Search

Trending blog posts

Tableau Installation and Configuration on Mac and Windows

Tableau is one of the most widely used data visualization tools across the industry.  It is primarily used for business intelligence. In today’s world where organizations have a large amount of data coming from different sources & platforms, it is very important to understand the trends which help businesses to drive strategy and take some important decisions. The data visualization tool plays a key role in that area. In the end-to-end analytics platform Tableau is the most powerful, secure, and flexible platform. Organizations use Tableau to create an impact on the visual views of the data. The basic purpose of this platform is to analyze varieties of structured data & convert it into highly interactive visualizations, dashboards & Stories which the end-user can easily understand and take impulsive decisions useful for the future. It empowers the end-users to get the analysis done quickly, and confidently combine, shape, clean and operationalize their data flow in a creative output which is visually effective.This article is going to cover step by step guide to install Tableau. Before going into details for installation, it is important to understand the various components of the Tableau software suite. There are six different components of Tableau:Tableau Server: It serves the purpose of a centralized repository for dashboards and data sources used in any organization. Tableau desktop publishes dashboard and data sources on the Tableau server. Tableau Server is a key component for control and compliance perspective as well. Industry-specific compliance requires to have an on-premises version of the server to have physical control of the content. This is important for auditing purposes. Tableau server also easily integrates with windows active directory which helps in enabling single sign-on for organizations as well.Tableau Desktop: This is the main component used by developers to create interactive dashboards and workbooks. It can connect to any data source and does the transformation required to meet the business needs of customers. We can add customized filters and also do some additional calculation while creating dashboards in Tableau desktop.Tableau Public: This helps users to publish their dashboards on Tableau public server hosted and owned by Tableau software. Any organization/individual can create their public profile on Tableau software and leverage that profile to publish local dashboards.Tableau Reader: This comes as a free offering from Tableau to view and interact with dashboards created by Tableau desktop.Tableau Online: This is a cloud-based offering from Tableau. Any organization who does not want to have a tableau server hosted on-premises, can go with Tableau online.Tableau Mobile: This is available as both android and iPhone apps. We can use this app to view dashboards if we have Tableau online subscriptions or user access to organizations Tableau server.Key FeaturesOther FeaturesOperating SystemLicenseTableau DesktopCreates dashboards and stories locallyTableau Personal: limited data sources, non-connectivity to Tableau Server.Tableau Professional: Full enterprise capabilities.Windows, MacPersonal: $999Professional: $1999Tableau PublicA massive, public, non-commercial Tableau ServerAll data published in public-FreeTableau OnlineCreating Dashboards and stories on the CloudLive connections-$500 per yearTableau ReaderView dashboards and Sheets locallyCannot modify workbooks or connect to the serverWindows, MacFreeTableau ServerConnect to Data sources and share DashboardsUsers can directly interact with Dashboards via a browserWindowsCore LicensingWe are going to cover installation for Tableau Server and Tableau desktop in detail here.Tableau server Installation on WindowsTableau server can run on a multi-node cluster as well on Virtual machines as well. Here we will be covering installation on a single-node machine.The minimum hardware requirement for Tableau server(Single node) :Processor speed: 8 core, 2.0 GHz or higher processor32 bit/64 bit architecture: 64-bitRAM: 32 GB memoryHard Disk: 50 GB disk space should be availableOperating system requirements :The operating system which supports Tableau server installation are as follows: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows server 2019, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, Oracle Linux 7Installation Path: The Tableau server gets installed in the system drives where windows operating system files also exist. If by default, the system drive is the C drive, then the installation path will be as follows:C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packagesC:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau ServerSome organizations install tableau server on different location as well. We can provide the location different than the system drive by browsing install location which will automatically add  \Tableau Server to it and will install the files under it.Let’s now go to installation for version (2018.2) of Tableau Server.Step 1: Get the product key of the software using the user id and password that you must have received while purchasing Tableau. Then go to the Customer Portal and get the product key.Step 2: Get the Admin rights for the computer on which we are installing Tableau software. The developer should be a member of the administrator's group in local users and group management.Step 3: Get the installation files for Tableau server. We can download installation file by visiting Download Tableau Server-WindowsStep 4: Run the installation files with admin rights, the below screen will come up where you can change the installation drive, by default it will be installed in system drive:Step 5: Once we click next, the below page will appear where we can choose installation type, in this article we will be covering new Tableau server installation:Step 6: After we click on the install button, the installation process will be kicked off and once the installation is completed clicking next will start Tableau Service manager. It may take some time to start TSM.Step 7: Once TSM process gets launched by a setup process, the below screen will come up. We need to log in using the same admin credential which we have used for running installing set upStep 8: Once we login to TSM, it will ask for a product key to activate the tableau server:The product key is used to activate both server and setting license type which can be user-based or core-based. It requires an active internet connection but there is an alternative way to activate tableau offline as well. You can read Activate Tableau OfflineStep 9: The next step is configuring the basic settings on the Tableau server after activation and successful registration of product key. We can set how we want to authenticate users either local or active directory, setting under which account tableau server should run, setting default port and whether we want to include sample workbook or not.Step 10: Setting the authentication type is very critical in the entire set up. By default the authentication type is local. The other option is active directory authentication. If we select an active directory option, then we need to enter a domain name in the fully qualified name and in the NetBIOS section we can enter the domain’s nickname:Step 11: We can run Tableau server either under NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService or custom service account. We need to provide a domain name with the user name for the custom user account.Step 12: Setting default port for Tableau server: By default, it takes port number 80 if there is no other application running on the same port. If the port is not available, we need to find out which other application has claimed port number 80. Usually, IIS runs on the same port. IT infrastructure team can help us in getting a new port if 80 is not available:Step 13: Once we click on the initialize button in step 9, Tableau server will start saving all the configuration settings set in previous steps :Step 14: Once the