0:00Hey, it's Tim here. In today's video, I'm
0:01actually going to be talking about an end
0:03of maintenance
0:04release that Tableau have announced on
0:06Tableau forums and to customers over email.
0:10Now, this
0:11sounds like an alarming thing, but it's
0:12really not. I'm going to try and break it
0:13down in this
0:14video and we're going to go through it. Let
0:15's get stuck in. Okay, so if you head to the
0:18community
0:18pages of Tableau, this is probably the
0:19easiest way to find it. You don't need to
0:21be logged in to see
0:22this. If you head to the community pages at
0:24Tableau, you'll see that on the homepage,
0:27there's an important announcement from
0:29Tableau. And essentially, it reads,
0:31end of maintenance accelerated to November
0:332021 for Tableau versions 2019.3, all the
0:37way to 2020.3.
0:39Essentially, what they're saying is, look,
0:41if you're using any version that were
0:43released
0:43from the third quarter of 2019, all the way
0:46up until the third quarter of 2020,
0:48they're going to stop supporting it in
0:51November of 2021. Now, this is highly
0:54unusual for Tableau,
0:54because typically, they've actually
0:56supported software for a long, long time.
0:59In fact, if I go
1:00to Tableau releases, and we just go to that
1:03page, and we just go look at the release
1:06notes, you'll
1:07see that if I go back to, let's say, 2018.3
1:10, they've actually supported it for 29
1:13patches.
1:13The best way to think of that is every
1:15month Tableau patched this. And they've
1:17supported this
1:18for a really long time. They first released
1:20it in October 2018. And then that's been
1:23supported all
1:24the way up until 2020. So March 2021. It's
1:28a really, really sort of long maintenance
1:31window.
1:31And what the support sort of slash
1:33maintenance window really means is that if
1:36Tableau release a
1:37version of Tableau today, they will support
1:40that exact same version for a period of
1:42time.
1:42Essentially, they'll continue to release
1:44patches, fix any security bugs, they'll fix
1:46all of that
1:47very, very quickly. So why is that changing
1:49? What's caused this to happen? So if you go
1:52to the learn
1:52more page, and there's actually a bit of an
1:54explanation, and it turns out it's actually
1:56because Tableau themselves use a third
1:59party bits of software. Now, the third
2:01party bit of software
2:02in question is called Postgres. And
2:05essentially, what's happened is Postgres
2:07themselves have stopped
2:08supporting a version of Postgres that Table
2:11au was using in those versions of the
2:13product.
2:14Now you could argue Tableau could have
2:15switched to the slightly newer version of
2:17this product
2:18inside of Tableau sooner to avoid this sort
2:20of hiccup. But essentially, because Post
2:22gres have
2:23stopped supporting this particular part of
2:26the software, particular release of their
2:28software,
2:29and when it's get bundles into Tableau, if
2:32Postgres aren't supporting that particular
2:35thing,
2:35then essentially, it becomes something that
2:37could be sort of vulnerable to security.
2:39And so at that
2:40point, if Postgres isn't supporting it,
2:42Tableau can't support it either. So
2:45essentially, what's
2:45happening here, and actually, there's there
2:47's actually a really sort of good explainer
2:49here
2:49by David Brown from Tableau up on the
2:51screen right now. And it basically goes
2:53through exactly what's
2:55going on and what the impact is. So it's
2:57really, you know, it's not something to be
2:59worried about
3:00Tableau is not changing its sort of
3:02philosophy philosophy around maintenance
3:04releases. But it
3:06does mean there's some implications. And if
3:08you're an IT admin, or if you know your IT
3:11admin, it's
3:11probably worth letting them know that this
3:13is happening. Because what it does mean is
3:15they've
3:15got a short amount of time to upgrade Table
3:18au, if they're on any versions that sort of
3:20sit within
3:21that window to the supported version. And
3:23essentially, you want to be targeting at
3:26least
3:272020.4 onwards, essentially. So you want to
3:31be targeting basically something that was
3:33released
3:34in the last, let's say in the last six
3:37months. And or, if you really want to go
3:39backwards,
3:40you could you could go backwards, and most
3:42people are probably going to upgrade and go
3:44forward. And
3:45if your organization hasn't sort of had
3:47this good cadence of upgrades, then I think
3:50this could catch
3:51you out. And it's just something to be
3:53aware of. But nonetheless, Tableau have
3:55actually got some
3:56really, really good resources. I don't
3:57think enough people know enough about the
3:59resources
4:00that Tableau provide on things like
4:01upgrading their software and upgrading
4:03everything. Now,
4:05if you're using Tableau Online, well, this
4:06doesn't really affect you because you're
4:08already using the
4:09latest and greatest. If your desktop
4:11versions have been updated, then likely it
4:13is it's very easy to
4:14update that compared to updating your whole
4:16infrastructure. And when it comes to Table
4:18au
4:18service, the Tableau Online users don't
4:20need to worry too much. But when you are a
4:22Tableau
4:22server user, this is where the real sort of
4:25piece of work is going to be. Now, Tableau
4:28have got these
4:28four resources here at the bottom of the
4:29page that are really, really good.
