Salesforce Certified Tableau Architect Quick Facts (2025)

Exam Domain Breakdown

Domain 1: Design a Tableau Infrastructure (22% of the exam)

Gather requirements for implementing a complex Tableau deployment

• Evaluate requirements for users and their role distributions
• Identify relevant constraints and requirements, including future growth
• Identify requirements for and recommend a strategy for licensing, including Authorization-to-Run (ATR)
• Assess the need for high availability and disaster recovery
• Map the features and capabilities of the Tableau Server Add-Ons to requirements

Summary: In this section, the focus is on aligning technical design decisions with organizational priorities and growth plans. You will learn how to gather requirements from stakeholders across the business, ensuring the environment can support current workloads while planning for future expansion. Special attention is placed on licensing strategies, high availability, and disaster recovery to ensure the infrastructure is resilient, compliant, and scalable.

This domain highlights the ability to translate business objectives into technical specifications. By analyzing user roles, growth expectations, and add-on features, you can design a Tableau deployment that maximizes both performance and value. The practice of proactive planning ensures continuity, security, and long-term return on investment for Tableau Server or Tableau Cloud environments.

Plan and implement Tableau Cloud

• Plan and implement Tableau Bridge
• Plan and implement authentication
• Plan and implement automated user provisioning, including System for Cross-Domain Identity Management (SCIM)
• Troubleshoot advanced configuration issues
• Plan and implement multi-sites using Tableau Cloud Manager

Summary: This section emphasizes the design and setup of robust Tableau Cloud environments. You learn to configure seamless connectivity for organizations through Tableau Bridge, while ensuring secure and efficient identity management across users with methods like SCIM. The implementation of authentication strategies ensures user access remains aligned with enterprise standards, supporting both operational efficiency and compliance.

In addition, you focus on handling more advanced challenges such as troubleshooting configurations and supporting complex multi-site deployments. This prepares you to forge environments that are secure, resilient, and user-friendly within Tableau Cloud, making it possible for organizations to unlock insights while maintaining stability and consistency.

Plan a migration

• Plan a migration of Tableau Cloud to Tableau Server
• Plan a migration of Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud
• Plan a migration from Windows to Linux
• Plan a migration from Linux to Windows
• Plan a migration from one identity store to another
• Plan a consolidation of multiple Tableau servers or sites into fewer servers or sites
• Plan a migration from one Tableau Server environment to another
• Create scripts for migration
• Use the Tableau Content Migration Tool

Summary: This section ensures you can navigate diverse migration paths, including moving between Tableau Cloud and Server, handling operating system changes, or consolidating environments. You will learn when and how to use automation and scripting to reduce manual effort, and how to use specialized tools such as the Tableau Content Migration Tool for efficiency and consistency.

Migrations are often about balancing continuity with transformation. This means ensuring users experience minimal disruption while adopting more efficient configurations and scaling strategies. By mastering these techniques, you enable organizations to evolve their Tableau environment flexibly and with confidence.

Design an appropriate process topology

• Specify process counts (sizing)
• Specify node count
• Specify service-to-node relationships (node roles), including service isolation and service colocation
• Specify when to use external services

Summary: Here, the focus shifts to the nuts and bolts of infrastructure design in Tableau Server. You will learn how to specify process and node counts tailored to your organization’s workloads, ensuring the system performs reliably under peak usage. Understanding how to map services to nodes also ensures a smooth balance between isolation and colocation based on operational needs.

Topology design ensures Tableau Server can handle demand without performance bottlenecks. By correctly aligning services with infrastructure resources, you can support scalability and resilience. You will be equipped to build an environment that accounts for varying workloads with an efficient and intelligent design.

Recommend a Tableau Server configuration

• Recommend an appropriate identity store and authentication configuration
• Recommend specific configuration keys and values to suit a given use case
• Recommend a configuration to address security requirements such as encryption at rest and encryption over the wire
• Recommend hardware and network specifications
• Create a disaster recovery strategy

Summary: This section reinforces the ability to align Tableau Server configuration choices with enterprise requirements for security, compliance, and performance. You will understand how identity stores and authentication tie into the broader Tableau environment and how configurations can be tailored for unique organizational needs.

Security and disaster recovery are cornerstones. By recommending encryption configurations and designing strategies to recover effectively, you help organizations maintain continuity. This section empowers you to configure Tableau deployments that are both secure and prepared for long-term stability.

Domain 2: Deploy Tableau Server (37% of the exam)

Implement production-ready Tableau Server deployments

• Deploy and configure Tableau Server external services and roles
• Install in an air-gapped environment
• Validate a disaster recovery and high availability test strategy
• Perform a blue-green deployment
• Work with logs and monitoring tools
• Plan and implement automated deployment with scripts

Summary: This section guides you through building Tableau Server systems that are dependable and ready for production. From configuring external services like file stores and repositories to executing complex blue-green deployments, you develop skills to implement environments that are both robust and flexible.

You also learn methods for validating disaster recovery strategies, automating deployments, and monitoring system health with logs and specialized tools. The emphasis is on ensuring Tableau Server is reliable, scalable, and prepared for continuous operation, even under demanding production requirements.

Configure and troubleshoot supported authentication methods

• Configure and troubleshoot SAML
• Configure and troubleshoot Kerberos
• Configure and troubleshoot OpenID Connect
• Configure and troubleshoot Mutual SSL
• Configure and troubleshoot trusted authentication
• Configure and troubleshoot Connected App authentication
• Configure and troubleshoot LDAP
• Configure and troubleshoot Azure Active Directory
• Identify dependencies between authentication methods and Tableau environments

Summary: This section develops your ability to configure and troubleshoot a range of authentication methods used by enterprises. From federated identity solutions like SAML and OpenID Connect to directory-based solutions like LDAP and Azure AD, you explore how identities are authenticated securely and reliably.

