Tableau

Connect Tableau to Dremio to derive powerful insights from your data and create real-time dashboards.

Dremio is supported with the following Tableau tools:

WARNING: It is not recommended to use Tableau Desktop 2021.3.4, due to a known issue in that version. For information about the known issue, see this article in Tableau’s Knowledge Base.

NOTE: Currently, Username/Password and personal access tokens are the two authentication mechanisms supported for Tableau.

Configuring the Dremio Connector for Tableau Desktop

NOTE: For Tableau Desktop 2021.2 or later, the native Dremio Connector is the recommended method of connecting to Dremio.

1. Download the Dremio JDBC Driver and copy it to the folder specified below based on your OS.

Mac

In the terminal, run the following command to download the driver to ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers. You can also manually download the driver and move it to the folder.

curl https://download.dremio.com/jdbc-driver/dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar -o ~/Library/Tableau/Drivers/dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar

Windows

In the command line, run the following command to download the driver to C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers. You can also manually download the driver and move it to the folder.

curl https://download.dremio.com/jdbc-driver/dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar -o C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers\dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar

2. Open Tableau Desktop. If you already had Tableau Desktop open, restart the application.
3. Under the To a Server section in the Connect panel, click on More….
4. Select Dremio.
5. In the Dremio connection dialog, for Server, enter the Dremio DNS configured on your system.
6. For Port, enter the port if it differs from the default 31010 port.
7. For Username and Password, enter your Dremio credentials.
8. (Optional) Check the Require SSL option if your machine is configured for secure connections.
9. (Optional) In the Advanced tab, you can specify the Engine, Queue, and Tag.
10. Click Sign In.

Configuring Tableau Desktop with a Custom Dremio Connector

Tableau Desktop 2021.1 or earlier

For Tableau Desktop 2021.1 or earlier, to configure the Dremio connector,

1. Download the .taco file from the Tableau Extension Gallery.
2. Move the .taco file to the location listed below based on your OS.

Mac

In the terminal, run the following command to copy the .taco file to ~/Documents/My\ Tableau\ Repository/Connectors/. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

cp ~/Downloads/dremio.taco ~/Documents/My\ Tableau\ Repository/Connectors 

Windows

In the command line, run the following command to copy the .taco file to the My Tableau Repository\Connectors folder. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

copy %userprofile%\Downloads\dremio.taco %userprofile%\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors

3. After moving the .taco file, continue with the Tableau Desktop setup.

Tableau Desktop 2021.2 or later

For Tableau Desktop 2021.2 or later, to update the Dremio connector with minor releases, download the appropriate .taco file, and move it to the ~/Library/Tableau/Connectors folder. This will replace the native connector with the Dremio Connector based on the .taco file. See below for instructions based on your OS.

NOTE: For Tableau Desktop 2021.2 or later, the Connectors folder is different than the one for Tableau Desktop 2021.1 and prior.

Mac

In the terminal, run the following command to copy the .taco file to ~/Library/Tableau/Connectors. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

cp ~/Downloads/dremio.taco ~/Library/Tableau/Connectors

Windows

In the command line, run the following command to copy the .taco file to C:\Program Files\Tableau\Connectors. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

copy %userprofile%\Downloads\dremio.taco C:\Program Files\Tableau\Connectors

Configuring the Dremio Connector for Tableau Online

1. Navigate to your Tableau Online site.
2. In your workbook, click Add a Data Source. Alternatively, you can publish an existing data source to Tableau Online.
3. In the Connect to Data dialog, select Dremio under the Connectors tab.
4. In the Dremio connection dialog, for Server, enter the Dremio DNS configured on your system.
5. For Port, enter the port if it differs from the default 31010 port.
6. For Username and Password, enter your Dremio credentials.
7. (Optional) Check the Require SSL option if your machine is configured for secure connections.
8. (Optional) In the Advanced tab, you can specify the Engine, Queue, and Tag.
9. Click Sign In.

Configuring the Dremio Connector for Tableau Server

NOTE: For Tableau Server 2021.2 or later, the native Dremio Connector is the recommended way to connect to Dremio.

1. Download the Dremio JDBC Driver and copy it to the /Tableau/Drivers/ folder. See below for instructions based on your OS.

Windows

In the command line, run the following command to download the driver to C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers. You can also manually download the driver and move it to the folder.

curl https://download.dremio.com/jdbc-driver/dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar -o C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers\dremio-jdbc-driver-LATEST.jar

Linux

Move the downloaded driver to the folder below.

 /opt/tableau/tableau_driver/jdbc

2. Navigate to your Tableau Server site.
3. In your workbook, click Add a Data Source. Alternatively, you can publish an existing data source to Tableau Server.
4. In the Connect to Data dialog, select Dremio under the Connectors tab.
5. In the Dremio connection dialog, for Server, enter the Dremio DNS configured on your system.
6. For Port, enter the port if it differs from the default 31010 port.
7. For Username and Password, enter your Dremio credentials.
8. (Optional) Check the Require SSL option if your machine is configured for secure connections.
9. (Optional) In the Advanced tab, you can specify the Engine, Queue, and Tag.
10. Click Sign In.

