nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

ArcGIS Enterprise + SQL Server (NON Enterprise geodatabase)

TonyCollins

Hi,

Hopefully a quick question, can ArcGIS Enterprise use a standard SQL Server to access spatial tables (e.g. using geometry/geography) or does it have to be an Enterprise Geodatabase that the data is read from?

If it is possible, are there a lot of reasons you would not do this?

*The reason I ask is publishing to a Geodatabase requires ArcPy which requires desktop/ArcGIS Pro which we are unable to run (as far as I know) in a Databricks cluster.

Thanks for any help/direction

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

George_Thompson

Yes, you can publish directly from a non-Enterprise Geodatabase to ArcGIS Enterprise; Databases and ArcGIS—ArcGIS Pro | Documentation There are some limitations to the RDBMS and functionality that can be performed without the geodatabase configured:

You can connect to spatial or nonspatial data in a supported database from ArcGIS Pro to do the following:
Visualize and analyze existing data.
Filter the data.
Manage existing data.
Add data from other sources.
Share database content by publishing it to ArcGIS Server. To allow people to edit the data, publish the data as a web feature layer or feature service.

If you are going to have to edit you will need to follow this guidance in non-Enterprise Geodatabases

Edit data
You cannot connect directly to most supported databases* from ArcGIS Pro and edit the data. To edit database data, you must publish it.
If you have a GIS Server site federated with an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, publish a web feature layer that references your source data. This creates a feature layer item in the portal that you can share with groups whose members need to edit the data. Set the level of editing you want to allow through the web feature layer.

Hope that helps!

Geodatabase‌ Managing Data‌

TonyCollins

Hi George, Thanks for responding.

I don't think I explained what I am trying to do very well.

I have ArcGIS Enterprise (Portal+Server) and I wanted to know if the published Map Services could use spatial data from a non-Enterprise Geodatabase (An out of the box SQL Server).

So basically I would like to run ArcGIS Enterprise without an Enterprise Geodatabase being involved at all, but host the data in a SQL Database.

Does that make sense? Might seem a weird question, but it's all due to the limitations of needing ArcPy.

Thanks

George_Thompson

Hi Tony,

You can use non-geodatabase data (spatial / non-spatial) within the ArcGIS Enterprise, but would need a publishing client (i.e. ArcGIS Pro) to create the service. I am not sure if it can be done without the ArcGIS client at all.

I would be surprised if you have ArcGIS Enterprise license and no license for an ArcGIS client.

TonyCollins

Hi George,

Yes we are fully licensed to use Desktop/Pro so publishing the map services are fine. Internally we also have many publishing scripts/models using Arcpy to publish to a Enterprise Geodatabase (EGDB).

Unfortunately in our cloud solution the publishing automation processes are unable to use arcpy due to its dependency on the desktop software, so they are unable to write spatial data into an EGDB(Esri).

This is why we are now looking at publishing the data straight into a standard Sql Server environment, but I am wondering what issues we may have in doing so over an EGDB, for example mapservice performance or ArcGIS Enterprise features that might not work?

Thank you very much for your help

Join the Conversation

Signed in members can post, follow updates, and more. New here? Register a free account.

Quick Links

Community Help
Find useful guides, FAQs, and documents to help you navigate and make the most of Esri Community.