Latest Contributions by TravisSaladino

Bicyclist coasting down a road. It is all about efficiency   ArcGIS Server can be considered as the engine of our ArcGIS Enterprise car or a GIS office in a box for example. Like any office, the balancing act of numbers of staff vs. demand vs. resources is an ongoing calculus. And that is true in our ArcGIS office in a box too. Most GIS offices are limited in staff capacity by factors like workstations available, network bandwidth, or licenses of essential software. If we run out of desks and computers that analysts can use, we cannot add any more analysts to the office. If all the analysts are working on some tasks, we cannot ask for a new task to be started. Even if we expand the space and add infrastructure, we cannot use that increased capacity if we do not purchase more licenses of ArcGIS Pro. With ArcGIS Server we can face the same challenges and limits. So, it is vitally important to configure the GIS web services (services) running in ArcGIS Server to efficiently use the finite resources available to it, while also ensuring the best throughput and speed for the system.   Every non-hosted service in ArcGIS Server has a set of configuration options that can be defined at publication time in ArcGIS Pro or after publication with the administrative web application ArcGIS Server Manager. A service can exist in ArcGIS Server in many states. First it is published. This means a service definition file has been created, and it exists within the Server directory in a subfolder called arcgisinput, by default this is found at C:\arcgisserver\directories\arcgissystem\arcgisinput. Second the service can be running or stopped. By default, published services are started when published, although services can be stopped too. When a service is started and running it is “advertised” in another web application the ArcGIS Server Services Directory. Here admins, publishers, and developers find useful properties and supported operations that can be used to inspect and use the services.   Another result of starting a service in ArcGIS Server is that the manager components of our “office” will start the minimum number of instances set for the service, by default this is one instance. Technically an instance of a service is a single processing unit, typically manifested as an ArcSOC.exe process running in the operating system of the host computer. You can think of an instance of a service as an analyst sitting at a desk with the required ArcGIS Pro project available to them that can respond to requests for defined capabilities of the advertised GIS resource. Notice the number of instances running is not directly related to the number of applications nor people “using” the service. In this case the instance is running and just waiting for a request. This is called the idle state of the instance.   ArcGIS Server Manager and Windows Task Manager showing instances of a GIS web service.   The minimum number of instances defines how many instances of the service are started when the service is started. This can be set to any number including zero. But don’t go crazy with this number, remember the GIS server has finite resources available to it and there are most likely other services running that need to use those resources to support their instances too. But that’s just the minimum. There is also a maximum number of instances that can be instantiated too. This maximum can be greater than or equal to the minimum number of instances. By default, this number is two. So, by default when a service is published to ArcGIS Server the greatest number of virtual analysts that can ever exist to respond to requests to that service is two. Is that going to be enough? Most likely not. Especially if this is a medium to high demand service. But again, remember that although you can set this maximum to any number, you can easily overwhelm your system by allowing more instances to be created than the total system can handle. Also, there will be other services running in ArcGIS Server with their own instances that need to consume those finite resources too.   ArcGIS Server Manager with instance configuration settings.   Up until ArcGIS 10.7, this was the only way to control the number of analysts (instances) that existed in our GIS office (ArcGIS Server). All the instances that existed in ArcGIS Server were defined for each service separately and were only able to respond to requests for that service. We can think of this as if each analyst in our GIS office can only open one project at a time in ArcGIS Pro and the project can only have one map, or scene, or model, or other single GIS resource in it that the analyst can interact with to respond to requests. These are referred to as dedicated instances.   Then at ArcGIS 10.7, we introduced a new concept of the shared instance pool. The instances in this pool can respond to requests to any service assigned to it, with certain limits on which types of services can be assigned to it. You can consider this shared instance pool as some number of analysts in our office that have a copy of the same project open in ArcGIS Pro that has many maps (one for each service assigned to the pool) available in it. The benefit this brings is that the low demand services have instances already running to support them quickly, but the computer resources are not being wasted on instances that are not in use.   One last consideration when talking about instances of a service is that not all the services our users have access to are managed as separate services in ArcGIS Server. For example, when you publish a map service there is a map service made available in Server Manager for managing properties like the min/max number of instances. That map service also has its own URL, or end point, that clients communicate through. But the map service object in ArcGIS Server Manager also has a capabilities property. Through this property additional capabilities can be enabled like the feature access capability. Enabling this will cause ArcGIS Server to create another URL for a feature service. But this feature service, and any other services enabled via a capability, does not instantiate its own instances. The original instances created for the associated map service also support the feature service.   