Orchestrate downstream exposures EnterpriseEnterprise +Beta

Use dbt platform job scheduler to proactively refresh downstream exposures and the underlying data sources (extracts) that power your Tableau Workbooks.

Orchestrating exposures integrates with downstream exposures and uses your dbt build job to ensure that Tableau extracts are updated regularly.

Control the frequency of these refreshes by configuring environment variables in your dbt environment.

 Differences between visualizing and orchestrating downstream exposures

The following table summarizes the differences between visualizing and orchestrating downstream exposures:

Info	Set up and visualize downstream exposures	Orchestrate downstream exposures Beta
Purpose	Automatically brings downstream assets into your dbt lineage.	Proactively refreshes the underlying data sources during scheduled dbt jobs.
Benefits	Provides visibility into data flow and dependencies.	Ensures BI tools always have up-to-date data without manual intervention.
Location	Exposed in Catalog	Exposed in dbt scheduler
Supported BI tool	Tableau	Tableau
Use case	Helps users understand how models are used and reduces incidents.	Optimizes timeliness and reduces costs by running models when needed.

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Prerequisites

To orchestrate downstream exposures, you should meet the following:

• Configured downstream exposures and ensured desired exposures are included in your lineage.
• Verified your environment and jobs use Latest with dbt Core. Latest Fusion engine, the dbt Fusion engine preview, does not support orchestrating downstream exposures yet.
• Have a dbt account on the Enterprise or Enterprise+ plan.
• Created a production deployment environment for each project you want to explore, with at least one successful job run.
• Have admin permissions in dbt to edit project settings or production environment settings.
• Configured a Tableau personal access token (PAT) whose creator has privileges to view and refresh the data sources used by your exposures. The PAT inherits the permissions of its creator. Use a PAT created by:
  • A Tableau server or site administrator
  • A data source owner or a project leader

Orchestrate downstream exposures

To orchestrate downstream exposures and see refreshes happen automatically during scheduled jobs on Latest with the dbt Core engine:

1. In the dbt, click Deploy, then Environments, and select the Environment variables tab.
2. Click Add variable and set the environment level variable DBT_ACTIVE_EXPOSURES to 1 within the environment you want the refresh to happen.
3. Then set the DBT_ACTIVE_EXPOSURES_BUILD_AFTER to control the maximum refresh frequency (in minutes) you want between each exposure refresh.
4. Set the variable to 1440 minutes (24 hours) by default. This means that downstream exposures won’t refresh Tableau extracts more often than this set interval, even if the related models run more frequently.
   Set the environment variable `DBT_ACTIVE_EXPOSURES` to `1`.
5. Run a production job on Latest with dbt Core. Each run can trigger a downstream exposure refresh; if a job runs before the configured interval has passed, dbt skips the downstream exposure refresh and marks it as skipped in the job logs.
6. View downstream exposure entries in your run job logs.
   View the downstream exposure logs in the dbt run job logs.
   • View more details in the debug logs for any troubleshooting.

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