Timeout of layers -- max # of instance for dedicated pool??

Question

I am new to the instance side of enterprise. I have moved my users over to new maps in Portal and there seems to be a lot of timeout of layers with them not loading and various random issues. What should I be setting my max instances to per machine? All of my Enterprise deployment is one 1 server (hoping to change that in the future). I was told use dedicated for those that are used a lot (which is most of my layers) but it hasn't seemed to help at all.

Scott_Tansley · Answer

Every case is different.  There are some very detailed documents aimed at uber-architect type people, but the way that Enterprise is used now, i.e. very fluidly, it's actually a dark art to get it perfect.

Laura · Answer

Really insightful feedback, thank you! Esri doesn't go into a lot of detail so I needed more input before changing it up too crazily.

Scott_Tansley · Answer

Hi Laura, this is a massive topic.  I'm a bit maxxed out, so I'll try and provide summary info.

A single machine deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise is possible, but it should IMHO be ring-fenced for Hosting Services only.  Map, Image, geoprocessing and any other services are a bit heavy to run on a machine that is already running portal, server, two datastores and two postgre SQL databases.

If you're using services beyond hosting, then put them on a federated server for these reasons:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/get-started/latest/windows/additional-server-deployment.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_DD3657E382A44370923E4E86C1F9B582

When you've got that second machine then the number of dedicated instances is typically governed by the number of vCPUs that you have.  If you have 4 CPUS then any given map service (for example) should have no more than 5 dedicated instances.

I typically see that most of my clients use about 80% of their services in the shared pool, with only extremely high-use services being of the dedicated type.

Sorry, there's a lot more in this subject, but those are some rules of thumb and best practices.