10.1 SD deploy of mosaic generates error messages I can't translate

Question

I have an SD file that, when I try to deploy it to the ArcGIS Server, generates the following two errors:Failed to upload service item information for 'myfolder/myservice.ImageServer'. Folder path cannot contain relative path such as .. or .

Method failed.HRESULT = 0x80040208 : This is a FACILITY_ITF error that is specific to the interface that returned this error. See the documentation of the interface that returned this error for information about this HRESULT.

We have a cluster of two ArcGIS Servers. These errors appear twice on the same machine. The other machine, although it gets requests about this deployment (I can see from its logs), doesn't appear to try to do as much with it...there's just a series of REST request/responses with no additional info and no suggestion of a problem. Whereas, on the first machine, it is obviously processing the file. It shows the upload occurring and a number of steps before saying "Service 'myfolder/myservice.ImageServer' was created successfully". Then, the very next two messages are the ones shown above.

From ArcGIS Server Manager, the service appears to be deployed and running. However, it crashes frequently and in trying to figure out why, I've observed above.

The SD was created in ArcCatalog from a GDB where the mosaic is defined using "Share as Image Service". Before creating the SD, I "Modify/Repair" the paths to point to the location of the images that is accessible from the ArcGIS Server. I can't find any other paths that might be considered relative unless it is considering the New Path relative because it is a UNIX path that starts with "/". Our ArcGIS Servers are on Linux and the accessible path to the images means starting at the root.

If it is, indeed, this path that is causing the problem in the deployment, can anyone suggest a solution?

Alternatively, can anyone suggest somewhere I can look within the GDB itself or during the generation of the SD for some other path that might be causing the problem?

Cheers,
jtm

More details learned:
1. I've learned this has nothing to do with the mosaic. I get the same messages no matter what I try to deploy ... a map service, a geoprocessing service, an image service.
2. Just before the first pair of error messages, there is a message: "Adding item information card to service"; and, just before the second pair of error messages, there is a message: "Adding manifest to configuration store." I'm guessing, then, that it is these operations that are failing and generating the errors.

In looking into these further I started reading about the "Search" services in regards to the adding info one (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//015400000383000000). Could all this be related to that in some way? I found an empty .dat file under the arcgissystem/arcgisindex/.site directory and the documentation says these are only supported on Windows systems. Could some instruction still be trying to write to something anyway?

Still haven't figured out the configuration store/manifest thing might be referring to, though. Anyone with ideas, please share...

JoanneMcGraw · Answer

Just an update on this item...

At our site, we found that using symbolic links within the "Directories" and "Configuration Store" paths were causing the error messages to appear. We have (as a result of all this) changed our system architecture to ensure we do not go through any symbolic links anymore and we are no longer getting the above messages during deployment of our SD files.

We were in contact with ESRI Support (in Canada) about this and have provided instructions re: reproducing the problem. They will give it a try and let us know if they observe the same behaviour we did. When we hear from them, I'll post their findings as well.

JoanneMcGraw · Answer

Still pursuing those messages just before the SEVERE errors noted above...that is "Adding item information card to service" and "Adding manifest to configuration store."

In comparing what I see in the config-store/services sub-directories for the individual services with a windows installation of ArcGIS Server of the same, I see there is an esriinfo directory that has things like a manifest.xml, iteminfo.json, metadata.xml and a metadata directory that does not exist in my Linux environment on either ArcGIS Server.

Also, when I view the Item Description for any of my services in ArcGIS Server Manager on the Linux machine, the values are all empty (that is, Summary, Tags, Description, etc.); but deploying an SD to the Windows box and looking at the Item Description via ArcGIS Server Manager there I find the values are properly filled in as I entered them for deployment.

Is all of this related or am I on a wild-goose chase? I've checked the permissions to the config-store/services sub-directories and the ArcGIS Server user has access.

Cheers,
jtm