Retrieving Business Intelligence Data
BI data is available to end users through the MetaMiner Tableau Edition Client (MMC) user interface, or a frontend.
MetaMiner Tableau Edition Server (MMS) connects most of the components, servers, and databases together, acting as a backend for MMC.
MMTE Server retrieves the information from your Tableau server/Repository every 7 minutes (default value, can be changed). After retrieving the updated data snapshot, it stores metadata in the MetaMiner Database (MMDB).
For most operations BI data is retrieved from MetaMiner Database which is super fast. However, for some actions data is retrieved from Tableau server/Repository directly.
You use MetaMiner Tableau Edition Administrator (MMA) to configure and start MMS.
Communication between MMC and MMS components is achieved via the proprietary MetaMiner protocol, transmitting data on TCP/IP port 49714 (default value, can be changed).
You use Connection Manager in MMC to configure and start connection to MMS.
Note
Once MMC fetches data from MMS initially, it does not pull changes automatically anymore. To refresh local data at the client side, use the Refresh icon on MMTE Client status bar or press F5 key:
At this moment, the updated snapshot is sent.
Tableau Integration¶
Most commonly, there are two Tableau Server instances on an enterprise site, sometimes more:
- Stage (or Dev)
- Prod (production)
MMTE Server connects to all of them:
MMTE connects to your Tableau environments to extract BI metadata and categorize it into its own well structured data model for further handling.
MMTE Server connects to each Tableau Server in four ways, simultaneously:
- By accessing Tableau Server repository
- By using Tableau REST and other APIs
- By using tabcmd (optional)
Accessing Tableau Server Repository¶
Each Tableau Server has its own database, so called a repository. It stores BI data retrieved from data sources.
Tableau repository resides in a PostgreSQL RDBMS.
When MetaMiner Tableau Edition needs some BI data from your environment for reading, it accesses Tableau repository directly, via PostgreSQL frontend/backend communication protocol running on TCP/IP port 8060 (by default in Tableau; note it differs from the PostgreSQL default 5432 TCP port).
Using Tableau APIs¶
For the most part of active operations (create, delete) over BI assets, MetaMiner Tableau Edition uses Tableau REST API. It runs over HTTPS protocol on TCP/IP port 443, encrypted with SSL/TLS.
Using tabcmd¶
MetaMiner Tableau Edition also uses the tabcmd CLI-utility for publishing workbooks and data sources at times.
Install tabcmd on a host running MMTE Server or another host accessible from it. Use the latest version among all your environments.
Open MMTE Administrator and navigate to Preferences – Settings – System. System Settings window opens. Specify the filename of tabcmd executable with an absolute path, click Validate and OK:
You can publish workbooks and data sources now. This step is optional.