# Content lifecycle with sandboxes, migration and revisions

*Tableau Consultant Study Guide · Establish Governance and Support Published Content · Last updated November 3, 2026 · https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/tableau-consultant/establish-governance-and-support-published-content/content-lifecycle-with-sandboxes-migration-and-revisions*

Run the Blueprint path from sandbox to certified production content, promote and maintain content with Content Migration Tool plans, know what a migration leaves behind, and roll back with revision history.

- Certification: Salesforce Tableau Consultant
- Exam section: Establish Governance and Support Published Content
- Study guide: https://www.certifyforce.com/study-guide/tableau-consultant

**Official exam objective:**

> Recommend an approach for the workbook lifecycle, including building, testing, deployment, distribution, and maintenance.

## What the exam expects

- Lay out the Blueprint lifecycle from personal and department sandboxes through validation, promotion and certification to production.
- Recommend a deployment approach when IT mandates separate development, QA and production environments.
- Design Content Migration Tool plans for promotion, maintenance and database-migration testing, and list what a plan does not carry.
- Roll back or recover content with revision history, within its defaults and limits.

Key terms:
- **Sandbox project:** a project for ad hoc or uncertified content that authors explore freely.
- **Production project:** a project of validated, certified content that only a small group can publish to.
- **Content Migration Tool (CMT):** an Advanced Management tool whose migration plans copy content between projects or sites.
- **Revision history:** the saved earlier versions of a workbook or data source that users can preview, download or restore.

## Key facts

| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Production publishing | Limited to a small group, such as Project Owners and Leaders | [Governance in Tableau](https://help.tableau.com/current/blueprint/en-us/bp_governance_in_tableau.htm) |
| CMT licence | Advanced Management, included with Tableau Enterprise | [About Advanced Management on Tableau Cloud](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/itm_intro.htm) |
| Server to Cloud | CMT not recommended; use the Migration SDK | [About Tableau Content Migration Tool](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cmt-intro.htm) |
| Scheduling a plan | Console Runner | [Tableau Content Migration Tool Use Cases](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/cmt-use-cases.htm) |
| Source content | Copied, never deleted or archived by CMT | [Tableau Content Migration Tool Use Cases](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/cmt-use-cases.htm) |
| Version support | Eight most recent versions; nothing before 2018.1.x | [Migration Limitations](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cmt-migration_limitations.htm) |
| Not migrated | Users, groups, site settings | [Migration Limitations](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cmt-migration_limitations.htm) |
| Stale tagging | Up to 1000 objects at a time | [Stale Content](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/adminview-stale-content.htm) |
| Server revisions | On by default, 25 per content resource | [Allow Users to Save Revision History](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/revision_history_maintain.htm) |
| Cloud revisions | Always on, up to 10 | [Allow Users to Save Revision History](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/revision_history_maintain.htm) |
| Deleting content | Deletes all its revisions | [Work with Content Revisions](https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/qs_revision_history.htm) |

## Check yourself

- When you lower a site's revision limit, which revisions survive?
- Why doesn't restoring a data source revision bring back its old extract data?
- Which workbooks can CMT not migrate because of their version?
- When a plan copies between two projects on the same site, how should it sign in?

## Sources

- [Governance in Tableau](https://help.tableau.com/current/blueprint/en-us/bp_governance_in_tableau.htm)
- [Tableau Data and Content Governance](https://help.tableau.com/current/blueprint/en-us/bp_data_and_content_governance.htm)
- [About Tableau Content Migration Tool](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cmt-intro.htm)
- [Tableau Content Migration Tool Use Cases](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/cmt-use-cases.htm)
- [Migration Limitations](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/cmt-migration_limitations.htm)
- [About Advanced Management on Tableau Cloud](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/itm_intro.htm)
- [Stale Content](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/adminview-stale-content.htm)
- [Allow Users to Save Revision History](https://help.tableau.com/current/server/en-us/revision_history_maintain.htm)
- [Work with Content Revisions](https://help.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/qs_revision_history.htm)
- [Recycle Bin](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/recycle_bin.htm)

## About the full unit

The "Core concepts", "Exam traps" and "Worked scenario" sections of this unit, its 7 linked practice questions, and unlimited timed mock exams are included with the Tableau Consultant pack (USD $19): https://www.certifyforce.com/practice-exams