ArcGIS Server Manager showing the URL of a map service.   ArcGIS Server Manager showing the URL of a feature service.   Through this article we have seen that there are many ways that we can control and manage GIS web services to affect the performance that is provided by ArcGIS Server. But ArcGIS Server is just one part of the process of creating, managing, and sharing GIS resources. In most cases the decisions we make in storing the GIS data or authoring the resources will have a greater affect than these options. In Esri’s instructor led training curriculum we discuss and implement many content specific optimization techniques in our course Sharing Content to ArcGIS Enterprise.    ... View more

Police officer looking at ArcGIS Dashboards   Getting the right data, right now   In the past I have talked about ArcGIS Server as the engine for our ArcGIS Enterprise car. While this helps from the perspective of the larger ArcGIS Enterprise system, it is not that helpful when discussing how ArcGIS Server works generally. In my last two articles I compared ArcGIS Server to a GIS office in a box, and I will use that analogy here too. So far, I have described the high-level roles of ArcGIS Server to the manager, receptionist, and analysts of our GIS office. We also described how the ArcGIS Server creates and manages caches service tiles for services typically used as basemaps. Now we should look at the analysts. The folks in our office that use the processing power and most of the resources of our server hardware… errr office.   I like to consider a common occurrence in an organization where someone needs a map of the current state of some project or event. Let us say the mayor of our city has a presentation and wants to highlight the current tree inventory project occurring in the city. They send an email down to the GIS office manager asking for a map to include in a PowerPoint presentation. The GIS office manager looks around the office and sees there are three analysts at their desks with the tree inventory project file open in ArcGIS Pro. The project has one map in it for the visualization of the tree inventory project data. None of the analysts are doing anything but waiting for someone to ask about the project. The manager directs one of the analysts to send an image of the map for the whole city showing the status of the project back to the mayor. Using ArcGIS Pro, the analyst zooms to the extent of the city. ArcGIS Pro queries the database to get the most current features from the tree inventory feature class and draws the points in the map. The analyst exports the map to a png file and sends the image back to the mayor in an email response. Sometime later, the mayor has another presentation and needs an updated map that shows the project now that it has been completed. The entire process starts over again. This time the mayor gets an image sent to them showing the final status of the project and all the trees in the city in the map.   In ArcGIS Server speak this is an example of how dynamic map services work. The office advertises the tree inventory map resource is available… this means the tree inventory map service is started and shows up in the Services Directory application of ArcGIS Server. In this case, the analysts are the instances of the tree inventory service. In fact, this service was configured with a minimum of three dedicated instance. When anyone using an app or map containing this map service as a layer in it zooms or pans in the map, the application sends a request to the ArcGIS Server using the Export operation. The instance queries data from the data sources used by the service. The instance then renders the data based on the properties defined in the service and/or received from the client for that request and creates an image file from the rendering of the data. The client then gets the image from ArcGIS Server to display in the map.   This type of interaction makes this a dynamic service. More specifically this is a dynamic map service because of the service option to “Draw this map service: Dynamically from the data.” As opposed to the option of drawing the map using tiles from a cache, or a cached service. Rendering data, or mapping, is not the only capability that can be performed dynamically in ArcGIS Server. Geoprocessing services analyze data based on predefined algorithms and return results dynamically based on the current state of that data. You can get different results as the source data changes. Feature services can allow clients connected to them to edit the data referenced by the service dynamically, and those edits are then available to any client using the service immediately. Unlike our cached services that typically are used in a map to provide geographic reference, these dynamic services are the business layers in a map and are referred to as the operational layer in a map.     Through this discussion we saw the way a dynamic service makes the most current information available when it’s it needed. But the currency of the data is only one consideration in GIS. There are people on the other side of the transaction that need to use that great information. As GIS resource creators it is our responsibility to make the information easy to use and work with too. There are many aspects of services that we can optimize. In the next and final blog post, we’ll talk about configuring the service instance to make the most out of the resources available to them. ... View more