initialization gets completed, the below screen will appear and clicking on the continue button will take you to the final step where you need to configure administrator user for running Tableau server:Step 15: Tableau server set up at last step launches a browser and opens a page where we need to set administrator user for Tableau server. The administrator does take care of all tasks like managing sites, users administration, groups and project management. Even for changing, any configuration setting can be done only by the administrator. In the case of active directory authentication, the administrator must belong to a user in the same directory. For local authentication, we need to provide a username and password. This account is very critical as it provides a single entry point to Tableau server in case of any issue in server.Step 16: Once we are done with the setting of administrator users, we can log in to the Tableau server using web interface. We can then start publishing the workbook to the server using Tableau desktop.Tableau server Installation on Linux/Ubuntu:With the growing demand for Tableau server running on Linux/Ubuntu, it is now supported on Linux as well. In a recent survey, it has been found that 25% new server installation happened on Linux server. Let us now cover the step by step process for installing Tableau Server on Linux :Download the Linux version of Tableau server as per the operating system. In this article we will cover tableau-server-2019-1-1_amd64.deb (1371 MB)Only the below version of Linux are supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.3 and higher, CentOS 7.3 and higher, Oracle Linux 7.3 and higher, and Amazon Linux 2.Version.The latest versions of Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS only. Non-LTS releases are not supported. The installation tasks will be run as root. We can run this by Sudo command or we can run commands directly as the root user.Log in with the user having Sudo access to the system and navigate to the location where you’ve copied the installation package. Now you will be using the package manager to install Tableau Server. We have different commands for RHEL and Ubuntu:On RHEL/CentOS we can have below commands sudo yum update sudo yum install tableau-server-<version>.x86_64.rpm On ubuntu we can run below commands sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get -y install gdebi-core sudo gdebi -n tableau-server-<version>_amd64.debNext step is initializing TSM. We need to navigate to script location:cd /opt/tableau/tableau_server/packages/scripts.<version>If the system is connected to the internet, then we can run the command given below to start TSM: sudo ./initialize-tsm --accepteula and in case of a system connected to the internet through the proxy server, we can run the given below command:sudo ./initialize-tsm --accepteula --http_proxy=http://proxy.example.lan:80/ --https_proxy= http://1.2.3.4:443/In the above example, we can replace hostname proxy .example.lan and IP address 1.2.3.4 with our hostname and IP address.Once initialization is completed, we can close the terminal sessions: logoutNext step is activating and registering Tableau server. Navigate to web UI interface for TSM Web UI. In case of an authentication error, check if the user belongs to the tsmadmin group or not. It can be easily checked running following command in bash:grep tsmadmin /etc/group - this will list down all users belonging to the tsmadmin group. We can also add the user to a tsmadmin group by running the below command: sudo usermod -G tsmadmin -a <username>. Once we added the user successfully we can run tsm login command.After successful login to TSM, you can activate the key :Once License activated, we can enter basic information and click on the register button as below :The next step is configuring basic settings like authentication, port etc.If we opt for active directory, then there are two options to connect either using simple bind or GSSAPI bind:Once initialization is completed, the below screen will come up to confirm it :Next step is creating administrator accounts for Tableau server. If we have used an active directory authentication, then we can run the below-given command to create the same :tabcmd initialuser --server 'localhost:80' --username '<AD-user-name>'.In case of local authentication we can create a custom user who will be working as admin using below command: tabcmd initialuser --server 'localhost:80' --username 'admin'We can then check firewall settings which is an optional step but it is best to practise for security. There are two ports on which Tableau server run. The first port is a gateway port(80) and the other one is tabadmincontoller port(8850). Please find below commands to open these ports :Starting firewalld by sudo systemctl start firewalldSetting default zone as public by running command sudo firewall -cmd --set-default-zone=publicAdding ports for the getaway port and tabadmin controller port by running commandsudo firwall -cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcpsudo firwall -cmd --permanent --add-port=8850/tcpLast step would be reloading the firewall and verifying settingssudo firwall -cmd --reloadsudo firwall -cmd --list-allThe final step is validating Tableau server installation by installing the PostgreSQL driver which can help in viewing administrative views. First of all, you need to download the driver by navigating to Driver Download page. Once the driver is downloaded, you can install it by below command :CentOS and RHEL ,we can download the .rmp and run below command :sudo yum install tableau-postgresql-odbc-9.3.1.x86_64.rpmUbuntu need .deb file and below command :sudo dpkg -i tableau-postgresql-odbc-9.3.1.x86_64.debOnce the driver is installed, you can validate by visiting Administrative Views in tableau server.Tableau desktop Installation on WindowsThe first step is downloading installation files from Tableau Desktop DownloadRun the .exe file once the installation file is downloadedOnce you click the run button, the below screen will appear, you can read the license agreement and confirm the acceptance to proceed furtherOnce the installation is completed. In the next screen, you can choose the trial version or if you have the product key, you can activate the product as wellTableau desktop Installation on MacThe first step is to visit Product Downloads and Release Notes  and Tableau desktop should be selected from the list.Choose the version we would like to installIn the downloadable file section, we can select mac version of Tableau desktopFor Mac: Open the Disk image file (.DMG) and double-click the installer package (.PKG) to start the installation.With this installation, some data sources drivers get automatically installed for seamless integration with different data sources.Once the installation is completed, we can register the product or start using the trial versionTableau desktop Uninstallation on Windows/MacThe first step is deleting Tableau desktop from the applications folder.The second step is deleting My Tableau Repository from Documents folder. It might be possible that doing the above step may delete user-related files as well. So we may choose another alternative to rename the folder to something else.Then we can delete all files/folders beginning with “com.tableau” from Library folder under Preferences and Saved Application state respectively.To delete hidden folders from mac, we can follow the below steps:CMD-SHIFT-G or we can navigate to Go->Go to Folder.. From finder.It will open the dialogue box in which we can type ~/Library/PreferencesIf Tableau desktop being used by multiple users then we can repeat all steps except the first one for all users.For WindowsNavigate to Control Panels-Programs-Uninstall ProgramIn the program list select Tableau Desktop and on right-click select uninstallNavigate to installation path for Tableau desktop C:/Program Files/Tableau and delete the “Tableau<Version>” folder from there to uninstall it.
Tableau Installation and Configuration on Mac and Windows
Ashish
Rated 4.5/5 based on 4 customer reviews
Ashish

