What to Expect when Tableau Online Upgrades

This page will help you ensure that your Tableau Online users can keep using Tableau Desktop and Tableau Online.

If you are not a Tableau Online Administrator, please refer to the following other resource pages:

Learn

Overview

If you would like more information about Tableau Online, start here to learn about self-service analytics in the cloud. Read more at Tableau Online Overview and Tableau Online Manual.

Still have users who work with Tableau Desktop 32-bit versions? If your users need features from 10.5 or later, or need to download workbooks from Tableau Online, they would need to upgrade to a 64-bit operating system and the recent version of Tableau Desktop. For more information, see 32-bit Upgrade Resources.

What's New?

New and improved functionalities are released regularly. See What's New in Tableau Online for details. Future and new improvements include for example:

Using ISO-8601 defined weeks in your calculations and visualizations
Analytics, Tableau Bridge, Web Authoring Improvements (such as the ShowMe feature), and much more!

Hyper is Tableau's in-memory Data Engine technology optimized for fast data ingest and analytical query processing on large or complex data sets. The introduction of Hyper results in a number of changes related to extracts. Beginning in Tableau 10.5, new extracts use the .hyper file format instead of the .tde file format.

The sections below explain what actions will cause a .tde extract to upgrade to a .hyper extract, common issues your users may report, and important compatibility considerations that will arise if you are using an older version of Tableau Desktop with Tableau Online version 10.5 and later versions. Please review this content as part of your upgrade plan.

Fully Upgrading to Hyper

In the coming weeks we will begin upgrading Tableau Online to become Hyper only. If you have scheduled extract refreshes, we will update your site starting March 26th. Once your site is upgraded, when your next scheduled refresh takes place, the conversion from .tde to .hyper files will occur.

We’re making this move because we want all our customers to take full advantage of all that Hyper offers, like faster extract performance.

Your extracts will start to upgrade the week of March 26th.

What will happen during this conversion?

From our side, we’ll convert your extract files from .tde to .hyper files. During this process, you shouldn’t notice any differences in performance or availability. The most important thing to know is that once an extract is converted to a .hyper file, older versions of desktop will not be able to download and open workbooks that have hyper extracts.

For full details about compatibility and scenarios, please read through the different sections further down this page.

What should I do to be ready for the Hyper conversion?

First, make sure that the copies of Tableau Desktop that your company uses to download or publish workbooks to Tableau Online have been upgraded to Tableau 10.5 (or a later version).
If you use Tableau Bridge, your version of Tableau Bridge has been updated to Tableau 10.5 or newer.

File Conversion for .hyper Extracts

After Tableau Online upgrades, your users might notice or report that their .tde extracts have been changed to a new .hyper format; or they might receive error messages that mention the new .hyper extract format. Extract files are converted by the improved data engine, which will help Tableau users create and refresh larger extracts faster.

To understand when extracts are upgraded from .tde to the new .hyper format, see the table below. The black circle indicates that the extract will be upgraded to .hyper format. More details can be found in What causes an extract upgrade? in Tableau Help.

For more information about Tableau Desktop file conversion considerations, see the Tableau Desktop Upgrade page.

	Tableau Bridge		Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility		Tableau Online
	10.4 and earlier	10.5 and later	10.4 and earlier	10.5 and later	Tableau Online
Full Extract Refresh
Incremental Extract Refresh
Append Data to an Extract

Understanding the above behaviors

What does it mean exactly? See the below specific points to understand what is occurring and what you can advise your Tableau users to do:

All refreshes ran by Tableau Online will upgrade your .tde extract to .hyper format.

You may notice that your .tde extracts are not all upgraded to a .hyper format when refreshed right away. This is an expected behavior while Tableau Online transitions to full .hyper format.

Once an extract has been upgraded to the new .hyper extract format, the change is not reversible. This means that the upgraded extract cannot be converted back to a .tde extract and that upgraded extracts cannot be read by the Tableau 10.4 (earlier) data engine.

After performing full refresh of a data source using a 10.4 (or earlier) client (such as Tableau Bridge, Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility, APIs, etc.): you will be able to perform the refresh and the extract will remain in a .tde format. Additionally, you can open and connect to the published data sources using Tableau Desktop 10.4 (and earlier versions).

After performing an incremental refresh of a data source using Tableau Bridge 10.4 (or earlier): you will be able to perform the refresh and the extract will be saved in .hyper format. However you will not be able to open this refreshed data source using Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier versions (whether it has been incrementally or fully refreshed) and you will be asked to locate and regenerate the extract after downloading and opening the data source using Tableau Desktop 10.4 (and earlier versions). Redirect your users to “What to expect after an extract upgrade” for steps to recreate the extract.

