The following is a general tutorial for connecting from Tableau Server to OBIEE using BI Connector Server Edition.
Please verify the following pre-requisites for BI Connector Server Edition:
- Windows Server with at least 2 cores and 8 GB memory (refer to Tableau Server recommendation).
- Tableau Server should be installed on the Server.
- .NET 4.5 version or higher.
- BI Connector Server Edition should be installed on the same machine as Tableau Server.
- To publish from Tableau Desktop to Tableau Server, the DSN Name in Tableau Desktop for BI Connector OBIEE Connection must match the DSN name in Tableau Server.
- When Tableau Server is run as a Windows service, verify that Tableau Server is set up with "Run as User" in "Configure Tableau Server" application. Refer to this Tableau article for more information.
- BI Connector's license should be registered with the same Windows User as Tableau Server's user.
- Install the BI Connector plugin in your Tableau Server by following the instructions here.
Step 1 : Configure BI Connector Server Edition
Follow the Step-by-Step Installation Guide for BI Connector Server Edition to install and configure BI Connector in your Tableau Server machine.
Step 2 : Configure BI Connector Desktop Edition
Follow the Step-by-Step Installation Guide for BI Connector Desktop Edition to install and configure BI Connector in your Tableau Desktop machine.
You must use the same name as the DSN in the Tableau Server machine while creating DSN for BI Connector in your Tableau Desktop machine.
Step 3 : Create your OBIEE Worksheet in Tableau Desktop
Refer to the Step-by-Step User Guide to connect Tableau to OBIEE Subject Areas using BI Connector plugin and build your worksheet. For example as below.
Step 4 : Publish to Tableau Server
From the Tableau Desktop, Sign in to Tableau Server from the Server menu.
Publish the data source
Pick the project. If you would like your server user to be prompted for their username and password, then leave authentication as "Prompt User".
If the data source was successfully published, following message will appear.
Then Publish your workbook to the Tableau Server.
Name the Workbook and publish.
After successfully publishing the workbook, its preview will be appeared after asking for OBIEE server username and password.
Note: When you try to publish the worksheet, if the preview screen doesn't display the worksheet and instead displays a spinning cursor, then Tableau server is unable to connect to OBIEE using BI Connector due to lack of user permission and license registration for the Windows user. When Tableau Server is run as a Windows service, verify that the user has correct permissions or use Run as User account in Configure Tableau Server UI so that Tableau Server can connect to OBIEE data source using BI Connector. Refer to this Tableau article for more information. To reconfigure the Tableau server, follow these steps:
- Stop the Tableau Server service.
- Launch Configure the Tableau server UI to use Run as User account.
- Restart the Tableau Server service.
- Login to the Windows machine using the same user as Tableau Server user and verify if BI Connector license is activated. If it is not, please activate the license key and test the OBIEE connection.
- Connect from Tableau Desktop to Tableau Server and publish the worksheet again.
Step 5 : Viewing the worksheet in Tableau Server
Now, using a browser in the Tableau Server machine, login to Tableau Server to verify if the data source and workbook are published and working.
When you go to the workbook you will be presented to enter the username and password, as you have selected the "Prompt User" option while publishing the workbook. Here you will enter your OBIEE username and password. And then click Sign In.
Now you can see the workbook that was published at Tableau Desktop. Data will be presented to see as per your security setup.
Step 6 : Accessing OBIEE Data Source via Tableau Server
All Tableau desktop users who have access to this data source that was published with a live connection to OBIEE can now use this data source on some other Tableau desktop also. Even Tableau Desktop Users who do not have BI Connector Desktop Edition installed on their machine can access the OBIEE via Tableau Server.
1. For this, open a Tableau desktop on and click Tableau Server from the list of Connecctors.
2. Enter Tableau server credentials
3. Now you will see the data source published using BI Connector is available live to this Tableau desktop user.
4. Click on the data source. You will be presented to enter your OBIEE username and password. In this case "obieetest" user is entered.
5. The user is authenticated and now the data is ready for visualization
6. Proceed to the worksheet and work your Tableau magic with a live server based connection to OBIEE!