Ashish Kumar

Senior Technology Specialist

Ashish is working as a Senior Technology Specialist in leading financial bank has more than 13 years of experience in developing enterprise applications

Posts by Ashish Kumar

Tableau Installation and Configuration on Mac and Windows

Tableau is one of the most widely used data visualization tools across the industry.  It is primarily used for business intelligence. In today’s world where organizations have a large amount of data coming from different sources & platforms, it is very important to understand the trends which help businesses to drive strategy and take some important decisions. The data visualization tool plays a key role in that area. In the end-to-end analytics platform Tableau is the most powerful, secure, and flexible platform. Organizations use Tableau to create an impact on the visual views of the data. The basic purpose of this platform is to analyze varieties of structured data & convert it into highly interactive visualizations, dashboards & Stories which the end-user can easily understand and take impulsive decisions useful for the future. It empowers the end-users to get the analysis done quickly, and confidently combine, shape, clean and operationalize their data flow in a creative output which is visually effective.This article is going to cover step by step guide to install Tableau. Before going into details for installation, it is important to understand the various components of the Tableau software suite. There are six different components of Tableau:Tableau Server: It serves the purpose of a centralized repository for dashboards and data sources used in any organization. Tableau desktop publishes dashboard and data sources on the Tableau server. Tableau Server is a key component for control and compliance perspective as well. Industry-specific compliance requires to have an on-premises version of the server to have physical control of the content. This is important for auditing purposes. Tableau server also easily integrates with windows active directory which helps in enabling single sign-on for organizations as well.Tableau Desktop: This is the main component used by developers to create interactive dashboards and workbooks. It can connect to any data source and does the transformation required to meet the business needs of customers. We can add customized filters and also do some additional calculation while creating dashboards in Tableau desktop.Tableau Public: This helps users to publish their dashboards on Tableau public server hosted and owned by Tableau software. Any organization/individual can create their public profile on Tableau software and leverage that profile to publish local dashboards.Tableau Reader: This comes as a free offering from Tableau to view and interact with dashboards created by Tableau desktop.Tableau Online: This is a cloud-based offering from Tableau. Any organization who does not want to have a tableau server hosted on-premises, can go with Tableau online.Tableau Mobile: This is available as both android and iPhone apps. We can use this app to view dashboards if we have Tableau online subscriptions or user access to organizations Tableau server.Key FeaturesOther FeaturesOperating SystemLicenseTableau DesktopCreates dashboards and stories locallyTableau Personal: limited data sources, non-connectivity to Tableau Server.Tableau Professional: Full enterprise capabilities.Windows, MacPersonal: $999Professional: $1999Tableau PublicA massive, public, non-commercial Tableau ServerAll data published in public-FreeTableau OnlineCreating Dashboards and stories on the CloudLive connections-$500 per yearTableau ReaderView dashboards and Sheets locallyCannot modify workbooks or connect to the serverWindows, MacFreeTableau ServerConnect to Data sources and share DashboardsUsers can directly interact with Dashboards via a browserWindowsCore LicensingWe are going to cover installation for Tableau Server and Tableau desktop in detail here.Tableau server Installation on WindowsTableau server can run on a multi-node cluster as well on Virtual machines as well. Here we will be covering installation on a single-node machine.The minimum hardware requirement for Tableau server(Single node) :Processor speed: 8 core, 2.0 GHz or higher processor32 bit/64 bit architecture: 64-bitRAM: 32 GB memoryHard Disk: 50 GB disk space should be availableOperating system requirements :The operating system which supports Tableau server installation are as follows: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows server 2019, CentOS 7, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, Oracle Linux 7Installation Path: The Tableau server gets installed in the system drives where windows operating system files also exist. If by default, the system drive is the C drive, then the installation path will be as follows:C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Server\packagesC:\ProgramData\Tableau\Tableau ServerSome organizations install tableau server on different location as well. We can provide the location different than the system drive by browsing install location which will automatically add  \Tableau Server to it and will install the files under it.Let’s now go to installation for version (2018.2) of Tableau Server.Step 1: Get the product key of the software using the user id and password that you must have received while purchasing Tableau. Then go to the Customer Portal and get the product key.Step 2: Get the Admin rights for the computer on which we are installing Tableau software. The developer should be a member of the administrator's group in local users and group management.Step 3: Get the installation files for Tableau server. We can download installation file by visiting Download Tableau Server-WindowsStep 4: Run the installation files with admin rights, the below screen will come up where you can change the installation drive, by default it will be installed in system drive:Step 5: Once we click next, the below page will appear where we can choose installation type, in this article we will be covering new Tableau server installation:Step 6: After we click on the install button, the installation process will be kicked off and once the installation is completed clicking next will start Tableau Service manager. It may take some time to start TSM.Step 7: Once TSM process gets launched by a setup process, the below screen will come up. We need to log in using the same admin credential which we have used for running installing set upStep 8: Once we login to TSM, it will ask for a product key to activate the tableau server:The product key is used to activate both server and setting license type which can be user-based or core-based. It requires an active internet connection but there is an alternative way to activate tableau offline as well. You can read Activate Tableau OfflineStep 9: The next step is configuring the basic settings on the Tableau server after activation and successful registration of product key. We can set how we want to authenticate users either local or active directory, setting under which account tableau server should run, setting default port and whether we want to include sample workbook or not.Step 10: Setting the authentication type is very critical in the entire set up. By default the authentication type is local. The other option is active directory authentication. If we select an active directory option, then we need to enter a domain name in the fully qualified name and in the NetBIOS section we can enter the domain’s nickname:Step 11: We can run Tableau server either under NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService or custom service account. We need to provide a domain name with the user name for the custom user account.Step 12: Setting default port for Tableau server: By default, it takes port number 80 if there is no other application running on the same port. If the port is not available, we need to find out which other application has claimed port number 80. Usually, IIS runs on the same port. IT infrastructure team can help us in getting a new port if 80 is not available:Step 13: Once we click on the initialize button