Publishing basic Map Image Layers (with group layers) in ArcGIS Pro - Federated Portal

Question

1) I have a Portal stack. My ArcGIS Servers are federated to the Portal.

2) I can publish a Map Image Layer from ArcMap to the standard ArcGIS Server publisher connection (e.g. https://domain.com/arcgis/admin) which contains group layers, and groups of group layers. In this case, 232 layers sensibly sorted into groups.

3) If i try and publish the same service from ArcGIS Pro, the group layers are ungrouped, and all 232 layers are published in the map image service ungrouped.

Does anybody know why? How do we get group layers back in Pro?

10.8 Portal, 2.5.0 Pro.

David_Brooks · Answer

Just to close out this query. It would appear that it's still possible to publish services with group layers, so long as they aren't "Hosted" layers to portal. Services going through the server tier (Map Image Services (Copied or Registered) or Feature services (Registered only)) will support grouped layers.

I must have had a capability ticked that required the service to be published through the portal tier, rather than server tier, causing the layers to be ungrouped.

David_Brooks · Answer

...and in a related question about AGOL hosted feature service here.

someone from ESRI makes the following statement:

"""This limitation for publishing group layers as feature services also applies to services hosted in ArcGIS Server or ArcGIS Enterprise. Group layers are supported when publishing map services to Server or Enterprise"""

Although it doesn't explicity state whether this is true for both ArcMap AND Pro, it does list Pro as a supporting platform below this question.

David_Brooks · Answer

Hi Noah,

Thanks for your response, but that documentation only discusses publishing Web Feature Layers:

"""It is not possible to share a group layer as a web feature layer. See 24035: Layer type is not supported for web feature layer  for more information."""

...whereas I just want to create a Map Image Layer. When you try this in pro (check "Map Image" in the capabilities menu), it still appears to want to create unnested feature layers inside the Map Image service.

I've search everywhere, and can't find ANY documentation pertaining to this functionality.