A map of the world soils.   ArcGIS Server: Making the map everyone needs   Thinking about ArcGIS Server like a GIS office in a box is a good trick to help understand the inner workings of the software and relate it to workflows and processes many GIS practitioners are familiar with. Let us consider for a moment, the situation where our organization has the need for a map that shows all the important landmarks in the area…. the map with the parks, waterbodies, points of interest and streets on it. Most of the time this map is used to just help someone figure out where more important things are located. Like where is a project occurring, or where certain assets are located, or where is my house? However, the thing about this map that makes it different is that everyone wants to see it and if things change a little it’s not going to affect its overall usefulness. In ArcGIS speak, this is a basemap.   Because of these special properties, our GIS office prepares for printing a whole bunch of these maps in such a way that it won’t affect the normal operations of the office and plans for a process of updating the map as needed over time. While this map is advertised through the office’s normal channel, it’s serviced completely differently than “normal”.   To create a service in ArcGIS Server in such a way that we achieve high throughput… lots of responses to requests… and not affect the rest of the server’s processes, we draw the service at the time it’s asked for by clients from a set of cached tiles. These tiles typically are created before anyone asks for them, are created at multiple levels of detail, and are captured in a format most conducive to the data we are trying to show in it. In our ArcGIS Server office-in-a-box, there are special GIS analysts whose sole job is to make these maps. These are the instances of the CachingTools service in the system folder of ArcGIS Server.  This service is not advertised to the rest of the organization, as only the manager of our office tells this service when to work. Also, this analyst typically works at nights and weekends when no one else is around, so they get all the resources of the office to themselves.   A screen capture of ArcGIS Server manager showing the Caching GP services.   Once the analysts have invested the time to make a full set of seamless non-overlapping sections of the map at different scales (because remember this is just a metaphor and our GIS services are used in interactive maps with zoom in/out capabilities) or tiles, the tiles get sorted and organized. Where these tiles are stored is defined by the office manager. Depending on the size of the organization, the number of cached services, and the performance of the supporting infrastructure - all the cached services could share a single location or at the other extreme each cached service could have its own storage location defined for it. In our office you could think of this as one set of cabinets where the maps are stored or in separate rooms that people must go to get the map they specifically want. These different approaches are taken for efficient storage and retrieval purposes, balanced against cost and more disk space.   A screen capture showing an example of multiple cache directories.   No matter the approach chosen for tile storage and management; the default structure of the storage is consistent. All the tiles for a service are stored together in a single folder. However, this folder is many levels deep. There is a well-documented structure that ArcGIS Server uses to organize these tiles based on the scale, or level of detail (LOD), at which they were generated, and the general location where they are in the extent of the service. When making the tiles ArcGIS Server will partition the full extent for a LOD into large areas called supertiles to manage the label generation. This supertile is then rendered into many smaller tiles that are aggregated together for storage in a binary file called a bundle file.   A screen capture of the cache folder structure.   When a customer needs to see the basemap, ArcGIS analyzes the extent and scale of the request to view the map and fetches the needed tiles to fill the display including a ring of tiles surrounding that extent. When the client asks for these tiles the receptionist, the tile handler process, goes and gets the tiles for the client. Having received the tiles, the client displays them. But the client application can also store the tiles it receives in a local cache on the computer’s hard drive. You can kind of think of this like putting the map up on the wall of their office. As the person pans around the map, the application can just grab the tiles from the local cache and does not have to go back to the GIS office to get the tiles again. This makes the ArcGIS Server basemap layers always display the full extent of the current view of an application and makes them extremely fast.   Sometimes though things change, and our cached services need to be updated to show those changes. For each cached service, we can set the cacheControlMaxAge property (in seconds) which says how long a client will use its locally cached tiles for a service until it needs to get new tiles from ArcGIS Server. You can think of this as a time stamp on the wall map that says this map is good for some time, and after that time you need to go check at the office for an updated map.   Through this article we looked at how ArcGIS Server is used to create and store tiles for our cached basemap layers in ArcGIS. In our next articles, we will look at the analysts in our office to see how they are leveraged to respond to and optimize our operational layers by looking more closing at dynamic layers in ArcGIS Server.  ... View more