in step 9, Tableau server will start saving all the configuration settings set in previous steps :Step 14: Once the initialization gets completed, the below screen will appear and clicking on the continue button will take you to the final step where you need to configure administrator user for running Tableau server:Step 15: Tableau server set up at last step launches a browser and opens a page where we need to set administrator user for Tableau server. The administrator does take care of all tasks like managing sites, users administration, groups and project management. Even for changing, any configuration setting can be done only by the administrator. In the case of active directory authentication, the administrator must belong to a user in the same directory. For local authentication, we need to provide a username and password. This account is very critical as it provides a single entry point to Tableau server in case of any issue in server.Step 16: Once we are done with the setting of administrator users, we can log in to the Tableau server using web interface. We can then start publishing the workbook to the server using Tableau desktop.Tableau server Installation on Linux/Ubuntu:With the growing demand for Tableau server running on Linux/Ubuntu, it is now supported on Linux as well. In a recent survey, it has been found that 25% new server installation happened on Linux server. Let us now cover the step by step process for installing Tableau Server on Linux :Download the Linux version of Tableau server as per the operating system. In this article we will cover tableau-server-2019-1-1_amd64.deb (1371 MB)Only the below version of Linux are supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7.3 and higher, CentOS 7.3 and higher, Oracle Linux 7.3 and higher, and Amazon Linux 2.Version.The latest versions of Ubuntu 16.04 and 18.04 LTS only. Non-LTS releases are not supported. The installation tasks will be run as root. We can run this by Sudo command or we can run commands directly as the root user.Log in with the user having Sudo access to the system and navigate to the location where you’ve copied the installation package. Now you will be using the package manager to install Tableau Server. We have different commands for RHEL and Ubuntu:On RHEL/CentOS we can have below commands sudo yum update sudo yum install tableau-server-.x86_64.rpm On ubuntu we can run below commands sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get -y install gdebi-core sudo gdebi -n tableau-server-_amd64.debNext step is initializing TSM. We need to navigate to script location:cd /opt/tableau/tableau_server/packages/scripts.If the system is connected to the internet, then we can run the command given below to start TSM: sudo ./initialize-tsm --accepteula and in case of a system connected to the internet through the proxy server, we can run the given below command:sudo ./initialize-tsm --accepteula --http_proxy=http://proxy.example.lan:80/ --https_proxy= http://1.2.3.4:443/In the above example, we can replace hostname proxy .example.lan and IP address 1.2.3.4 with our hostname and IP address.Once initialization is completed, we can close the terminal sessions: logoutNext step is activating and registering Tableau server. Navigate to web UI interface for TSM Web UI. In case of an authentication error, check if the user belongs to the tsmadmin group or not. It can be easily checked running following command in bash:grep tsmadmin /etc/group - this will list down all users belonging to the tsmadmin group. We can also add the user to a tsmadmin group by running the below command: sudo usermod -G tsmadmin -a . Once we added the user successfully we can run tsm login command.After successful login to TSM, you can activate the key :Once License activated, we can enter basic information and click on the register button as below :The next step is configuring basic settings like authentication, port etc.If we opt for active directory, then there are two options to connect either using simple bind or GSSAPI bind:Once initialization is completed, the below screen will come up to confirm it :Next step is creating administrator accounts for Tableau server. If we have used an active directory authentication, then we can run the below-given command to create the same :tabcmd initialuser --server 'localhost:80' --username ''.In case of local authentication we can create a custom user who will be working as admin using below command: tabcmd initialuser --server 'localhost:80' --username 'admin'We can then check firewall settings which is an optional step but it is best to practise for security. There are two ports on which Tableau server run. The first port is a gateway port(80) and the other one is tabadmincontoller port(8850). Please find below commands to open these ports :Starting firewalld by sudo systemctl start firewalldSetting default zone as public by running command sudo firewall -cmd --set-default-zone=publicAdding ports for the getaway port and tabadmin controller port by running commandsudo firwall -cmd --permanent --add-port=80/tcpsudo firwall -cmd --permanent --add-port=8850/tcpLast step would be reloading the firewall and verifying settingssudo firwall -cmd --reloadsudo firwall -cmd --list-allThe final step is validating Tableau server installation by installing the PostgreSQL driver which can help in viewing administrative views. First of all, you need to download the driver by navigating to Driver Download page. Once the driver is downloaded, you can install it by below command :CentOS and RHEL ,we can download the .rmp and run below command :sudo yum install tableau-postgresql-odbc-9.3.1.x86_64.rpmUbuntu need .deb file and below command :sudo dpkg -i tableau-postgresql-odbc-9.3.1.x86_64.debOnce the driver is installed, you can validate by visiting Administrative Views in tableau server.Tableau desktop Installation on WindowsThe first step is downloading installation files from Tableau Desktop DownloadRun the .exe file once the installation file is downloadedOnce you click the run button, the below screen will appear, you can read the license agreement and confirm the acceptance to proceed furtherOnce the installation is completed. In the next screen, you can choose the trial version or if you have the product key, you can activate the product as wellTableau desktop Installation on MacThe first step is to visit Product Downloads and Release Notes  and Tableau desktop should be selected from the list.Choose the version we would like to installIn the downloadable file section, we can select mac version of Tableau desktopFor Mac: Open the Disk image file (.DMG) and double-click the installer package (.PKG) to start the installation.With this installation, some data sources drivers get automatically installed for seamless integration with different data sources.Once the installation is completed, we can register the product or start using the trial versionTableau desktop Uninstallation on Windows/MacThe first step is deleting Tableau desktop from the applications folder.The second step is deleting My Tableau Repository from Documents folder. It might be possible that doing the above step may delete user-related files as well. So we may choose another alternative to rename the folder to something else.Then we can delete all files/folders beginning with “com.tableau” from Library folder under Preferences and Saved Application state respectively.To delete hidden folders from mac, we can follow the below steps:CMD-SHIFT-G or we can navigate to Go->Go to Folder.. From finder.It will open the dialogue box in which we can type ~/Library/PreferencesIf Tableau desktop being used by multiple users then we can repeat all steps except the first one for all users.For WindowsNavigate to Control Panels-Programs-Uninstall ProgramIn the program list select Tableau Desktop and on right-click select uninstallNavigate to installation path for Tableau desktop C:/Program Files/Tableau and delete the “Tableau” folder from there to uninstall it.
Rated 4.5/5 based on 4 customer reviews
Tableau Installation and Configuration on Mac and Windows
Blogs
5653
Tableau Installation and Configuration on Mac and ...

