Tableau | What is a cursor data size limit error?

What does this Tableau error mean? ERROR: exceeded the maximum size allowed for the total set of cursor data: <size>?

The cursor limit is caused by the way Tableau queries data against ChannelMix and there are a couple solutions to troubleshoot this error.

The fastest way to resolve this error is to limit the size of the data you are trying to refresh.  Two great ways to limit the size of your data are:

• Implement a data filter on your dataset so that only a relative number of months are included in the extracted data source.  This is limit the number of records that is returned from ChannelMix.  For instance, if your report is only using the last 12 months but your ChannelMix dataset includes 4 years of data, you could reduce the size by filtering on relative date.
• Remove columns that are not needed from your extracted data source.  Some datasets will have many fields that are not being utilized in your report.  Hiding unused fields and running your extract will reduce the the overall size of the extract.

The second solution is to add additional storage and processing power to your ChannelMix data warehouse.  There is an additional monthly cost associated to adding more storage and processing power but as your analytics practice grows, the additional space and power becomes necessary to keep up.  Talk to your account director about options to increase your storage and speed!

Lastly, The Tableau community has outlined a possible fix but ChannelMix does not support this implementation or software change. If you'd like to troubleshoot making changes to your Tableau Desktop extracts you can follow the instructions outlined in this article:

https://community.tableau.com/docs/DOC-6323

CAUTION: The cursor limit exists on ChannelMix (Amazon Redshift) to ensure that the health of your database is always good.  If there are multiple very large extracts that are running simultaneously then there is a chance of pushing the database too hard which can cause it to become unhealthy and crash.