4:31Essentially, they go
4:32through how to upgrade Tableau in a sort of
4:35useful way. And the upgrade Tableau server
4:38overview, I,
4:39I, you know, I've gone through this
4:41hundreds of times. In fact, before every
4:43upgrade, I always
4:44flip through it. And when I did my Tableau
4:47server process, vacation, I literally this
4:50was the Bible,
4:51this is what I used to sort of get myself
4:54ready, because it's extremely, extremely
4:56thorough. And
4:58what it does do is it does walk you through
5:00every single step. There's also another
5:03sort of Tableau
5:04guide, which is the everybody's install
5:06guide. And that also talked through a bit
5:08about upgrades.
5:09But actually, this, this page by Tableau is
5:11extremely thorough, make sure I put a link
5:14on
5:14the screen so you can access it. And it
5:16goes through exactly what to do what to
5:18sort of look
5:19out for. And in your own specific
5:21circumstances, it generally tends to sort
5:23of give you a good
5:24checklist of things to check before you
5:26upgrade. So I think it's a really, really
5:28good resource to
5:28get stuck into. But generally, I just
5:30wanted to do this video to say, hey, look,
5:33something's changed,
5:34but it's not a change to be alarmed by the
5:36only downside is that it might create some
5:39additional
5:39work for you if you're responsible for
5:41looking after Tableau server, or the
5:43infrastructure
5:44around that. And what I think it should do,
5:46though, it should maybe highlight to you
5:48that,
5:48you know, it's good to stay in touch with
5:50the releases. I don't think it's
5:52unreasonable to,
5:54to expect people to still be on 2019 or
5:562020. I think that's perfectly normal. Some
5:58companies
5:59have yearly upgrade cycles. So they might
6:01just be about to upgrade to the, you know,
6:03the latest
6:04version from 2019. So they'll be fine
6:06anyway. And for people who've just upgraded
6:08to 2020.3,
6:10great, but you know, sort of sort of missed
6:12the boat. And if you're about to upgrade to
6:14something
6:14that's going to lose support, I'd hold that
6:16upgrade and sort of maybe get the next
6:18version
6:19that you're looking at maybe 2020.4 in line
6:22so that you fall within the support window.
6:24Essentially falling out the maintenance
6:26support window means that listen, as of
6:28November, I think
6:29it's November 2021. As of that date, I
6:32think it's November the 11th 2021. As of
6:35that day,
6:35if you have a problem with a version of
6:37Tableau, and it's 2019.3 to 2020.3,
6:41essentially Tableau
6:43won't support you on that. So you need to
6:45upgrade to make sure that you're in touch.
6:47But that's
6:47pretty much it. There's not much more to it
6:49. Definitely check out this guide. I'll put
6:51a link
6:51to everything in the description. The links
6:53a bit long for the screen. So look in the
6:55description
6:56for these notes, and a bit more sort of
6:58guidance on what's going on. And hopefully
7:00you found this
7:00video useful. Thanks for watching, and I'll
7:03catch you in the next one.
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