Tableau Upgrade to 2021.4.15 - Complete

Good morning,

A recent security threat has been identified regarding Tableau third party data connections.  We have paused all new third party data connections in order to prevent new vulnerability points.  The only way to address this security threat is to upgrade to 2021.4.15, which includes the security patch.  This is not a full upgrade as we will be staying on version 2021.4.x. 

You can find information on what’s new in this upgrades here:  https://www.tableau.com/support/releases/desktop/2021.4.15

You can find information about the security vulnerability here: https://kb.tableau.com/articles/Issue/issue-affecting-tableau-server-administration-agent

We will follow our upgrade procedure listed below. 

All upgrades for Tableau Server occur in place. At a high level, the strategy for all upgrades is:

1. ITS-BIA will review the upgrade in our sandbox prior to planning an upgrade of UCSD Tableau Prod.
2. Allow one (1) week for review of the upgrade in the Tableau Sandbox environment
   
   1. At the end of the week a GO/NO GO determination will be made.
   2. GO – the upgrade is applied to the PROD environment over the weekend.
   3. NO GO – the upgrade is postponed until the issues are resolved.
3. Those with Tableau desktop can now upgrade to Tableau 2021.4.15
   1. You will need your product key and this installation guide:  http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/desktopdeploy/en-us/desktop_deploy_download_and_install.htm
   2. You will need the most recent stable version of Tableau:  https://www.tableau.com/support/releases

Given that strategy, the plan for the upgrade from 2021.4.3 (current) to Tableau 2021.4.15 is as follows:

1. Monday, March 13
   
   1. Tableau sandbox was be upgraded to 2021.4.15.  ITS-BIA is testing objects and functionality.
      
2. 5pm PT Tuesday, March 28
   
   1. A copy of the Tableau Prod content was backed up and on March 29th it was restored onto Tableau QA.  This will be ensure report developers can test against current workbooks.
   2. ITS-BIA will review the upgrade in Tableau QA where the 2021.4.15 upgrade has already been installed.
3. Thursday, March 30
   
   1. All workbook development teams to begin reviewing content in Tableau QA (https://tab-dev01.ucsd.edu) and test for issues related to the upgrade.
   2. Any issues are to be reported by sending an email to busintel@ucsd.edu with subject line "Tableau upgrade issue".
   3. If an issue is deemed critical, the upgrade of Tableau Prod will be postponed until the issue is resolved.
4. Friday, April 7
   1. Request to delay the patching due to scheduling conflicts.
5. Monday, April 17
   
   1. GO/NO GO determination for PROD upgrade will be made.
   2. GO – the upgrade is applied to PROD over the weekend.
      1. This will be the determination if no new issue(s) are found in the upgraded version or if any new issue noted is deemed insignificant enough to move forward.
   3. NO GO – the upgrade to PROD is postponed
      
      1. This will be the determination only if new issues are found in the upgraded version and those issues are deemed significant.
6. 5pm PT Monday, April 17 (based on GO determination in previous step): 
   1. A backup of the PROD and Public contents will be conducted.  This will be insurance against any unforeseen issue during the upgrade process.
   2. The admin team will perform the upgrade of the PROD and Public environments.
7. Tuesday, April 18
   1. Tableau developers can upgrade their Tableau desktop to 2021.4.15
   2. Warning: Upgrading beyond 2021.4.x will prevent you from publishing to our Tableau server.