--- schema_version: "1" id: e0fbd834e49e7e6b7d508b8494d1033cd04fde182ecd725e9e7037e6e8c34be1 title: Tableau Prep Flow Authoring collection: tableau version: current locale: en-gb portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/tableau/current/en-gb/server-linux/server_process_prep_flow_authoring.md canonical_url: https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/server_process_prep_flow_authoring.htm source_site: help.tableau.com content_type: documentation content_hash: 957a6ffcd42d2e830a44306b2c635838fae3be225a09535123cdd015a2c84c66 description: Understand the Tableau Prep Flow Authoring process for web flow creation. --- [Skip to main content](#main-content) # Tableau Prep Flow Authoring The Tableau Prep Flow Authoring process provides the interactive Prep Flow experience in the browser, which lets users create and interact with flows on Tableau Server to clean and prepare data. For more information, see [Create and Interact with Flows on the Web](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/web_author_flows.htm). It was added in version 2020.4.

Process	Tableau Prep Flow Authoring
Status	Status of the Tableau Prep Flow Authoring process is visible on the Status Page. For more information, see View Server Process Status
Logging	Logs generated by the Tableau Prep Flow Authoring process are located in `/var/opt/tableau/tableau_server/data/tabsvc/logs/floweditor`. For more information, see Tableau Server Logs and Log File Locations

Tableau Prep Flow Authoring is enabled by default. It uses these components: - **Tableau Prep Minerva Service**: Used by Tableau Prep Flow Authoring for querying data sources. By default, it is automatically enabled on a node where Tableau Prep Flow Authoring is enabled. - **Data Engine**: The Data Engine creates data extracts and processes queries. By default, it is automatically enabled on a node where Tableau Prep Flow Authoring is enabled. - **Gateway**: The Gateway process handles all requests to Tableau Server from browsers, Tableau Desktop and other clients. By default, it is automatically enabled on a node where Tableau Prep Flow Authoring is enabled. ## Performance and Scale Recommendations Tableau Prep Flow Authoring can be CPU and RAM intensive. It is recommended to monitor the server and adjust your deployment as necessary by isolating flow authoring to a separate node or adding server resources. ### Isolate flow authoring to a separate node Running Tableau Prep Flow Authoring on a separate node will isolate flow authoring workflows from other Tableau workloads. If you have a busy server with many extract refreshes and a lot of viz editing and viewing, and you don't want to cause disruption to this workload, then it is recommended to isolate Prep Flow Authoring to its own server node. This means that all flow editing is directed to a dedicated node. For more information see [Configure Nodes](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/config_nodes.htm). **Note:** Prep Web Authoring uses shared services such as the Application Server (VizPortal), the PostgreSQL repository, the Cache Server and Hyper. If those services are already at capacity, they might also need additional resources because of the additional Prep Web Authoring load. For Prep Web Authoring to work, the cache server must be running on the lowest-numbered node where it is set up. For example, if the cache server is configured on nodes 2, 3 and 4, but it is down on node 2, Prep Web Authoring will not function. For more details see [Cache Server not running in the lowest numbered node](https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=003962421&type=1) in the Knowledge Base. If you are running Tableau Server on a multi-node cluster, you can dedicate one or more nodes for running Backgrounder. Using the Backgrounder process, you can isolate background workloads such as Tableau Prep Conductor from all your interactive workloads such as Prep Flow Authoring and VizQL Server. For more information, see [Tableau Server Backgrounder Process](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/server_process_backgrounder.htm) and [Workload Management through Node Roles](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/server_node_roles.htm). For core and user-based deployments, it’s strongly recommended that at least one node be dedicated to flows for best performance. While you can run flows on any licensed Server core, the additional resource cores purchases should only run Tableau Prep Conductor, and not extract refreshes or VizQL processes. ### Add resources As you need more resources, you can add more nodes to your server environment. When planning your nodes, several factors can influence your decision on how much additional hardware you need to allocate. The main things to consider when planning your nodes are: - The number of concurrent users or concurrent sessions you expect during peak hours. The number of concurrent sessions per user can be set using the TSM option `maestro.sessionmanagement.maxConcurrentSessionPerUser`. For more information, see [tsm configuration set Options](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/cli_configuration-set_tsm.htm). - The number of data input nodes that your flows have on average and the amount of data they have. The maximum row sampling limit can be set using the TSM option `maestro.app_settings.sampling_max_row_limit`. For more information, see [tsm configuration set Options](https://help.tableau.com/current/server-linux/en-gb/cli_configuration-set_tsm.htm). - The complexity of the flows being authored and the number of nodes. Node types like joins, unions, aggregates and pivots will, in general, require more resources. ### Licence additional offerings Additional licences for Data Management and Advanced Management are required for configuring nodes.

OFFERING	Allows you to:
Data Management	Configure a node to run only flows, or configure a node to run all jobs except flows. Tableau Prep Conductor must be running on the node. The Data Management licence includes Tableau Prep Conductor, which enables you to schedule and track flows. The licence is for a single Tableau Server deployment, which can be role-based or core-based. As a Creator, Data Management is not required to create and edit flows directly on your server.
Advanced Management	Configure where the different types of workloads are processed through node rules. For example, you can run flows on one node and subscriptions and alerts on another node.

OFFERING

Allows you to:

Data Management

Configure a node to run only flows, or configure a node to run all jobs except flows. Tableau Prep Conductor must be running on the node.

The Data Management licence includes Tableau Prep Conductor, which enables you to schedule and track flows. The licence is for a single Tableau Server deployment, which can be role-based or core-based.

As a Creator, Data Management is not required to create and edit flows directly on your server.

Advanced Management

Configure where the different types of workloads are processed through node rules. For example, you can run flows on one node and subscriptions and alerts on another node.

## Topology and Configuration To make Tableau Prep Flow Authoring highly available, configure two instances of Tableau Prep Flow Authoring on nodes when enabling it. Here is an example of a two node configuration: ![Example of a two node configuration](/tableau/current/en-gb/server-linux/en-gb/Img/prep_flow_authoring_config2.png) Here is an example of a status page for a two node configuration: ![Example of status of a two node configuration](/tableau/current/en-gb/server-linux/en-gb/Img/prep_flow_authoring_status2.png) Here is an example of a four node configuration: ![Example of a two node configuration](/tableau/current/en-gb/server-linux/en-gb/Img/prep_flow_authoring_config4.png) Here is an example of a status page for a four node configuration: ![Example of status of a two node configuration](/tableau/current/en-gb/server-linux/en-gb/Img/prep_flow_authoring_status4.png)