Free Salesforce-Tableau-Server-Administrator Practice Test Questions (2026)

Explanation:

📈 Summary:
Identifying unused or "abandoned" content is a common administrative task for optimizing server performance and storage. Manually checking files or modification dates is inefficient. Tableau Server provides built-in administrative views specifically designed to help administrators monitor and manage content, including identifying workbooks that are no longer being accessed by users.

✅ Correct Option:

A. Use the Stale Content administrative view
🔹 The Stale Content administrative view is a dedicated tool for this exact purpose. It is part of Tableau's built-in monitoring capabilities.
🔹 It automatically tracks and displays workbooks, data sources, and flows that have not been accessed or viewed for a configurable period (e.g., 60 days).
🔹 This provides a data-driven, centralized report to identify abandoned workbooks with large extracts, allowing for informed decisions about archiving or deletion to free up server resources.

❌ Incorrect Options:

B. Examine the extract files in ProgramData/Tableau/Tableau Server/data/tabsvc/dataengine/extract
This is an inefficient and error-prone manual method. You cannot determine if a workbook is abandoned just by looking at extract files in the filesystem. This directory shows files that exist but gives no insight into their usage or which workbook they belong to without cross-referencing.

C. Delete all extracts and allow them to be re-generated automatically if they are still in use
This is a destructive and highly disruptive action. Deleting all extracts would break functionality for active workbooks, causing refresh failures and performance issues for users. It is not a method for identification but a risky cleanup action that should only be taken after identification.

D. View all workbooks, and sort by the Modified date
The "Modified" date indicates when the workbook was last edited or published, not when it was last viewed by a user. An abandoned workbook that no one views could still have a recent "Modified" date if its underlying extract was refreshed on a schedule, making this an unreliable metric for identifying abandonment.

📚 Reference:
Tableau Help Documentation: "Monitor Content" - This document explicitly describes the Stale Content administrative view, stating it helps you "find content that might be unused so you can archive it or delete it to free up space."

Explanation:
tsm maintenance backup -f .tsbak creates a Tableau Server backup of data managed by the server—primarily the Tableau PostgreSQL repository (workbook/user metadata) and the File Store (extracts, etc.). It does not capture server configuration/topology settings. Those are exported separately with tsm settings export.

Eliminations:
A) Notification settings – part of configuration; not included in the .tsbak. Use tsm settings export.
B) SMTP server settings – also configuration; export with tsm settings export, not in the data backup.
D) Topology data – node/process topology is configuration, not included in .tsbak. Export settings separately.

References:
Tableau Help — Back up Tableau Server Data (“includes … data extract files and the Tableau PostgreSQL database”) and note to use tsm settings for configuration.
Tableau Help — Perform a Full Backup and Restore of Tableau Server (what’s in the .tsbak).

Explanation:

The Background Tasks for Extracts administrative view is the primary place to troubleshoot failed extract refreshes on Tableau Server. This built-in dashboard provides a detailed log of all extract refresh tasks, showing you the status (succeeded or failed), run time, and—most importantly—the specific error message for any failed tasks. This view is the fastest and most direct way to identify the root cause of the problem, such as database connection issues, incorrect credentials, or a malformed query.

Detailed Breakdown
A. The status of the Backgrounder process, as shown by the tsm status -v command: While the Backgrounder process is what performs the extract refresh, this command only tells you if the process is running or not. It does not provide any specific information about individual tasks or why they might have failed.

C. The UNC path to the extract's data source: This is a potential cause of the problem (e.g., the path is no longer accessible), but it is not a place you would review to identify the cause. The Background Tasks for Extracts view would tell you if there was an issue with the data source connection, which would then lead you to investigate the UNC path.

D. Whether the project permissions are set to Locked to the project: Permissions are a common source of issues, but the user would likely receive a permission-denied error when attempting to publish or schedule the refresh, not when the extract refresh itself is running. The Background Tasks for Extracts view would still be the place to find this specific error message.

Explanation:

A user’s site role (e.g., Explorer (can publish)) sets the maximum they could do, but it doesn’t grant access by itself. Actual access is determined by permissions (project/content rules). In this scenario, the only applicable permission on the Sales project is for the All Users group with View and Download Workbook/Save As. Since Sandy has no additional explicit permission on the project/workbook, her effective rights are exactly those group capabilities.

Eliminations:
A) Editor rule – Not granted anywhere here.
C) Same rights as John – John is the owner; owners can do everything on their content.
D) No access – She inherits View + Download/Save As from All Users.

Explanation:

In Tableau Server, site-level configuration allows server administrators to tailor settings for each site individually. Two such configurable options are:
Limitation on storage space (B): Server admins can set storage quotas per site to control how much disk space is used. This helps manage resources and prevent any single site from consuming excessive storage.
Language and locale (D): Each site can be configured with its own default language and locale settings, which affect date formats, number formats, and UI language for users within that site.

❌ Why not the others?
A. Ability to embed credentials: This is a data source-level or workbook-level setting, not configured per site.
C. Limitation on number of users: Tableau Server does not support setting a hard limit on the number of users per site. User access is managed through licensing and permissions, but not capped per site.

🔗 Reference:
You can find more details in Tableau’s documentation on Managing Sites and Site Settings

Explanation:

Data-driven alerts in Tableau Server allow users to receive notifications when data in a visualization meets specific conditions. By default, a new Tableau Server installation and site may not have data-driven alerts enabled for user access. This question tests your knowledge of enabling this feature for a specific site, focusing on the correct configuration steps to allow users to create and manage these alerts effectively.

