Best Automation Solution for Installing and Configuring ArcGIS Server on Existing VMs

formergeologist

We have a team that will be in charge of standing up EC2 instances in AWS to support ArcGIS Server. My team handles the GIS software and will be in charge of installing and configuring ArcGIS Server on those EC2 instances.

What is the best solution for us to automate installing and configuring ArcGIS Server on existing EC2 instances? 

I've looked up ArcGIS Cloud Builder but it seems like it must create the EC2 instance from scratch. Would solutions like CloudFormation or Chef be more customizable for our use case? Would we be able use these solutions to add multiple ArcGIS Server machines to a single site as well?

MikeSchonlau

I'd recommend CloudFormation. It may also be helpful to have your IT team create an AMI for you to reference in your CF template. For example, we build a Windows AMI that includes peripheral software (Notepad++, ArcGIS Pro, Firefox, etc) we want to use. You can then reference that AMI ID when you deploy your CF template. Also make sure you are within ESRI's password guidelines - advice: don't use @ symbols and stay under 29 characters. Those have both caused us heartburn in the past.

 

You'll need to figure out your VPC + subnet(s), IAM user/role, custom domain+elastic IP (if needed), and load balancer (if needed) ahead of time. You'll also need an SSL .pfx ready to go, along with your ArcGIS Server license file. You can set up an S3 bucket for those.