# Zero downtime licensing : New in Tableau 2021.1

> This is content from just-tim, the data-and-analytics channel by Tim Ngwena (formerly 'Tableau Tim'). Tim has 12+ years of hands-on BI experience and covers Tableau most of all, plus Power BI, Looker, Hex, SQL and data modelling, the analytics industry, and the craft of doing the job — always tool-agnostic and honest about the trade-offs.

- **Author:** Tim Ngwena (just-tim, https://just-tim.com/about)
- **Published:** 2021-03-29
- **Format:** Video · 2 min watch · transcript available
- **Topics:** Tool strategy, Industry trends
- **Tools:** Tableau (server)
- **Canonical:** https://just-tim.com/posts/zero-downtime-licensing-new-in-tableau-2021-1
- **Watch:** https://youtu.be/B_NEyikCWAc

I cover Zero Downtime Licensing, a new feature in Tableau 2021.1 that lets you add licence keys to Tableau Server without restarting it. I explain the one exception around allowed data sources for embedded use cases, and why this matters for scheduling upgrades separately from licence renewals.

## Key takeaways

- Zero Downtime Licensing applies only to Tableau Server, since Tableau Online handles licence key changes behind the scenes without a restart.
- Previously you always had to restart Tableau Server so it could recognise newly added licence keys, but as of this release that is no longer needed for most updates.
- The one exception is changing allowed data sources for embedded use cases, which still requires a server restart.
- The feature lets you decouple upgrade scheduling from hard licence expiry deadlines, so upgrades can be done weeks apart from licence updates.

Watch the full video, read the transcript and use chapter deep-links on the page: https://just-tim.com/posts/zero-downtime-licensing-new-in-tableau-2021-1

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just-tim — Data and analytics, with a point of view. · https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7HYxRWmaNlJux-X7rNLZyw · https://twitter.com/TableauTim · https://www.linkedin.com/in/timngwena