Configuring Tableau Server with a Custom Dremio Connector

Tableau Server 2021.1

For Tableau Server 2021.1, to configure the Dremio connector,

1. Download the .taco file from the Tableau Extension Gallery.
2. Move the .taco file to the Connectors folder. See below for instructions based on your OS.

Windows

Open the Command Prompt and run the following command. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

copy %userprofile%\Downloads\dremio.taco C:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau Server\data\tabsvc\vizqlserver\Connectors

Linux

Move the .taco file to the folder below.

/var/opt/tableau/tableau_server/data/tabsvc/vizqlserver/Connectors

3. After moving the .taco file, continue with the Tableau Server setup.

Tableau Server 2021.2 or later

For Tableau Server 2021.2 or later, to update the Dremio connector with minor releases, download the appropriate .taco file, and move it to the /Tableau/Connectors/ folder. This will replace the native connector with the Dremio Connector based on the .taco file. See below for instructions based on your OS.

Windows

Open the Command Prompt and run the following command. This command assumes that the .taco file was downloaded into the Downloads folder.

copy %userprofile%\Downloads\dremio.taco C:\Program Files\Tableau\Connectors

Linux

Move the .taco file to the folder below.

/opt/tableau/connector

Creating a Live Connection to a Dataset from Dremio

NOTE: For Tableau Desktop/Server 2021.2+ the native Dremio Connector is the recommended method of connecting to Dremio.

To open a dataset in Tableau from within Dremio, you can use the Analyze button in the upper right-hand corner of a dataset view. Just follow these steps:

1. In Dremio UI, go to a dataset you want to work with and click on the dataset.
2. Select Tableau button from the toolbar. When you click the Analyze (Tableau) button, Dremio generates a Tableau Datasource (.tds) file that represents a “live connection” to your Dremio dataset. No actual data is stored in this file, and you can think of it as a shortcut to a Tableau session with a preconfigured view of your data.
3. Click on the file that you just downloaded and enter your Dremio credentials.
4. Dataset is ready to be used in Tableau.

Troubleshooting Tableau Client Connections

Dremio users may need to perform one of the following workarounds if they are using the specified version of Tableau to access a Dremio deployment.

Tableau 2019.4

Start Tableau from the command line with the -DDisableVerifyConnectorPluginSignature=true option. For example:

cd /Applications/Tableau Desktop 2019.4.app/Contents/MacOS
./Tableau -DDisableVerifyConnectorPluginSignature=true

Dremio JDBC 14.0 or Earlier

If you are running Java v9+, set the following environment variable on the machine running Tableau:

JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-Dcdjd.io.netty.tryReflectionSetAccessible=true

Enabling SSL for MacOS

If you’ve enabled SSL/TLS for JDBC connections for your Dremio server, additional steps must be performed to fully enable secure communications.

1. Obtain the certificate from your Dremio server.
2. Install the certificate in the cacerts truststore, which comes with your Java 8 runtime. The location of the truststore is typically $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacert/. To install the .der certificate, perform a command like the following:

sudo keytool -importcert -alias dremio -keystore $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/security/cacerts -storepass changeit -file /path/to/dremioServerCert.der

3. Verify that the certificate has been added.

keytool -keystore cacerts -storepass changeit -list | grep -A1 dremio
dremio, Dec 16, 2019, trustedCertEntry,Certificate fingerprint (SHA1): 2B:2B:F6:D4:79:64:33:59:AB:43:3E:D9:17:C9:FD:A7:5E:C1:6D:42

Once complete, you must ensure that the Require SSL option is selected when adding your Dremio server to Tableau Desktop.

Exporting a Dremio Dataset with SSL

If you have SSL enabled on Dremio, and you want to export a .tds file to use in a Tableau application for quickly connecting to a dataset, you can do so by setting the export.tableau.extra-native-connection-properties support key in Advanced Settings. This property allows you to set the JDBC connection string when exporting a .tds file. The default is an empty string.

To know how to set the export.tableau.extra-native-connection-properties support key, see Support Keys.

Changing the Hostname

You can use the export.bi.hostname support key to change the default hostname of the SQL endpoint for generating TDS files. The export.bi.hostname property is available from Dremio version 13.0.0.

To know how to set the export.bi.hostname support key, see Support Keys.

Example: SSL setting

In the following example, SSL (for generating a self-signed certificate with an JDBC Dremio configuration) is enabled in the dremio.conf file. See Using Wire Encryption for more information.

services.coordinator.client-endpoint.ssl.enabled: true
services.coordinator.client-endpoint.ssl.auto-certificate.enabled: true

Example: export.tableau.extra-native-connection-properties value

SSL=true;DisableHostVerification=true;DisableCertificateVerification=true