Tableau Server (Collector method) - v3.4.0

About Collectors

Collectors are extractors that are developed and managed by you (A customer of K).

KADA provides python libraries that customers can use to quickly deploy a Collector.

Why you should use a Collector

There are several reasons why you may use a collector vs the direct connect extractor:

1. You are using the KADA SaaS offering and it cannot connect to your sources due to firewall restrictions

2. You want to push metadata to KADA rather than allow it pull data for Security reasons

3. You want to inspect the metadata before pushing it to K

Using a collector requires you to manage

1. Deploying and orchestrating the extract code

2. Managing a high water mark so the extract only pull the latest metadata

3. Storing and pushing the extracts to your K instance.

Pre-requisites

Collector Server Minimum Requirements

For the collector to operate effectively, it will need to be deployed on a server with the below minimum specifications:

• CPU: 2 vCPU

• Memory: 8GB

• Storage: 30GB (depends on historical data extracted)

• OS: unix distro e.g. RHEL preferred but can also work with Windows Server.

• Python 3.10.x or later

• Access to K landing directory

Tableau Server Requirements

• Tableau Server Version [2019.3] and above.

• Enable the Tableau Metadata API for Tableau Server

  • This requires a server restart if not enabled

• Tableau API access

  • An API user (record the username and password) needs to be created to access Tableau API.

  • The user must exists on tableau server as REST APIs do not support SSO. https://help.tableau.com/current/api/rest_api/en-us/REST/rest_api_concepts_auth.htm

  • User needs Site Administrator Creator or Server/Site Administrator role. Roles are dependent on both Licensing and Server version see https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/users_site_roles.htm

    • Site Administrator Creator is only available on Role Based Licensing Model

    • Server/Site Administrator is available on both Role Based and Core Based Licensing Model

• Tableau Repository access

  • Follow the instructions to create a user that can access the Tableau repositoryhttps://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/perf_collect_server_repo.htm

    • This requires a server restart if not enabled

    • Note the Tableau repository default user is calledreadonly

As of 3.1.0 the collector no longer supports Tableau Server Version lower than 3.5 which does not have the Metadata API Endpoint. The Metadata API Endpoint MUST BE ENABLED for the collector to work.

Step 1: Create the Source in K

Create a Tableau source in K

• Go to Settings, Select Sources and click Add Source

• Select “Load from File” option

• Give the source a Name - e.g. Tableau Production

• Add the Host name for the Tableau server

• Click Finish Setup

Step 2: Getting Access to the Source Landing Directory

Step 3: Install the Collector

It is recommended to use a python environment such as pyenv or pipenv if you are not intending to install this package at the system level.

Some python packages also have dependencies on the OS level packages, so you may be required to install additional OS packages if the below fails to install.

You can download the latest Core Library and whl via Platform Settings → Sources → Download Collectors

Run the following command to install the collector

pip install kada_collectors_extractors_<version>-none-any.whl

You will also need to install the common library kada_collectors_lib for this collector to function properly.

pip install kada_collectors_lib-<version>-none-any.whl

Step 4: Configure the Collector

The collector requires a set of parameters to connect to and extract metadata from Tableau.

{
"somehost.adw": "analytics.adw"
}

These parameters can be added directly into the run or you can use pass the parameters in via a JSON file. The following is an example you can use that is included in the example run code below.

kada_tableau_extractor_config.json

{
    "server_address": "",
    "username": "",
    "password": "",
    "sites": [],
    "ssl_verification": true,
    "db_host": "",
    "db_username": "readonly",
    "db_password": "",
    "db_port": 8060,
    "db_name": "workgroup",
    "meta_only": false,
    "retries": 5,
    "dry_run": false,
    "output_path": "/tmp/output",
    "mask": true,
    "mapping": {},
    "compress": true,
    "use_token": false,
    "use_cloud": false,
    "token_name": "",
    "token_secret": "",
    "site_content_view_name": "kada_site_content",
    "ts_events_view_name": "kada_ts_events",
    "timeout": 120,
    "timestamp_format": "%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S",
    "fields_per_page": "1000",
    "sheets_per_page": "100"
}

Step 5: Run the Collector

The following code is an example of how to run the extractor. You may need to uplift this code to meet any code standards at your organisation.