After performing an incremental refresh of a data source using a 10.4 (or earlier) client (such as the Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility, APIs, etc.): you will be able to perform the refresh and the extract will be saved in .hyper format. Please note that you will be asked to locate and regenerate the extract after downloading and opening the data source using Tableau Desktop 10.4 (and earlier versions). Redirect your users to “What to expect after an extract upgrade” for steps to recreate the extract.

Finding out when an extract has been converted

To see specifically which extracts will be affected, you can use the admin view and filter by job type, for more information see Background Tasks for Extracts.

Filtering the Tasks to ‘TdeRefreshExtract’ and ‘TdeIncrementalExtract’ will identify all extracts that are currently in .tde format which will be upgraded to .hyper format.

Extract compatibility scenarios

If your Tableau Online users report that they are unable to perform specific actions when they are interacting with extracts, they might have run into an extract compatibility issue.

The table below shows examples of scenarios seen from a user perspective and describes what happens in the background of Tableau Online, when specific actions involving extracts are performed.

Please note that the below behaviors for workbooks are the same for published data sources.

		Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier	Workbook created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 using a 10.4 Extract	Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 and later
As a Tableau Online and Desktop user, you attempt to publish your workbook or extract to Tableau Online
		You are able to publish this workbook or extract Extract remains in a .tde format	You are able to publish this workbook or extract Extract remains in .tde format	You are able to publish this workbook or extract Extract is saved in .hyper format

		Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier	Workbook created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 using a 10.4 Extract	Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 and later
As a Tableau Online and Desktop user, you try to Web-edit/ Save your workbook to Tableau Online (after publishing to Tableau Online)
	No refresh or append in Tableau Online	You are able to web-edit this workbook You will no longer be able to download it and open it in Tableau Desktop 10.4 or earlier versions. However you will be able to export this workbook as an older version. Extract remains in .tde format	You are able to web-edit this workbook Extract remains in .tde format	You are able to web-edit this workbook Extract remains in .hyper format
	Refresh or append the extract in Tableau Online	You are able to web-edit this workbook When the next refresh occurs, the extract is saved in .hyper format Note: if you do not edit the workbook but perform a refresh/append, the extract is not upgraded and will remain in a .tde format. This is an expected behavior while Tableau Online transitions to full .hyper format.	You are able to web-edit this workbook Extract is saved in .hyper format	You are able to web-edit this workbook Extract remains in .hyper format

		Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier	Workbook created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 using a 10.4 Extract	Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 and later
As a Tableau Online and Desktop user, you attempt to download and open the workbook and the extract
	Using Tableau Desktop 10.4 (and earlier)	You are able to download and share this workbook. After web-editing the workbook, you will no longer be able to download it and open it in Tableau Desktop 10.4 or earlier versions. If you do not edit the workbook but you perform a refresh/append, you may be asked to locate and regenerate the extract after downloading and opening the workbook using Tableau Desktop 10.4. See “What to expect after an extract upgrade” for steps to recreate the extract. You can export this workbook as an older version.	You cannot interact with the workbook or the extract. See this Knowledge Base article for details.	You cannot interact with the workbook or the extract. See this Knowledge Base article for details.
	Using Tableau Desktop 10.5 and later	You can download and open this workbook and extract. If you encounter difficulties editing or downloading the workbook using an older version of Tableau Desktop, please refer to the following Knowledge base article.	You can download and open this workbook and extract. If you encounter difficulties editing or downloading the workbook using an older version of Tableau Desktop, please refer to the following Knowledge base article.	You can download and open this workbook and extract. If you encounter difficulties editing or downloading the workbook using an older version of Tableau Desktop, please refer to the following Knowledge base article.

	Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier	Workbook created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 using a 10.4 Extract	Workbook and extract are created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 and later
As a Tableau Online user, you use the "Export as Version..." in Tableau Desktop and open the workbook in the corresponding Tableau version (or higher)
	If the workbook is using a .tde extract, you can export and open this workbook and extract in the corresponding Tableau version (or higher).	If the workbook is using a .tde extract, you can export and open this workbook and extract in the corresponding Tableau version (or higher).	Since this data source is using a .hyper format extract, this action cannot be performed. The option will be grayed out. See this Knowledge Base article for details.**

**When using the "Download as Older Version" option in Tableau Online, you can download an earlier version of this workbook (such workbook can be opened by Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier). However please note that if a .hyper extract is used, it will be included in the packaged workbook file, and such file cannot be read by older versions of Tableau Desktop.