Tableau is one of the most widely used data visual... Read More

Guide To Install Power BI

The Power BI demand has raised significantly in recent times due to its amazing features and acceptance by the data visualization professionals/business intelligence teams. Due to this exponentially increasing trend, people are more interested in knowing how to install Power BI on a system. We will see installation steps further in this article, but before that let’s check out the recent trends on the rising popularity of Power BI: Power BI Dashboard Below is the screenshot of the Power BI dashboard. This is how the dashboard looks after converting data from different data sources with the help of Power BI, a data visualization and Business Intelligence tool. System Requirements for installing Power BI The prerequisite system requirements  for installing Power BI desktop version on your machine:The OS requirement for Power BI is as follows: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 10, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Window server 2016, Window server 2019The minimum IE version required is IE10The minimum .net version required is 4.6Hard Disk- At least 1 GB space is required to install the Power BI server and additional space is required to host Power BI database.RAM- Minimum: 1 GB and Recommendation: 4 GB or moreProcessor speed-Minimum x64 1.4GHz Recommended 2GHz or fasterProcessor - x64 Processor: AMD Opteron, AMD Athlon 64, Intel Xeon with Intel EM64T support, Intel Pentium IV with EM64T supportAs we know that Power BI has two different variants so let us cover the installation of both variants separately. First, we will cover the scenario where the organization has already office 365 subscription  :1. The Power BI web client using Office 365- This version is used for connecting to Microsoft cloud. Let's go through step by step for using the same if we have already an office 365 subscription.In IE browser, navigate to Power BI Getting started link and click on “Sign in “ link which is available at the top right of the page :Next step is to log in with the organization’s office 365 account credentials:IIn case your office 365 access has not been activated for Power BI then you would see below screen:2. Downloading the desktop version of Power BI Navigate to the Power BI download page for downloading the desktop version of Power BI.Power BI DownloadClicking on download free  will take us to Microsoft store from where we can get a copy of Power BI desktop versionClicking on Get will ask for confirmation if we would sign in with Microsoft account to use the desktop version on all compatible devices. After confirmation downloading will start and once download gets completed, we can launch a window installer.Once Power BI is installed, we can log in with office 365 accountNow let us cover standalone Power BI desktop installation if we do not have pro Office 365 subscriptions. Please find below steps for the same : Let first navigate to download page  Power BI.  Then we can select the language in which you would like to  install Power BIWe can also directly navigate to download page by visiting the direct link  as well :Download files Power BI .We can select the appropriate file based on the OS type. There are two variants of the file available, one is 32 bit and the other is 64 bit. We can download the correct file. After running the downloaded installer(assume we have downloaded 64-bit version) we come across below screen where we can follow the instructions to install Power BI :After successful installation,  the welcome screen is launched which provides options to connect to data existing data models enrichment, creating new reports and publishing.Uninstall Power BI Desktop: On the start menu, go to control panels.In control panels section ,click Add/Remove ProgramThen select Microsoft Power BI Desktop in the program list and click uninstall option.Power BI on Mac:  There is no support available to run Power BI on Mac. But if we have Azure subscription then we can provision windows VM and install Power BI there. Once VM is configured, it is easy to remotely access VM from Mac machines.
Rated 4.5/5 based on 2 customer reviews
Guide To Install Power BI
Blogs
6477
Guide To Install Power BI