This can be executed in any python environment where the whl has been installed.

This is the wrapper script: kada_tableau_extractor.py

import os
import argparse
from kada_collectors.extractors.utils import load_config, get_hwm, publish_hwm, get_generic_logger
from kada_collectors.extractors.tableau import Extractor

get_generic_logger('root') # Set to use the root logger, you can change the context accordingly or define your own logger

_type = 'tableau'
dirname = os.path.dirname(__file__)
filename = os.path.join(dirname, 'kada_{}_extractor_config.json'.format(_type))

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='KADA Tableau Extractor.')
parser.add_argument('--config', '-c', dest='config', default=filename, help='Location of the configuration json, default is the config json in the same directory as the script.')
parser.add_argument('--name', '-n', dest='name', default=_type, help='Name of the collector instance.')
args = parser.parse_args()

start_hwm, end_hwm = get_hwm(args.name)

ext = Extractor(**load_config(args.config))
ext.test_connection()
ext.run(**{"start_hwm": start_hwm, "end_hwm": end_hwm})

publish_hwm(_type, end_hwm)

Advance options:

If you wish to maintain your own high water mark files elsewhere you can use the above section’s script as a guide on how to call the extractor. The configuration file is simply the keyword arguments in JSON format. Refer to this document for more information Collector Integration General Notes | Storing-HWM-in-another-location

If you are handling external arguments of the runner yourself, you’ll need to consider additional items for the run method. Refer to this document for more information Collector Integration General Notes | The-run-method

from kada_collectors.extractors.tableau import Extractor

kwargs = {my args} # However you choose to construct your args
hwm_kwrgs = {"start_hwm": "end_hwm": } # The hwm values

ext = Extractor(**kwargs)
ext.run(**hwm_kwrgs)

class Extractor(server_address: str = None, username: str = None, password: str = None, \
    sites: list = [], db_host: str = None, db_password: str = None, \
    db_port: int = 8060, db_name: str = '≈', db_username: str = 'readonly', \
    meta_only: bool = False, events_only: bool = False, retries: int = 5, \
    dry_run: bool = False, output_path: str = './output', \
    mask: bool = False, mapping: dict = {}, compress: bool = False, \
    use_cloud: bool = False, use_token: bool = False, token_name: str = None, \
    token_secret: str = None, site_content_view_name: str='kada_site_content', \
    ts_events_view_name: str='kada_ts_events', timeout: int=120, timestamp_format: str='%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S', \
    fields_per_page: int=1000, sheets_per_page: int=100) -> None

server_address: server address
username: username to sign into server
password: password to sign into server
sites: list of sites to extract.
ssl_verification: Should ssl verification be enabled for API requests.
db_host: Tableau database address
db_password: Tableau database password
db_port: Tableau database port
db_name: Tableau database name
db_username: Tableau database username
meta_only: extract metadata only
events_only: extract events only
retries: Number of attemps if an API fails on NonXMLResponse Error, default is 5
dry_run: If specified the extractor will do a dry run to produce a template mapping.
output_path: full or relative path to where the outputs should go
login_timeout: The timeout for snowflake Auth
mask: To mask the META/DATABASE_LOG files or not
compress: To gzip output files or not
use_cloud: Are you using Tableau Cloud? Note cloud will force use token authentication
use_token: Are you using a token for authentication? Token authentication is also available for Tableau Server
token_name: Token based authentication
token_secret: Token based authentication
site_content_view_name: The view name for Content View tab in the Kada workbook for events, defaults to kada_site_content
ts_events_view_name: The view name for TS Events View tab in the Kada workbook for events, defaults to kada_ts_events
timeout: The timeout value in seconds for Tableau API calls
timestamp_format: The format of the event timestamp for the TS Events View, if defaults to %d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S, refer to python datetime formating
fields_per_page: Number of field objects per page to be returned via the Tableau metadata api
sheets_per_page: Number of sheet and dashboard objects per page to be returned via the Tableau metadata api

