile_yyyMMdd.hhmmss.json file

Starting with 2023.1, using the ATR activation method for offline activations allows for either a .json file to be submitted or values added directly to the Tableau Offline Activation website as shown below. If your Tableau Server is in a high secure environment, copy the values from the offline json file and enter them directly to the offline activation website on a machine that can reach the Internet. See the "Additional Information" section of this article for detailed information on these request values obtained from the Tableau Server machine.

User-added image

Offline Activation not using ATR

On a computer that is disconnected from the Internet, complete the steps listed in the Tableau Online Help to Activate Tableau Offline - Adding a License and save the generated TableauOfflineActivationRequest.tlq file. In some older versions of Tableau Server, the file will be generated with the name, offline.tlq.
If it is not possible to remove any file from the Tableau Server machine due to a high security environment, the following steps should be used. If the offline request file can be moved to another machine for processing, complete the steps in the Tableau Online Help and you are done!
On a separate computer that is connected to the Internet, download the Server activation template 64 bit.tlq file located in the Attachments section to the right of this article. The file is in XML format.
Open both TableauOfflineActivationRequest.tlq and Server activation template 64 bit.tlq in an XML text editor, such as UltraEdit, Sublime, or Notepad++ to allow the file to visually display line numbering.
Update the following XML elements in the Server activation template 64 bit.tlq file with the values for the same elements in the TableauOfflineActivationRequest.tlq file on the disconnected computer. Use all caps for any letters. (Double check the characters most frequently misinterpreted: number 8 versus letter B, Number 0 versus the letter O, Number 5 versus letter S.)

Line 2 - <EntitlementId>
Line 5 - <ClientVersion>
Line 5 - <MachineIdentifier> (Optional: This XML element might not be present in some circumstances.)
Line 11 - <Value>
Line 12 - <Value>
Line 14 - <SequenceNumber>
Line 60 - <Hash>
Rename the Server activation template 64 bit.tlq to offline.tlq.
Upload the edited template (offline.tlq) to the Activating Tableau Offline website.
Download the activation.tlf file and process the file on the Tableau Server machine as directed in the Tableau Online Help via either the TSM interface or the command line.

Offline Deactivation

Information on offline deactivations with the ATR activation method is available here. If the ATR activation method is not used, follow the steps in the Tableau Online Help to Deactivate Tableau Server Offline. If the Tableau Server is in a high secure environment and no file can be moved from the machine, complete the information gathering below and contact Tableau Technical Support to have the activation manually removed.

Contact Tableau Technical Support to provide the following data needed for a manual return:

Tableau Server key being deactivated.
Create the Trusted Storage file as noted in the instructions here (Select Tableau Server, Non-ATR, and your operating system). Open the Trusted Storage file with a machine text editor to locate the product key and find the associated FID_#### marker to be deactivated. The Fulfillment ID as shown below will the value needed by Tableau Technical Support to perform the manual return.

Status:  ENABLED
Fulfillment ID: FID_1234abc_5432_abc_987654321
Entitlement ID: TSXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
Product ID: NAME=Tableau Server;VERSION=4.0

NOTE: The offline deactivation file is of a format that is very difficult to hand edit correctly and rarely accepted by our Activation website and contacting Tableau Technical Support is needed.

Additional Information

All the Machine / Hash values in the offline files are Hex values. The only valid characters are 0 - 9 and A - F.

Starting with Tableau Server 2023.1 and using the ATR offline activation method, a .json file is created from the Tableau Server machine with the values below:

productKeys: The value represents the license key or license keys to be offline activated. Keys are separated by a comma if offline activating multiple licenses.
environmentFingerprint: The value that represents the Unique Machine Identifier 1 and 2. This value is hashed from the MAC address.
product: The value that represents the product being activated. Do not edit.
subProduct: The value that represents the sub product. Do not edit.
version: The value that represents the version. Do not edit.
buildIdentifier: The value that represents the product build. Do not edit.

For a non-ATR offline activation, the following values are contained in the offline request file gathered from the Tableau Server machine:

EntitlementId: The value that represents the license key. This license key must be associated with the current maintenance date.

ClientVersion: The value that represents the FlexNet from Flexera Software version implemented with Tableau.

MachineIdentifier: A generated value that uses attributes of your system. This value is then used to bind trusted storage to the system. Also known as a "binding hash," these bound items take the individual characteristics of the machine and are used in combination to create a signature of the system hardware.

UniqueMachineNumbers: The unique machine numbers (UMN) is a generated value designed to be unique and constant. The UMN is used by the Tableau activation server to identify the machine that is requesting the transaction. For a Windows computer, the UMN can include the boot disk serial number.

SequenceNumber: A randomly generated value that is stored in a trusted storage file when initially created. However, this is not linked to any physical attribute of your system’s hardware.

Hash: A hash value (i.e., a string of numbers and letters) that is comprised of the contents of the offline file and used to validate the file integrity. This value ensures that the information in the file has not been modified.