The Power BI demand has raised significantly in re... Read More

Top 20 Data Visualization Tools

Why Data Visualization?Data visualization in layman’s language describes any determined attempt to help people understand the significance of data by placing it in a visual context. The analytics is presented visually so that the decision-makers can grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns in a short span of time. When something becomes too difficult to understand, then data visualization comes into the picture which simplifies everything to a concept that can be easily grasped. Data visualization basically puts the complex data into a graphical format, allowing the user to easily understand the state of business and identify patterns to bolster successful strategies. It also Identifies and improves the areas that need attention immediately. It gives better clarification on which all factors influence customer behavior. It helps to understand the product positioning in a better way. Predicts the sales volume quickly.Human eyes are more reactive to colors and patterns as compared to text, this is another reason why data visualization is getting more attention.  We can easily figure out the difference in colors, shapes because of human nature. It is human nature to quickly identify the trends by looking at graphs and figures. Now we can understand the need for good visualization tools in the world of a deluge of data. In big enterprises where we have different data sources that are also stored in different, it is very critical for a business to have some tool. which can extract data from different sources and present in some visuals which help the business to take strategic decisions based on charts. In Big data world, Data visualization tool has become an integral part of the technology stack of any organization.Let's have a look at the below dashboard where we have presented some stats for Brazil using one of the popular data visualization tools Tableau. This dashboard is dependent on various data sources and data points but government agencies would not be able to calculate some important indexes by just looking at different data sources. Their job has been made easier by data visualization tools.Data Visualization involves a Seven step processAcquire: Understanding and collecting the data that we are trying to visualize, including its size and uniqueness in a particular column from a file on a disk or a source over a network.Parse: Determining the data that we are trying to visualize and also the kind of information we want to communicate through a proper structure and arranging them into proper categories.Filter: Identifying the most informative indicator and separating the data along with filtering them basis the necessity.Mine: Applying the data in mathematical context through statistics or data mining.Represent: This step involves choosing the basic visual model, such as a bar graph, list, chart or a tree.Refine: This step emphasizes on improving the basic representation to make it clearer and more visually engaging for the viewer. It also involves the use of different color, sizes, scales, shapes, and labels to grab attention to the key messagesInteract: The final step involves the methods of manipulating the data and also keeping control over what features need to be visible.On the basis the statistics from Forbes, the top seven data visualization tools preferred by the users are explained below in a set pattern in order to have a better understanding of these tools :1. TableauTableau is the master of data visualization software with a large customer base of 57000 and more majorly because of its simplicity of use and ability to provide interactive visualizations far beyond the capability of other general BI solutions. The ability of Tableau in integration with a large number of advanced database solutions including Hadoop, Amazon AWS, My SQL, SAP, and Teradata help them in managing huge data along with fast-changing datasets that are used in Big Data operations, including artificial intelligence and machine learning applications. Efforts have been put in for research and testing enabling Tableau to create graphics and visualizations efficiently making them feasible for humans to understand.Here are the Pros & Cons Of Using Tableau:Pros:Excellent visualization abilities.Ease at use.High-quality performance.Feasibility to connect with multiple data sources.Informative community and forum.Responsive on Smartphones as well.Cons:Very expensive and inflexible market cost.For scheduling and auto-refresh of reports - NO OPTIONS AVAILABLE.Restriction on visual imports.Formatting is difficult in the case of the column’s data.Cost: $70 USD/user/month billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. It has a free trial available.2. QlikViewQlikview tool is another major player and Tableau’s biggest competitor with a clientele of around 40,000 customers among 100 countries. The most appreciable feature of this tool is highly customizable set. It also has a wide range of features as it is a valuable advantage. Along with data visualization as one of its key components, it also offers powerful business intelligence, analytics and enterprise reporting capabilities. Qlik Sense,a sister package of Qlikview is used for handling data exploration and discovery.Pros:User-Friendly Tool.Simple and Hassle-free maintenance.Many attractive and colorful data visualization options available.Can launch both direct and indirect data searches.Cost-effective.Cons:Inefficient in real-time data analysis.Limits related to RAMNon-reliable and unsatisfactory customer support.Lacks the modern interface for eg: Drag and drop.Cost: $15 USD/user/month billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. It has a free trial available.3. Power BI:It is Microsoft offering in data visualization. It is basically a  business analytics service that delivers insights to quick and fast decisions. Their visuals prove to be stunning and can be shared with other end-users on any of the devices. Visually exploring and analyzing data on-premises and in the cloud—all in one view.ProsIt is very easy to use and business analyst can create dashboards with very ease. There is no specialized technical support required to use power BI.The seamless integration with existing application makes it very useful. We can easily create a rich personalized dashboard with enterprise-level customization.The underlying data on which dashboards are created can be easily set for auto-refresh and allow users to publish latest reports securely.The Power BI comes with two variants, on-premise, and cloud offerings. There is no memory and speed constraint due to the cloud offering of Microsoft. Due to cloud offerings data is easily retrievable and analysis is also completed in quick time.It has inbuilt support for integration with MS excel.Due to coming from Microsoft family, it is compatible with Excel, Azure and Microsoft SQL Server.It supports a broad range of  backend databases like Excel, SQL Server, Access, Azure, Adobe Analytics, Github, Google Analytics, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Salesforce, Teradata, and so onConsThe power BI does not support records having a size greater than 250 MB.The power BI can work with single dataset at one point. It can not work with multiple datasets.There is also a limitation on dataset size. The maximum size of dataset supports in Power BI is 1 GB.The performance is not good with a large amount of data if we compare with some top data visualization tools. Although cloud offerings are much better than on-premises.The pricing plan :There are three pricing plans for Power BI:Power BI Desktop: It is free for single-user usage and includes features like data cleaning and preparation, custom visualisations and allowing users to publish reports to the Power BI service.Power Bi Pro: This plan costs $9.99 per user every month along and comes with data collaboration, data governance, building dashboards with a 360-degree real-time view, and allows