When considering the use of Tableau Bridge as part of Tableau Cloud, it is important to be aware of its capabilities as well as its limitations. The most important limitations pertain to the use of file-based data sources and Tableau Prep.

Does TabMove support Tableau Bridge?

Short answer: yes. However, it is important to note that while Tableau Bridge can be an important component of a Tableau Cloud environment, it is technically not as prominent during the migration itself. The requirement related to Tableau Bridge has little influence on the actual copying of the content from Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud, which is carried out by TabMove.

To ensure a successful Bridge deployment, it is recommended to thoroughly review the Tableau Bridge documentation beforehand. On top of that, TabMove Lite will contain a number of references and suggestions related to Tableau Bridge when appropriate, throughout the migration process, for the sake of completeness.

Tableau Prep

Tableau Bridge is currently not compatible with Tableau Prep

If you are using Tableau Prep on Tableau Server, and using it to refresh data sources with Tableau Prep Conductor, be aware that that is not compatible with Tableau Bridge. In other words, Tableau Prep on Tableau Cloud can currently only be used with data sources reachable from the internet.

This does mean that as an alternative to using Tableau Bridge, you can consider making your on-premise or VPC-hosted data sources reachable from Tableau Cloud with whitelisting.

File-based Data Sources

Some scenarios with file-based connections are unsupported

When connecting to file-based data sources (e.g. Excel, CSV, ...), some restrictions apply. Tableau Cloud can natively connect to file-based data sources on cloud-based file hosting services like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box, etc. without any limitations.

However, if these files are hosted elsewhere, specifically on a fileserver or network share on your company network, more restrictions apply. In fact, Tableau Bridge will be required to support connectivity to files hosted there.

In these scenarios where we’re using Tableau Bridge to connect to file-based data sources, specific limitations apply:

Bridge supports file data including CSV, Excel, text, and statistical (.sas7bdat) files. Other file types are not supported.
File data isn’t supported on Bridge for Linux for Containers.
Live connections are not supported for file data.
For published data sources: extract refreshes for files are supported on the Bridge Windows client. If you are connecting to a local file path, you must use the Default pool.
For embedded data source: extract refreshes for files are supported on the Bridge Windows client. You must use a configured pool for embedded data sources and the file path must use the UNC format.

The recommendation when actively using file-based data sources would be to move these to one of the supported cloud hosting providers such as Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, or Dropbox. This allows skipping the use of Bridge altogether.

For a full overview of Bridge’s supported connectors, see: Connectivity with Bridge.

Tableau Bridge alternative: whitelisting

If using Tableau Bridge isn’t a desired option, one alternative that can be considered is protecting the connecting to an on-premise data source with whitelisting, i.e. allowing it to be reached from select sources on the internet.

One could make their on-premise or VPC-hosted data sources reachable from Tableau Cloud by:

Ensuring that their names (e.g. our-mysql-database.dfashjf8foenu.eu-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com) can be resolved from the public internet.
Using whitelisting of Tableau Cloud IP addresses to ensure only Tableau Cloud can connect to them from outside (or after the migration to Hyperforce, opting for allowlist domains).