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Moving Individual Workbooks From One Server to Another Server


Published: 05 Feb 2013
Last Modified Date: 24 Aug 2022

Question

How to move individual workbooks from one installation of Tableau Server to another installation of Tableau Server.

Environment

Tableau Server

Answer

In order to move individual workbooks from one installation of Tableau Server to another installation of Tableau Server, you must download, move, and then republish the workbook. This can be done in the following ways:

Workbooks with Published Data Sources

Step 1: In Tableau Server
  1. Sign in to the original Tableau Server.
  2. Navigate to the workbook and click Download.
Step 2: In Tableau Desktop 
  1. On the Data menu, select the data source, select Create Local Copy, and then save the local copy of the data source.
  2. Working from a Sheet, select Data Replace Data Source. Enter the following options, then click OK:
    • Current: The published data source
    • Replacement: the local copy you saved 
  3. In the Data pane, right-click the original published data source, and then select Close.
  4. Select Server > Sign Out.
  5. Select the data source in the Data menu and select Publish to Server.
  6. In Tableau Desktop, sign in to the other Tableau Server,  then publish the data source. 
    When publishing, ensure that Update workbook to use the published data source is selected. 
  7. Select Server > Publish Workbook to publish the workbook to the other Tableau Server.

Workbooks without Published Data Sources

Option 1: Using Tableau Server

  1. Log on to the original Tableau Server.
  2. Navigate to the workbook and click Download.
  3. Open the workbook in Tableau Desktop.
  4. Republish the workbook to the other installation of Tableau Server.
Note: You must have permissions to download and publish the workbook.

 

    Option 2: Using tabcmd

    1. Log on to the computer hosting Tableau Server as a local administrator.
    2. Open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
    3. Navigate to the "bin" folder in the Tableau Server directory:
      • On a 32-bit computer, or with 64-bit Tableau Server installed: cd c:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin
      • On a 64-bit computer, with 32-bit Tableau Server installed: cd c:\Program Files (x86)\Tableau\Tableau Server\<version>\bin
    4. Type the following commands:
      1. Log on to the original Tableau Server installation: tabcmd login -s <url-of-original-tableau-server> -u <username> -p <password>
      2. Download the workbook:tabcmd get "/views/<project>/<workbook.twb/.twbx> --filename <workbook-name.twb/.twbx>
      3. Log out of Tableau Server:tabcmd logout
      4. Log in to the second installation of Tableau Server: tabcmd login -s <url-of-other-other-tableau-server> -u <username> -p <password>
      5. Publish the workbook to the second installation of Tableau Server: tabcmd publish "<workbook.twb/.twbx>" -n "<workbook-name>

    Additional Information

    • The button to download workbooks is available only if the you or another user has been given permissions to download the file.
    • Overwritten workbooks cannot be recovered unless Tableau Server has been backed up.
    • If the workbook contains a published data source, then it is not possible to use tabcmd to migrate the workbook.

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