Attempting any action in Tableau Desktop 10.4 and earlier versions with an extract that was created in Tableau Desktop 10.5 or later will result in an error message. Please view this Knowledge Base article for details.

Specific to Tableau Online

Tableau Bridge, Tabcmd, API 2.0, and Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility

The latest Tableau Bridge client is installed when you install a new major version of Tableau Desktop. More information about when to upgrade Tableau Bridge can be found in this article.

To publish or interact with a .hyper extract with Tabcmd, you will need Tabcmd 10.5 or later; see Install tabcmd in Tableau Help.

Using the Extract API 2.0, you will be able to open and create new .hyper extracts. Please note that the Extract API 2.0 cannot create .tde extracts.

Extract API 2.0 no longer includes the Server API, use the REST API to publish your extract.

Similar to Tableau Bridge, the Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility will also converts extracts in .hyper format. For more information about this topic, see Tableau Data Extract Command-Line Utility in Tableau Help.

Troubleshoot

If you notice that Tableau Online is experiencing refresh issues, see this article in Tableau Help.

If your users experience or report any of the following behaviors while performing an extract task, you may be running into an incompatibility scenario. Please redirect them to the following Knowledge Base articles to resolve the error(s).

"This workbook uses a .hyper extract and is not compatible with this version of Tableau. Open this workbook in Tableau 10.5 or later."

"Export as version" grayed out for workbooks with .hyper extract.

"The document cannot be downgraded, because it contains direct connections to Hyper extracts."

The View changes after upgrading (becomes blank, fewer marks in the view, more null values when you inspect the summary data, or the view itself has a different shape).

Pod Migrations Coming to Tableau Online

We’re expanding our deployment footprint on AWS by moving our first-generation Tableau Online pods. This move to AWS will help us continue to meet the demands of our customers with greater stability and performance.
Additionally, we're excited for this change because it gives us the freedom to focus on innovation. The heavy infrastructure management can be left to the experts at AWS, and we can focus on continuing to deliver the best analytics platform on the market today.

If you are a Tableau Online customer and currently in one of our existing pods 10AY / 10AZ, your site will be migrated.

For more information about Pod Outages and Pod Migrations, click here for more details

What should I do when my Tableau Online Pod is down?

Verify at trust.tableau.com if your Tableau Online is going through a scheduled maintenance.
If the service is running and you do not notice any Tableau Support Alert banner (at the top of tableau.com/support pages), please contact our Technical Support Team (ensure to provide any error you may encounter.)
Check the Tableau Support Team Twitter Account (@TableauSupport) for updates or communication around unexpected impact to Tableau Online.

When is my Tableau Online Pod scheduled to go through a maintenance or a migration?

You should have received a notification indicating when the scheduled maintenance will occur.
This e-mail is addressed to the Tableau Online administrator and contains the following information in its subject: Tableau Online Pod name Planned Outage: date.

What should I do if I noticed something is wrong after a Tableau Online upgrade?

If you and your users notice odd or unusual behaviors after an upgrade of Tableau Online, please refer to the following guidelines:

Verify if the feature has changed. The What's New in Tableau Online page should describe if features have changed.
Search for the behavior in the Tableau Knowledge Base as a workaround may already exist.
Contact our Technical Support Team (ensure to provide any error you may encounter) if none of the above options worked.

How do I know the name of my Pod?

When you navigate to your Tableau Online site, the URL of your site will contain the name of the pod. For example: 10ay.online.tableau.com/#/site/sitename.
As a Tableau Online Administrator, you receive maintenance notifications by e-mails. Such e-mails should contain the name of the pod your site belongs to. This e-mail contains the following information in its subject: Tableau Online Pod name Planned Outage: date.

New AWS Pod IP Addresses to Authorize

We’ve added new IP addresses for our new AWS pods launching soon. As a security measure, cloud data providers might require you to supply a list of authorized IP addresses from which external applications request access to your data. A request from an IP address that is not explicitly approved could be rejected.

To make sure live connections you publish to Tableau Online remain uninterrupted, add the new IP addresses to your list of authorized IP addresses. For more information about these Tableau Online IP addresses, please refer to Tableau Online IP addresses for data provider authorization in Tableau Help.

Other Resources

See more Tableau Online useful resources below:

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