Correct Option:

✅ C. Change the data-driven alerts setting on the new site's Settings page
To enable data-driven alerts, administrators must navigate to the site’s Settings page in Tableau Server and explicitly enable the “Allow users to create and manage data-driven alerts” option. This setting is disabled by default for new sites, so enabling it ensures users can set up alerts for their visualizations. This is done per site, making it the precise action needed.

Incorrect Options:

❌ A. Enable data-driven alerts on the Tableau Services Manager Configuration page
The Tableau Services Manager (TSM) Configuration page manages server-wide settings, like topology or authentication, but does not control site-specific features like data-driven alerts. This option is incorrect because data-driven alerts are configured at the site level, not through TSM, which is more for server infrastructure settings.

❌ B. Run the tsm configuration set -k dataAlerts.checkIntervalInMinutes -v 60 command
This TSM command adjusts the frequency (in minutes) at which Tableau Server checks for data-driven alert conditions. While it fine-tunes alert behavior, it doesn’t enable the feature itself. Users still can’t create alerts unless the site’s Settings page enables them, making this option irrelevant for enabling user access.

❌ D. No action is necessary: the default settings enable data-driven alerts for the site
By default, data-driven alerts are disabled for new sites in Tableau Server. Assuming no action is needed is incorrect, as administrators must explicitly enable this feature on the site’s Settings page to allow users to create alerts. This option misleads by suggesting default settings are sufficient.

Reference:
Tableau Server Help: Enable Data-Driven Alerts for a Site
Tableau Server Help: Manage Site Settings

Explanation:

Why D is Correct:
Tableau Server has a safeguard to prevent accidental data loss. If a user owns any content (such as workbooks, data sources, or projects), the system will not allow you to delete them. Instead, the delete action fails, and the user's site role is automatically changed to "Unlicensed". This effectively removes their access to the server without deleting their account or the content they own. To fully delete the user, an administrator must first reassign all of their content to another user.

Why A is Incorrect:
This does not happen automatically. While the server administrator has the permission to reassign content, they must do so manually before the user can be deleted. The delete action itself will not trigger an automatic reassignment to the admin.

Why B is Incorrect:
Reassignment to a project leader is not an automatic process in Tableau Server. Project leaders do not automatically inherit content from users being deleted. The administrator must explicitly manage the reassignment.

Why C is Incorrect:
This would be a dangerous default behavior, as it could lead to massive, unintended data loss. Tableau Server is designed to protect content by preventing the deletion of users who own it.

Reference:
Tableau Help: Delete Users - The documentation clearly states: "You can't delete a user who is the owner of content on the site... If the user owns content, Tableau Server changes the user's site role to Unlicensed. To delete the user, you must first assign ownership of the user's content to another user."

Explanation:

Background jobs (extract refreshes, subscriptions, flows) are run by the Backgrounder in order of priority, where 1 is highest and 100 is lowest. Tasks inherit the schedule’s default priority (commonly 50) but you can override a specific task’s priority. Setting the CEO’s 7:00 AM extract task to priority 1 will move it to the front of the queue so it’s most likely finished before the 9:00 AM peak when the CEO opens the workbook.

Why not the others?
A) Set the default priority of this schedule to 50 — 50 is the usual default; it won’t help.
B) Set the priority for all other tasks to 50 — that’s already typical; it doesn’t ensure this task runs first.
D) Set the priority of this task to 100 — 100 is lowest priority and makes the problem worse.

Explanation:

A Tableau Server Administrator has the highest level of administrative privileges. They manage the entire Tableau Server instance, including all sites, users, and server-level configurations. A Site Administrator, on the other hand, is limited to managing content, users, and settings within a specific site.

B. Adding a site:
Only a server administrator can create new sites on a Tableau Server. This is a fundamental, server-wide architectural task that defines the multi-tenancy structure of the environment.
D. Adding users:
While site administrators can add users to their own site, they can only do so if the server administrator has explicitly granted them that permission. A server administrator, by default, has the ability to add and manage users across all sites on the server. The tsm command-line utility, which is a server-administrator tool, is used for advanced user management tasks, such as bulk imports.

Why the other options are incorrect:
A. Creating a schedule:
Both site administrators and server administrators can create schedules for tasks like extract refreshes and subscriptions. This is a common, day-to-day task that is not exclusive to the server admin role.
C. Locking project permissions:
Both site administrators and server administrators can lock project permissions. This task is a site-level administrative function, but it is one that both roles are capable of performing.

Explanation:

When permissions for a workbook in a Tableau Server project are not set to Locked to the project, permissions can be managed at the workbook level. The following user types can edit workbook permissions in this scenario:

C. The workbook’s owner:
The owner of a workbook (the user who published it or was assigned ownership) has full control over the workbook, including the ability to edit its permissions, regardless of project-level settings, as long as permissions are not locked.
D. Users set to Project Leader for the workbook’s project:
Users assigned the Project Leader role for a project can manage permissions for all content (workbooks, data sources, etc.) within that project, including editing workbook permissions, when permissions are not locked to the project.

Why not the other options?
A. Users that have the project and workbook Viewer role:
The Viewer role allows users to view content but does not grant permissions to edit workbook permissions, as it is a read-only role.
B. Users that have the workbook Interactor role:
The Interactor role allows users to interact with workbooks (e.g., filtering, drilling down), but it does not include the ability to edit permissions for the workbook.

Reference:
Tableau Help: Permissions in Tableau Server explains that workbook owners and Project Leaders can manage permissions for workbooks when not locked to the project.
For exam prep, review the Trailhead module on Tableau Server Administration, focusing on permissions management.