Step 6: Check the Collector Outputs

K Extracts

A set of files (eg metadata, databaselog, linkages, events etc) will be generated. These files will appear in the output_path directory you set in the configuration details

High Water Mark File

A high water mark file is created in the same directory as the execution called tableau_hwm.txt and produce files according to the configuration JSON. This file is only produced if you call the publish_hwm method.

Step 7: Push the Extracts to K

Once the files have been validated, you can push the files to the K landing directory..

You can use Azure Storage Explorer if you want to initially do this manually. You can push the files using python as well (see Airflow example below)

Example: Using Airflow to orchestrate the Extract and Push to K

# built-in
import os

# Installed
from airflow.operators.python_operator import PythonOperator
from airflow.models.dag import DAG
from airflow.operators.dummy import DummyOperator
from airflow.utils.dates import days_ago
from airflow.utils.task_group import TaskGroup

from plugins.utils.azure_blob_storage import AzureBlobStorage

from kada_collectors.extractors.utils import load_config, get_hwm, publish_hwm, get_generic_logger
from kada_collectors.extractors.tableau import Extractor

# To be configed by the customer.
# Note variables may change if using a different object store.
KADA_SAS_TOKEN = os.getenv("KADA_SAS_TOKEN")
KADA_CONTAINER = ""
KADA_STORAGE_ACCOUNT = ""
KADA_LANDING_PATH = "lz/tableau/landing"
KADA_EXTRACTOR_CONFIG = {
    "server_address": "http://tabserver",
    "username": "user",
    "password": "password",
    "sites": [],
    "db_host": "tabserver",
    "db_username": "repo_user",
    "db_password": "repo_password",
    "db_port": 8060,
    "db_name": "workgroup",
    "meta_only": False,
    "retries": 5,
    "dry_run": False,
    "output_path": "/set/to/output/path",
    "mask": True,
    "mapping": {}
}

# To be implemented by the customer. 
# Upload to your landing zone storage.
def upload():
  output = KADA_EXTRACTOR_CONFIG['output_path']
  for filename in os.listdir(output):
      if filename.endswith('.csv'):
        file_to_upload_path = os.path.join(output, filename)

        AzureBlobStorage.upload_file_sas_token(
            client=KADA_SAS_TOKEN,
            storage_account=KADA_STORAGE_ACCOUNT,
            container=KADA_CONTAINER, 
            blob=f'{KADA_LANDING_PATH}/{filename}', 
            local_path=file_to_upload_path
        )

with DAG(dag_id="taskgroup_example", start_date=days_ago(1)) as dag:
  
    # To be implemented by the customer.
    # Retrieve the timestamp from the prior run
    start_hwm = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:SS'
    end_hwm = 'YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:SS' # timestamp now
    
    ext = Extractor(**KADA_EXTRACTOR_CONFIG)
    
    start = DummyOperator(task_id="start")

    with TaskGroup("taskgroup_1", tooltip="extract tableau and upload") as extract_upload:
        task_1 = PythonOperator(
            task_id="extract_tableau",
            python_callable=ext.run, 
            op_kwargs={"start_hwm": start_hwm, "end_hwm": end_hwm},
            provide_context=True,
        )
        
        task_2 = PythonOperator(
            task_id="upload_extracts",
            python_callable=upload, 
            op_kwargs={},
            provide_context=True,
        )

        # To be implemented by the customer. 
        # Timestamp needs to be saved for next run
        task_3 = DummyOperator(task_id='save_hwm') 

    end = DummyOperator(task_id='end')

    start >> extract_upload >> end