the user to publish reports anywhere. It is free for the first 60 days after which you will need to buy the subscription.Power BI Premium: The premium plan starts at $4995 a month for every dedicated cloud compute and storage resource.4. FusionchartsWidely-recommendable, charting and visualization package based on Javascript. It has established itself as one of the most popularly used products of its kind in the paid-for market. It has the ability to frame 90 different types of charts and can integrate with a large number of platforms and frameworks giving a great deal of flexibility. The most important feature of FusionCharts that has made it popular in the market is to not to start each new visualization from scratch. Rather the users can pick from a range of “live” example templates by simply plugging in their own data sources as and when required.Pros:Active community.Supportive Helpdesk.customized for unique and specific implementations.Integration with most of the platforms is easier.Easily integrate with most of the platforms.Cons:Font and resizing are the areas of concern.Very expensive solution.Not very easy to set-up.The Interface is a little outdated.Cost: $497 USD/user/month billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed.5. HighchartsLike FusionCharts this also runs based on the Javascript API and integrates easily with jQuery. Research suggests that its website claims to be used by 72 of the world’s 100 largest companies. It is often especially chosen when a fast and flexible solution needs to be rolled out, with a minimum need for specialist data visualization training before it can be put to work. The key to success of this API is its focus on cross-browser support which commonly means anyone can view and run its interactive visualizations. This unique feature is not available even in newer platforms.Pros:Customization can be done readily and easily.The graphs look attractive.A variety of options for charts are available..Easy and flexible to use.Cost: $430 USD/user/month billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed.6. Data WrapperDatawrapper is gaining popularity especially among media organizations which require frequently the use to create charts and also present the statistics of different data’s. Another vital feature added in Data Wrapper is that it is simple with a clear interface that makes it very easy to upload csv data.The end-user can also create straightforward charts, and even maps, that can be quickly embedded into reports for presentation.Pros:No installation required for creating a chart.This toll is adequate for beginners.Available free of cost for use.Media Industry is the major end-user of this Data Visualization tool.Charts can be embedded in a short span of time.Cons:A complex chart such as Sankey cannot be built using this tool.Data security is an area of concern since its an open-source.The free version does not support customization, exporting or printing of charts.Cost: $29 USD/user/month billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Open-Source.7. PlotlyPlotly is an open-source tool that enables sophisticated and complex visualizations, because of its ability to integrate with analytics-oriented programming languages such as Python, R, and Matlab.  Plotly is preferred by users for creating, disseminating, and modifying graphical and interactive data online. It can even be installed on the premises. It can be deployed in the cloud. This way it is useful for data mining scientists who are always looking out for ways to organize and present data without actually involved in coding. Plotly users also have the right to collaborate among themselves for building, sharing, and editing maps and charts. This additional feature boosts the speed of visualization as well as the presentation of data in a unique way also maximizing efficiency from each member by ensuring that each of them has their own designated set of tasks.Pros:Charts can be easily shared with the cloud account of the user.Editing can be done with charts online by the end-users.Quality images are exported during publication.Fully interactive interface.Since they are hosted on a server, can be easily shared Cons:At times speed becomes a concern since the charts are interactive and require more power as compared to the static chart.There are limitations to the free version.Due to different screen flashing at a time, the first sight might create some distraction and confusion.Cost: $420 USD/user/year billed annually.Open-Source/Licensed: Open-Source.8. SisenseSisense provides excellent instant insight for anyone and anywhere within the organization. It has the capacity to visualize dashboards and reports and summarize the statistics of any piece of data, even the uncover underlying trends & patterns and helping the decision-makers to conclude with the data-driven statistics.Pros:A boon for analysis on huge datasets.User- friendly interface.Excellent customer support.Upgrades quickly.Easy customization and flexibility are available with the product.Cons: Maintaining and developing analytic cubes is a challenge.No option for supporting the time format.Limited version of visualizations.If cube rebuilding is required then the cube becomes inaccessible for that duration.Cost: The  cost of the product varies case by case basis depending upon the two factors:Data size The number of users.Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. It has a free trial available.9. IBM Watson: It is a supercomputer offered by IBM which leverages artificial intelligence and analytical components. It is named after IBM founder Thomas J Watson…Basis the user’s data, it helps us to discover the pattern and insight of the available statistics.Its intelligent and self-service application guides the user to the complete insight discovery process. Both structured and unstructured data can be easily extracted since the application uses natural language processing.The biggest highlight of this process is that this application provides the new and of the user data.Pros:Capability of Natural Language Processing.Can be accessed from different devices.Helpful in predicting the future of business and making decisions accordingly.Format of information is visually appreciable for the viewers.Dashboards have the capability of self-service.Cons:Inefficient customer support.English Language application is only available. (Limitation for other language users).Maintenance cost is high.Structured data are not available directly.Cost: $80 USD/user/month billed annually (For professional version).Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. 10. RAW- RawgraphsThis tool works on delimited data like CSV file or TSV file. It even works on copy /paste data as well. It acts as a missing link between spreadsheets and data visualization. Though Rawgraph is a web application yet the data security is not at all a concern. Wide range of conventional and non-conventional layouts are also available.With the blink of an eye, the visual feedback is available. If the user is not happy with the visuals then another mapping can be done immediately.Pros:Excellent platform for graphic and keeping/reading/arranging the user’s data.Easy readability and ability to rearrange the visual graphics.Adoptable mapping options available.Sharing data becomes feasible.The biggest advantage is its property of being scalable.Simple interface.It can be easily edited with vector graphic application and also can be imported,Cons:Log scales are not available.At times it is limited in terms of visualization.Not as per user intuitive.Cost: Not availableOpen-Source/Licensed: Open-Source.11. Visual.ly:Visual.ly aims at becoming the largest community for creating, promoting and sharing data visualizations. It is the content service in a visual format. They have dedicated big data visualization service and a very impressive portfolio. An online process is streamlined we can easily outsource our data for visualization to a third party wherein the input of the project can be shared and the creative team