Error "Resource Conflict: Unable to determine if root directory exists" When Attempting a Backup on TSM Versions of Tableau Server

Issue

Backups on TSM versions of Tableau Server to shared network drives will fail and the following error message might occur:

"Resource Conflict: Unable to determine if root directory exists."

Environment

Tableau Server 2018.2 and newer
Windows Server

Resolution

As a workaround, please work with your IT/Server Admin team to save backups on a local drive first by using a script to monitor the backup folder, copying the content, and then exporting the backup to a mapped drive.

Note: You must have adequate disk space for database backup and restore processes to run successfully. In addition to the amount of space needed for the backup file, you need temporary disk space roughly 10 times the size of the backup file (so if your backup is 4 GB, you should have about 40 GB of temporary disk space available). Similarly you will need adequate temporary disk space for restoring from a backup. For more information about this topic, see Back up Tableau Server data.

Cause

The error occurs due to the user NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService not having permission to the network share drive to save the backup.

Additional Information

The following log entries can be found in the TSM.log:
[...] ERROR com.tableausoftware.tabadmin.async.AsyncJobDelegate - Exception occurred while starting the asynchronous job. Unable to determine if the job was started. Resource Conflict: \\tableauwk2\tableauprdwk3\: Unable to determine if root directory exists

Discuss this article... Feedback Forum