The first version of Tableau Service Manager (TSM) was introduced in Tableau Server 10.5, on Linux, with the TSM command-line interface (CLI). Now, with Tableau Server 2018.2, the TSM is available for both Windows and Linux, and contains three major components, as follows:

• A TSM CLI that replaces the previous tabadmin commands.

• A Tableau Service Manager API (currently in alpha) that allows you to perform administrative tasks through an API.

• A web UI interface that allows Tableau Server administrators to configure and manage the server directly from the web, without having to connect to the machine to open the configuration.

The most interesting feature is undoubtedly the web interface. You can access the administrative Tableau Server web page by using a URL, as if you were logging in to Tableau Server. From the web page, you can directly stop and start Tableau Server. The administration web page contains three tabs, as follows:

• Status: Check the current state of your Tableau Server.
• Maintenance: Generate, download, and analyze the log files, as well as other maintenance tasks.
• Configuration: Modify the topology of the server (the number of processes and nodes), the security, the user identity access, the notifications, and the licensing.

In short, all of the actions that require the administrators to connect to the machine where the server is installed to perform administrative tasks can now be done from the web, or by using the API. This improvement will surely make life easier for all administrators and DevOps teams!

To finish, let's review some other administrative improvements.