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title: SQL Server Impersonation
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description: Understand SQL Server impersonation, letting Tableau query on behalf of database users.
---
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# SQL Server Impersonation

Impersonation in the context of Tableau Server means allowing one user account to act on behalf of another user account. You can configure Tableau and Microsoft SQL Server to perform database user impersonation, so that the SQL Server database account used by Tableau Server queries on behalf of SQL Server database users, who are also Tableau users.

The main benefit of this feature is it allows administrators to implement and control their data security policy in one place: their databases. When Tableau users access a view with a live connection to a SQL Server database, the view only displays what the users' database permissions authorize them to see. An additional benefit is that the users don't have to respond to a database sign-in prompt when they open the view. Also, workbook publishers don't have to rely on user-specific filters to restrict what's seen in views.

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