ArcGIS Enterprise Preparation

Question

Hello GeoNet Community,

When using any size of web-GIS, it doesn't seem like it's an option not to migrate from a standalone ArcGIS Server to ArcGIS Enterprise.  But something are still unclear to me:

*  Since ArcGIS Data Store does not replace enterprise geodatabases (SDE), how do we install the enterprise geodatabase separately now along with ArcGIS Enterprise?  It used to come with ArcGIS Server in the past, would it be still the same under ArcGIS Enterprise?
* Is it an option not to use Portal for ArcGIS under ArcGIS Enterprise?  Since it seems to be more work to maintain the portal than ArcGIS Online.  We are a small agency that there is no need for others to discover our web maps and web apps for self-service mapping purpose.
* How do I know if I should do the single or multi-machine deployment?
* Can we use ArcMap to publish services to portal after ArcGIS Enterprise installation? Or we must use ArcGIS Pro?
* It's kind of confusing to manage both Portal for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Online since they both are somewhat similar.  How do we decide what items should go to portal, and what items should go to ArcGIS Online?

Thank you very much!

Emily

DerekLaw · Answer

Hi Emily,

FYI, these 2 whitepapers will provide you with some good background info:

* Migrating standalone ArcGIS Server to ArcGIS Enterprise
* Data in ArcGIS: User Managed and ArcGIS Managed

Hope this helps,

ZahinaKhan · Answer

Hello Emily,

*  ArcGIS Data store is used as the managed database (relational). You can still use the enterprise geo-database with ArcGIS Server. 
* You can use either Portal for ArcGIS or ArcGIS Online, or you can use both. They are same except, ArcGIS Online is hosted in Esri servers and Portal for ArcGIS is hosted on your own server. Your Portal for ArcGIS can be either publicly available to internal. 
* Multiple machine deployments are used for failover purpose or if there are too many services and you would like to distribute the load on different machines. 
* With ArcGIS Map you can publish to ArcGIS Sever or to Hosted Server (ArcGIS Enterprise). But with ArcGIS Pro you can only publish to a Hosted Server. So, yes you can still use ArcMap to publish.
* If you have a sales account manager I would recommend speaking with them regarding what to use, since there are cost related to the license and usage.