By resolving issues and identifying dependencies between authentication methods and Tableau environments, you strengthen the system’s resilience and user experience. This ensures secure access for users while preserving compliance across business use cases.

Implement encryption

• Implement SSL encryption
• Implement database encryption
• Implement extract encryption
• Set up service principal names (SPNs) for Kerberos

Summary: This section ensures you can implement encryption measures throughout the Tableau Server stack. You will apply data-in-transit and data-at-rest protections, reinforcing security for sensitive organizational insights. Configurations like SSL, extract encryption, and database encryption safeguard critical data.

By managing encryption and authentication mechanisms cohesively, you reinforce a secure architecture aligned with enterprise compliance standards. This deepens trust in Tableau environments as a safe place for important business information.

Install and verify Tableau Server on Linux

• Install Tableau Server on Linux via CLI or wizard
• Identify and resolve OS and networking issues
• Identify and resolve proxy issues
• Troubleshoot external system interactions
• Verify permissions and log analysis

Summary: Linux-based deployments bring unique considerations for Tableau Server. This section develops your expertise in installing Tableau Server on Linux while troubleshooting dependencies, permissions, network issues, and proxy-related challenges. Familiarity with CLI-based processes strengthens understanding of automation-friendly deployments.

Resolving issues requires analyzing Tableau and system logs, validating system groups, and ensuring external system compatibility. Mastery of these techniques enables you to support reliable, high-performing Tableau Server environments deployed within Linux ecosystems.

Install and verify Tableau Server on Windows

• Install Tableau Server on Windows via CLI or wizard
• Identify and resolve OS and networking issues
• Identify and resolve proxy issues
• Troubleshoot external system interactions
• Verify permissions and log analysis
• Use the Run As service account

Summary: This section emphasizes designing, installing, and verifying Tableau Server deployments on Windows-based infrastructures. You will develop practical knowledge of installation processes, troubleshooting scenarios, and setups across varied network configurations.

The section explores methods for resolving OS-level issues, ensuring permissions and logs are properly managed, and configuring service accounts for reliable deployments. This knowledge enables you to deliver consistent Tableau Server environments optimized for Windows-based enterprises.

Domain 3: Monitor and Maintain a Tableau Deployment (41% of the exam)

Create custom administrative views

• Interpret the repository schema and event types
• Build admin dashboards
• Utilize Admin Insights on Tableau Cloud

Summary: This section highlights the importance of visibility into Tableau environments. You will interpret repository schemas and create custom dashboards tailored to administration needs, ensuring critical metrics and events are represented clearly.

Admin Insights offers powerful tools for Tableau Cloud observability. Developing tailored views empowers proactive monitoring, allowing teams to answer performance, adoption, and security questions with confidence.

Perform load testing

• Recommend a load testing strategy
• Configure testing tools such as TabJolt
• Configure test environments
• Execute test plans and interpret results

Summary: Load testing ensures Tableau Server environments meet performance and scalability requirements. This section develops your ability to plan load testing strategies, configure test environments, and create actionable test plans.

By interpreting load test results and recommending improvements, you help organizations prepare environments that can gracefully handle high usage scenarios. This proactive approach ensures positive user experiences and consistent performance at scale.

Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks

• Troubleshoot complex performance issues related to workbooks, data sources, and content
• Analyze system resources, latency, and workloads
• Create actions to resolve issues shown in performance recordings
• Optimize caching for Tableau Server

Summary: This section prepares you to troubleshoot and optimize Tableau workloads. You will learn to explore content-specific and system-wide factors impacting performance. Analyzing bottlenecks through metrics, recordings, and cache strategies strengthens your ability to create responsive dashboards and efficient environments.

Optimized Tableau systems result in faster performance, greater reliability, and increased adoption. By identifying and removing bottlenecks, organizations can derive more value from their Tableau investment.

Maintain and tune a Tableau Server environment by using observability data

• Map Tableau Resource Monitoring Tool to observability requirements
• Collect and analyze Tableau Server logs and process metrics
• Collect and analyze OS and hardware metrics
• Troubleshoot connectivity in different environments
• Configure and implement Tableau Activity Log

Summary: This section enhances your ability to monitor and tune Tableau Server with observability techniques. You will analyze logs, system metrics, and Tableau activity data to understand system behavior and performance characteristics.

Observability promotes continuous improvement. By reviewing data across layers of the environment, you ensure balanced resource usage, diagnose issues proactively, and refine architecture in alignment with evolving needs.

Automate server maintenance functions

• Manage Tableau Server resources programmatically with TSM, REST APIs, and tabcmd
• Recommend script deployment methods such as schedulers and cron
• Automate Tableau maintenance and deployment tasks
• Design complex disaster recovery processes
• Plan and implement server upgrades
• Configure and use the Metadata API

Summary: This section reinforces automation as a pathway to efficiency. You will explore scripting methods for programmatic management, automated deployments, upgrades, and maintenance workflows, along with disaster recovery designs. Using APIs maximizes control and flexibility for Tableau administrators.

Automation reduces operational overhead and increases reliability by minimizing human error. With skills from this section, you can design self-sustaining Tableau environments that scale smoothly and benefit from standardized processes.

Manage server extensions

• Schedule content automation with APIs and scripts
• Implement dashboard extensions and web data connectors
• Configure trusted tickets and connected apps

Summary: This section focuses on extending Tableau’s native capabilities through automation tasks, embedded analytics, and integrations. From scheduling refreshes via APIs to enabling dashboard extensions or web connectors, you unlock environments for advanced use cases.

Connected apps and trust configurations ensure embedded environments deliver secure, seamless analytics. By expanding Tableau through extensions, organizations can widen the impact of data while maintaining centralized governance.