The primary reason for dedicating a node to the Tableau Server backgrounder process is performance optimization through workload isolation. Backgrounder processes execute resource-intensive, asynchronous tasks such as extract refreshes, subscriptions, and flow runs. These tasks can consume significant CPU and memory resources. By isolating them on a dedicated node, they do not compete for resources with user-facing, interactive processes like the VizQL Server, which is responsible for rendering visualizations. This architectural choice ensures that long-running background jobs do not degrade the performance and responsiveness of the server for end-users who are actively viewing and interacting with dashboards.

A. Security is managed through network configuration, permissions, and encryption, not primarily by dedicating a process to a specific node.

C. All nodes running processes that query data sources (like VizQL or Backgrounder) require database access; dedicating a node does not uniquely enable this.

D. While isolation might offer minor maintenance benefits, the primary driver for this architectural decision is the significant and immediate performance improvement, not ease of maintenance.

1. Tableau Server Help Documentation: In the section on performance tuning

Tableau explicitly recommends this strategy. "For extract-heavy deployments

we recommend dedicating a node to backgrounder processes. ... The goal is to isolate the data engine and backgrounder processes from the processes that serve user requests (these are the VizQL server processes)."

Source: Tableau Help

"Performance Tuning Examples"

Section: "Example: Tuning for an extract-heavy environment".

2. Tableau Server Help Documentation: The description of the backgrounder process highlights its function and the benefit of isolation. "In a multi-node cluster

you can isolate the Backgrounder process to its own node... This is an efficient way to dedicate resources to the jobs the backgrounder runs and prevent those jobs from competing with other processes."

Source: Tableau Help

"Tableau Server Processes"

Section: "Tableau Server Backgrounder".

3. University Courseware on Distributed Systems: The principle of workload isolation is a fundamental concept in distributed computing to ensure quality of service (QoS). Interactive

low-latency workloads are often separated from long-running

high-throughput batch jobs to prevent resource contention and provide predictable performance for users. Dedicating a node for background tasks is a direct application of this principle.

Source: Patterson

D. A.

& Hennessy

J. L. (2017). Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition: The Hardware Software Interface. Morgan Kaufmann. Chapter 6 discusses parallelism and the challenges of resource sharing in multi-process environments.