9.2

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Analytics FAQ

Licences

How many Analytics Server licenses do I need, if I want 100 users to view dashboards in Control Tower?

Only one licence key is required.

How many Analytics Server users do I need?

It depends on the Analytics Server usage purposes.

The first license for Analytics Server provides access to 5 users.

If you interact with dashboards using only Control Tower, you need only one user. So the initial license is enough.

If you want users to view dashboards on the Analytics Server, you need as many available Server users as will login. Analytics Server uses the user-password authentication. So you may need additional an Server license per user in case the number of available users is exceeded.

If you want to customize dashboards or create them from the scratch, you will be required to add the Analytics Desktop license.

For more information about licensing, refer to the Analytics Components and Licensing article.

Can a customer re-use licenses from the contract with WorkFusion for their own Tableau Server?

No, license keys for WorkFusion Analytics Server can't be re-used for Tableau Server and vice versa.

What if a customer uses core-based license?

It doesn't matter what license type to use.

Installation and integration with Control Tower

How can I deploy OOTB workbooks?

There are two ways of workbook deployment:

  • Manual: using Tableau Desktop.
  • Automated: using deployment scripts; recommended.

Can I use my own Tableau Server? And what should I do to make it work with WorkFusion Application?

Yes, you can use your own Tableau Server. In case of usage OOTB dashboards, it is recommended to use Tableau Server compatible with dashboards. If the version of Tableau Server differs from the recommended one, check the Dashboards section for possible solutions.

To configure integration between Tableau Server and WorkFusion APP Server you need to:

  • Have correctly created Tableau Sites and Projects.
  • Add WorkFusion APP server to Tableau Server trusted hosts.
  • Enable Analytics in Control Tower.

What kind of authentication is used to show Analytics in Control Tower?

Control Tower connects to Analytics Server via user-password authentication. CT sends the credentials to Tableau Server (regardless Tableau Server authentication type).

The credentials are stored in the Secret Storage property file.

Dashboards

What reporting functionality do you have?

You can choose different options:

  • Use OOTB dashboards.
  • Customize OOTB dashboards.
  • Create dashboards from the scratch.
  • Share dashboards using Control Tower, WorkFusion Analytics Server or Tableau Reader.

How can I create custom reports when I don't know WorkFusion's data model?

You can pass the BI Analyst Automation Academy course where all the details are described.

I have version 8.x. Can I get the OOTB workbooks?

Yes, for WorkFusion v.8.x you can get the OOTB dashboards. The list of provided dashboards will be made according to the compatibility matrix.

Tableau v.8.x are not supported any more.

What are possible options if customer uses newer version of Tableau Server than WorkFusion has tested?

It is still possible to get OOTB dashboards in such case. The most significant faults could be observed on the UI side.

Also Tableau 10.5 supports dashboards, which are created in previous versions starting from 10.2.

Can I display datastore data in Tableau as raw data without bar charts, and so on. Can you provide examples?

Yes, you can.

Just drag the required dimensions to rows or columns. You can use text tables in the Show me hint.

My data is in multiple data stores – can Tableau handle joining it?

Yes, it can. Depending on the Tableau Desktop version, multiple data sources can be:

  • Blended: you will have a separate Data Source in Tableau for each Data Store.
  • Joined: all Data Stores will be combined in one Tableau Data Source.

Can I separate dashboard views by role management?

In Control Tower there is no possibility to separate different dashboards according to the roles.

You can change CT user role permissions regarding dashboards:

  • With Manage Dashboard, choose dashboards for displaying on the Dashboard page.
  • The View Dashboard section determines the presence of the Dashboard page.

Reporting API

How can I clean obsolete data from Reporting API?

Data purge is a mechanism to clean up the Analytics schema (dm).

caution

Running data purge operation may lead to increase in transaction log file and low disk space.

Before starting the analytics data purge, it is required to ensure that no ETL process is working.

To prepare the database (DB) for data purge:

  1. If there is ETL scheduler working on Analytics server, stop it.

    1. On the BI server, go to the project named as a site.

    2. Open the AA_ETL_Scheduler workbook.

    3. Go to the tab Refresh Schedules. The tab contains the names of all existing schedules, if there any.

    4. In the list, select AA_ETL_Scheduler, and go to the Details tab.

    5. In the Status box, select Disabled.

    important

    Enable the scheduler to get data upgrade after purging the data.

  2. Run the ETL process manually (using SSMS) and ensure it is completed successfully. The script must be completed without errors.

    exec [etl#process_sp]

    The following script returns 0 rows, if there are no errors during the latest ETL execution.

    select id, duration_sec , source_name, target_name, rows_number, notes
from etl_log
where notes <> 'ok' and 
 group_date =  (select max(group_date) from etl_log)

  3. Define the period during which the data must be available in Analytics DB. It is possible to set up the period type ('day', 'hour', 'minute') and period value/count as well. By default it's 30 days back from now.

  4. By default the batch size is 1000 rows and the sleep time is 0 ms. To change the settings see the code below.

    You can change the batch size (the number of deleted rows) and the sleep time (the delay time between batch's rows deleting) through the table 'dp_config' manually (for advanced users).

    To see all tables that participate in the data purge process, run the following script:

    select table_name
from dp_config
where is_taken = 1

    Define the table to change and run the following script:

    declare @table_name nvarchar(255)
declare @batch_size int
declare @sleep_time float

update c
set batch_size = @batch_size ,
    sleep_time = @sleep_time
from dp_config c
where table_name = @table_name

  5. The stored procedure purge_data_analytics_sp is responsible for the data purge. To change parameters, they are to be defined explicitly. It is possible to run the data purge with or without parameters.

    --example to run with parameters
declare @cnt int
declare @metric_type    nvarchar(10) = 'day'    -- day/hour/minute - type of range
declare @metric_value   int          = 30 
 
exec @cnt = purge_data_analytics_sp @metric_type, @metric_value 


--example to run without parameters
declare @cnt int
exec @cnt = purge_data_analytics_sp

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