is available to assist for the entire duration of the project. Visual.ly even sends email notifications for all the achievements and milestones achieved through the users' data along with sharing the constant feedback by the creative team. The biggest advantage of the Visual.ly is their distribution network for showcasing the outcome of the project once it’s completed.Pros:Link opportunities are more.Better quality output.Good graphics are easier to produce.Less time-consuming.Cons:Few embed options are available.They usually illustrate one point instead of multiple points.There is a limitation in the scope of the product.Cost: Need to check.Open-Source/Licensed: Need to check12. Google Charts:It basically creates a pictorial and graphical presentation of the data shared by the user. Google Charts have been coded with  HTML5 and SVG and aims at total cross-border compatibility along with Android, iOS including older Internet Explorer versions supported via VML. All the charts created are interactive with an additional feature of zoom. They are very user-friendly accompanied by their site features - a really appreciative comprehensive gallery where we can see the data visualizations and interactions at our disposal.Pros:Very easy data integration.Data graphs are visually appealing.Can be incorporated into a variety of websites.Compatibility with other Google products.Cons:At times the look and feel of the graphs are way too modern.Feature of exporting the chart should be more straightforward.Lack of demos on advanced tools.Lack of customization ability.They require network connectivity for data visualization.Not feasible with a mobile application.Cost: Free trial available,Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. 13. Zoho Reports:Zoho reports are very well known as Zoho Analytics. They have an online reporting and business intelligence service that helps get the new insights on the users’ data. It helps in creating and sharing powerful, ad hoc reports within minutes, without any IT help. Data of users can be easily imported from applications and databases, even behind firewalls.Pros:With little extra effort, new reports can be created. Basis the need, existing report can be easily modified. Features like report sharing, scheduling of emails are extremely useful features.In the case of a bigger database, space is not the concern.Quick and prompt level-1 customer support.Cons:Report sharing becomes cumbersome with larger groups of dataTraining for new Zoho Reports' users should be potentially more effective.At times the main dashboard becomes more confusing with a larger number of data.Cost: $25  USD/user/month billed annually (For professional version).Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. 14. JupyteR:It is basically a web application that supports the open-source. The major highlight is creating and sharing documents which have a live code,  narrative text, equations, and visualization. JupyteR stands for IPython (Interactive Python). In multiple programming languages, it is used for interactive computing. Also, it was originally developed for the Python programming language. It is serving Uses include: data transformation along with cleaning, simulation of numerical, modeling of statistics, data visualization, machine learning, and many more.Pros:Prototyping can be concluded quickly and easily.The end result of the application is visually interesting.Insight of the data can be easily shared.Cons:Tricky collaboration.At times reviewing of codes becomes difficult.More often there comes the challenge of complexity during production.Open-Source/Licensed: 100% Open source and free for all users.15. Dundas BI:Dundas BI comes with highly-customizable visualizations along with interactive charts, gauges, maps, scorecards and many more. In addition to that, there is also granular control over almost all visual design elements. Dundas BI also align them to the enterprise reporting needs in a dedicated reports designer. There is lots of flexibility while creating multi-page reports or ad-hoc reports. In short form, the complex views are available in simplified form for the user.Pros:Lots of Flexibility in the functionality.Anything imagined can be possible through the licensed version.Variety of charts and data sources are available along with flexibility in design.N numbers of built-in options for extracting, modifying and displaying data are available.Cons:Predictive analytics is missing.Too massive to fully exploit the capabilities of a software developer.3D Charts are not supported in this application.Non-essential upgrades need to be removed.Cost: $99 USD/user/month billed annually (For professional version).Open-Source/Licensed: One-time license.16. Visme:Visme has transformed the way of creating & sharing very engaging Presentations along with Infographics and other visual formats. The content creation tool is the most popular tool being used by IBM, General Dynamics, and Accenture and 1.7 million other users. The stories and the boring data’s are being translated into engaging Visuals. The visually available product can be either published online or embed to any site and can be download for offline use.Pros:Customer user-friendly dashboard making the designs of collateral extremely easy and within a short span of time.Templates and individual graphics, stats, objects are adaptable easily. They are immensely helpful in providing ideas for formatting and structuring the graphic.Visme sets a benchmark in itself by providing templates for presentation slides.Cons:At times it becomes difficult to select particular sections when there are many layers in a particular image.Not much effect on the social templatesOften it acts a little funky when on clicking the image.Cost: $70 USD/user/month billed annually (For professional version).Open-Source/Licensed: Licensed. 17. Grafana:Bafana is commonly used for the purpose of dashboard and graph composing. It focuses on providing ample ways to visualize time series metrics, mainly though graphs. They even support ways to visualize data through a pluggable panel architecture. At present,   rich support for Graphite, InfluxDB, and OpenTSDB and even supports other data sources via plugins.In a layman language, it is a tool in the Monitoring category of a tech-savvy user. They can create, edit, search and save the dashboards.Pros:Possibility of templating.Feature of importing and exporting the dashboard available.Rearranging the panel with drag and drop feature.Column span and row heights can be modified.Can be easily deployed.Cons:Dashboard URL keeps on changing.Irregularities in case of notifications.Data storage is a cause of concern hence used with Graphite.Open-Source/Licensed: Open-source.There are other tools as well. Please find below some other alternatives we have on data visualizations:18. ChartBlocks:It offers an online charting service. We need to upload our data then we can easily create interactive charts based on uploaded data.19. NVD3: It is a dynamic collection of components, with the aim of keeping these components very customizable. The highlight of the project is its attempt to build reusable charts. 20. Leaflet:It is basically designed keeping in mind the simplicity, performance, and usability. Leaflet is defined as mobile-friendly interactive maps leading the market with open-source JavaScript.21. N3-charts: They are generally used for creating beautiful charts in Angular JS application with the use of JavaScript library.With so many options available, it becomes difficult sometimes to choose the right visualization tool for organization. The organization needs to carefully select the tool which can fulfill their requirement.  The tool should be able to extract data from different platforms stored in different formats. The enterprise structure also helps in deciding the best data visualization tools.
Rated 4.5/5 based on 4 customer reviews
Top 20 Data Visualization Tools
Blogs
5682
Top 20 Data Visualization Tools

Why Data Visualization?Data visualization in layma... Read More