Explanation:

When investigating a report of a slow workbook on Tableau Server, the primary goal is to isolate the source of the performance issue. This involves determining if the slowdown is caused by the workbook design/data query or the Tableau Server environment itself. Asking the user if the workbook runs faster in Tableau Desktop helps a server administrator pinpoint whether the issue lies with the workbook's configuration (like inefficient calculations, large data extracts, or complex joins) or the server's resource utilization or network latency.

Correct Option:

A. Does it run any faster in Tableau Desktop? 🚀
✔️ This is the most critical first question for isolating the issue.
✔️ If it runs fast in Desktop but slow on Server, the problem is likely Server-side. This could point to insufficient server resources (CPU, RAM), incorrect Server configuration, or network latency between the user and the Server.
✔️ If it runs slowly in both Desktop and Server, the problem is almost certainly workbook-side. This indicates an inefficiency in the workbook's design, such as complex calculations, unoptimized queries, poorly designed dashboards, or massive, unindexed data extracts.
✔️ It immediately tells the administrator where to focus their deep-dive investigation.

Incorrect Option:

B. Does the workbook always run slowly or does performance vary? 🕰️
🔹 While this is a good follow-up question, it's not the best first question.
🔹 Knowing the variance helps diagnose potential intermittent server load issues, but it doesn't help classify the problem as an inherent workbook defect versus a server environment issue.
🔹 The Desktop comparison in Option A provides a fundamental classification of the problem space, which is more useful for the immediate next step in troubleshooting.

C. How many times have you opened the workbook in Tableau Server? 🔢
🔹 This question is largely irrelevant to the core performance investigation.
🔹 The number of times a user has opened the workbook does not affect its performance profile, except possibly on the very first load if the workbook has a "stale" or non-existent cached query.
🔹 A newly published workbook will always fetch fresh data or compute its first view, regardless of prior user access history. This question offers no significant diagnostic value.

D. Did you enable caching on the workbook? 💾
🔹 This question refers to the caching setting, which is managed by the Server Administrator or Publisher, not typically an end-user.
🔹 Caching is a server-level configuration defined during publishing or through server settings, not a switch for the end-user.
🔹 Furthermore, even if caching were disabled (set to "Always Live"), a comparison with Tableau Desktop is still necessary to rule out workbook inefficiencies as the root cause.

Reference:
Tableau Server Administration and Performance Tuning Documentation: The core principle of Tableau performance troubleshooting, as outlined in official documentation, emphasizes diagnosing whether the slowdown is occurring on the client side (Desktop), the query execution side (Data Source/Database), or the rendering side (Tableau Server). The official Tableau knowledge base and help articles consistently recommend isolating the component causing the issue first.

Explanation:

In Tableau Server, a project is a container used to organize and manage content. Its primary purpose is to hold the core assets that users create and interact with.

Why B is Correct: Workbooks (.twbx files), which contain the worksheets, dashboards, and stories built in Tableau Desktop, are the primary type of content stored within a project.

Why D is Correct: Published Data Sources (.tdsx files) are also core content items. They are published to and stored within projects, allowing users to share and connect to certified data sources.

Why C is Correct: Tableau Server supports a nested project hierarchy. This means you can create a project within another project, allowing for a logical, folder-like structure to organize content (e.g., a "EMEA" project containing "Q1" and "Q2" sub-projects).

Why A is Incorrect: Groups are not contained within a project. Groups are collections of users that are managed at the site level. While you use groups to assign permissions to projects and the content within them, the groups themselves exist independently in the site's user management system, not as items inside a project.

Reference:
Tableau Help: Permissions and Content Organization - This documentation explains the relationship between projects, workbooks, data sources, and how permissions are managed, typically through groups. It clarifies that projects are containers for content, not for security objects like groups.

Explanation:

When Tableau Server is installed on a machine with four processor cores, the installer configures one instance of each core Tableau Server process by default. This includes:

VizQL Server
Backgrounder
Data Engine
Application Server (VizPortal)
Cache Server
Repository (PostgreSQL)

The number of default instances is determined by Tableau’s installation logic, which scales based on available CPU cores. For servers with fewer than 8 cores, Tableau installs only one instance per process to avoid overloading the system.

❌ Why not the others?
A. 2, C. 8, D. 4: These values exceed the default configuration for a 4-core machine. Tableau only scales up process instances on servers with more cores (e.g., 8, 16, or more).

🔗 Reference:
See Tableau’s official documentation on Default Process Configuration.

Explanation:

Published data sources are a cornerstone of a well-governed Tableau environment. When a data source is published to Tableau Server, it becomes a standalone asset that can be connected to by multiple workbooks. This contrasts with an embedded data source, which is part of a specific workbook and not shared.

Centralized Data Management (C):
A published data source acts as a "single source of truth." This means that data cleaning, modeling, calculations, and security can all be managed in one central location. If the underlying data source changes or new fields need to be added, the administrator only has to update the published data source once, and those changes are automatically propagated to all connected workbooks. This prevents inconsistencies and ensures everyone is working with the same, trusted data.

Optimized Resources (D):
With published data sources, the extract refresh process is performed once on the server, not for every single workbook that uses the data. This significantly reduces redundant work. For example, if ten workbooks all use the same data extract, an embedded approach would require ten separate refresh tasks, consuming valuable server resources and disk space. A published data source only needs a single refresh, saving both storage and processing power.

Explanation:

This question examines knowledge of how to manage Tableau Server’s repository process (pgsql), which stores workbook metadata, user data, and server configurations. In a distributed Tableau Server environment, multiple repository instances may exist, but only one is active at a time. Administrators can designate a preferred active repository to control which node hosts this process for stability and performance.

✅ Correct Option: A. A tsm configuration set command ⚙️
To specify a preferred active repository, administrators use the tsm configuration set command. This command allows direct configuration of Tableau Server settings, including repository preference, through the Tableau Services Manager (TSM) CLI. After setting this preference, a pending changes apply and server restart ensures that the selected repository acts as the active one when possible.

💡 Example:
tsm configuration set -k service.repository.preferred_host -v

❌ Incorrect Option: B. A tabcmd set command 🚫
tabcmd is used for content management (like publishing workbooks or managing users), not for server configuration or topology settings. It cannot control repository preferences or other internal Tableau Server processes.

❌ Incorrect Option: C. The TSM browser client's Maintenance page 🚫
The Maintenance page focuses on backup, cleanup, and repository restore tasks, not on configuring repository topology or preferences. It allows operational maintenance, not preference designation for active repositories.

❌ Incorrect Option: D. The TSM browser client's Configuration Topology page 🚫
While the Configuration → Topology page displays process distribution and allows adding/removing processes, it does not include a control for setting the preferred active repository. That function remains accessible only through the TSM CLI using configuration commands.

📚 Reference:
Tableau Help – Configure Repository Settings (TSM CLI)