Give a chestnut! Tableau Tips (73): Migrate Server License to a new environment (Windows to Windows migration)

published: 2021-05-26

Many enterprise users of Tableau reported that after upgrading or reinstalling the server hardware of their department or enterprise, they don’t know how to migrate the Tableau Server license to the new environment.

To migrate the Tableau Server license from the original environment to the new environment, there are generally two situations: both the old and new environments use Windows systems, the old environments use Windows systems, and the new environments use Linux systems.

This chestnut will share the first situation for everyone: the new and old environments use Windows systems, and the method of migrating the Tableau Server license to the new environment.

The second situation: the old environment uses the Windows system and the new environment uses the Linux system. The method of migrating the Tableau Server license to the new environment will be released in the future. Please continue to pay attention to "Give me a chestnut".

In this issue of "Give a Chestnut", the Tableau trick that Ada will share with you is: Migrate Server License to the new environment (Windows to Windows).

Specific steps are as follows:

Before migrating the license, if there is data to be migrated and files need to be backed up, please refer to the manual backup method mentioned in Chestnut: Backing up Tableau Server via tabadmin (if there is no data to be migrated, you can ignore this step).

Deactivate Tableau Sever License online

➀ Log in to the computer running Tableau Server.

➁ Navigate to "Start"> "All Programs"> "TableauServer <version>"> "Manage Product Keys".

➂ Select the product key you want to deactivate, and then click "Deactivate".

➃ When prompted, click "Yes".

Deactivate Tableau Sever License Offline

➀ Right-click Manage Product keys and select: Run as administrator.

➁ Click Deactivate to confirm the deactivation operation and save the deactivation file.

➂ Save the .tlq file and click Exit.


➃ Copy the saved .tlq file to a computer that can access the Internet.

➄ Visit on a computer with internet access: https://www.tableau.com/support/activation

 

➅ Double click to select file

➆ Upload the .tlp file.

➇ Click Upload Activation file, and a .tlr file will be generated.

 

⑨ Copy the generated .tlr file to the installation directory of the computer tableau Server, under the bin directory,

C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server[Version]\bin.

⑩ Open a command line window (as an administrator) and navigate to the bin directory:

Run the command to return the license offline: tabadmin activate --tlr return.tlr

Activate Tableau Server License under windows system online

➀ Log in to the computer running Tableau Server.

➁ Navigate to "Start"> "All Programs"> "TableauServer <version>"> "Manage product keys".

➂ Select Activate the product and enter the product key.

➃ Click to activate

Offline activation of Tableau Server License under Windows system

For this step, please refer to Chestnut: Activate Tableau Server Offline.

Backup and restore after activation

➀ Run Command Prompt as an administrator

➁ Navigate to the bin directory.

➂ Stop the server tabadmin stop

➃ Type tabadmin restore. In the above line, replace with the name of the backup file you want to restore.

Tips: When restoring from a backup, TableauServer will prompt for the password of the Run As user account. You can type the password when prompted, or use a .txt file that contains only the password (for example, if you are writing a restore script).

To restore only data without restoring configuration settings (for example, if you are migrating Tableau Server to a new computer), include the --no-config option: tabadmin restore --no-config

➄ Restart the server: tabadmin start

➅ If you have run the tabadmin assetkeys command at any time before creating the backup file that you want to restore now, run the following command: tabadmin assetkeys --validate. You will be prompted to enter the password required to recreate the custom encryption key used in the backup file.

Open up your Tableau and give it a try!