An office with people working. ArcGIS Server is like a GIS office in a box In a previous blog we took an alternative perspective on ArcGIS Enterprise and related it to a car to help understand the connections and parts of a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. In that article we described ArcGIS Server like the engine of the car, and that description works great in the larger context of ArcGIS Enterprise. But it doesn’t quite explain how ArcGIS Server works internally. So let shift our thinking and re-evaluate ArcGIS Server. I find it helpful to think of ArcGIS Server like a GIS office in a box. This perspective will allow us to consider different categories of GIS services and explain how those web services in ArcGIS Server work. In this GIS office there are three major roles to examine: the GIS Manager, the office receptionist, and the GIS analysts. In ArcGIS Server, there are coordinating processes that handle the distribution of requests to web services and the general overall innerworkings of ArcGIS Server. These processes are defined in the ArcGIS software and are not configurable nor managed by users. There are also two web applications used by ArcGIS Server publishers and administrators to configure the GIS web services and the ArcGIS Server site.  These applications are the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory and the ArcGIS Server Manager. In essence they both do the same things, but provide different experiences. The Administrator directory app provides all the tools available to administer and configure ArcGIS Server and its services through a text interface against the REST Admin API. while Server Manager app has about 75% of the functionality and is has GUI. Collectively we can consider these apps and processes as the GIS manager of our office. A screen capture of the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory application. In ArcGIS server there is also a specific location that clients can go to get ready made map, vector tile and image service cached tiles. You can think of this as the receptionist’s desk. Most times there’s a person at the desk that can help clients get the tiles needed, this is a process in ArcGIS Server called the tile handler. Lastly, the ArcGIS server has specific processes that support service requests directly. In our office the GIS analysts are focused on specific resources and can respond to live requests for the resource they are responsible for supplying. Our GIS office also needs some way to advertise what resources they are making available to the rest of the organization. I like to think of this as a catalog of resources. I can remember the days before ArcGIS Server and portals, where we needed to maintain a basic web page or pdf doc that listed these GIS products. In ArcGIS server there is a web application that comes with the software that provides both a general listing and then much greater in-depth insights to each web service running on the site. This web application is called the ArcGIS Server Services directory. A screen capture of the ArcGIS Server REST Services Directory. When our office… or should I say ArcGIS Server... is working, a client can either get an advertised resource from an analyst or from the front desk. The place they go depends on the need of the client and the role the resource plays in the current application talking to the office. They can either get cached or dynamic results from ArcGIS Server. If the application needs a basemap to help provide context in a map it will get cached tiles, but if we need to see the most current state of the data or make some changes to update information managed by the office the client will need to communicate with a dynamic service. Great! We now understand the structure and hierarchy of our GIS office in a box. In our following articles we discuss what each person does and look at how, as ArcGIS administrators and content creators, we can manage and control the performance of these parts of ArcGIS Server. ... View more

ArcGIS Enterprise lets administrators make custom roles to coordinate permissions with the business needs of the members of your organization. Learn the process through this quick example where I make two custom roles to coordinate content management and content creation in a portal. The video was recorded using ArcGIS Enterprise11.1 in November 2023. For further ArcGIS Enterprise training, check out Esri's ArcGIS Enterprise: Configuring a Base Deployment course: https://go.esri.com/base-deployment-course. ... View more

Car in motion going through a curve in a road.   Introduction  Through teaching Esri’s ArcGIS Enterprise administration curriculum over the past 13 years, I have found a helpful story to tell that explains how the ArcGIS Enterprise system comes together.   It seems to me the most prevalent misconception about ArcGIS Enterprise, and ArcGIS Online, is that it is exclusively a portal. It is the portal after all that most of us interact with directly when we experience ArcGIS Enterprise. But ArcGIS Enterprise is a system of parts that work together to provide a specific experience and collection of capabilities for an organization. The people who interact with the system experience it differently and tend to think about the system differently too, just like a car.    Your role informs your understanding    The passenger  Most of us have found ourselves as a passenger in a car and can relate to the experience of “going along for the ride.” We have limited access and control of the environment, but there are some buttons and knobs that we can use to roll down a window or adjust our seat. Many times, we have a vague understanding that there is an engine under the hood but would struggle to explain the complexities of a modern internal combustion engine. Before we learned to drive, it was quite possible we would simply get in the car at our starting location and get out of the car after we magically arrived at our destination. All the while only caring about what the car looks like and how the ride feels.   This is close to the perspective I had when I first started using ArcGIS Enterprise, and I think many of us can relate to this. We might experience Enterprise from the workflow of going to some web site that we have to sign into and then clicking around to open a map, or to launch some other app to see how a project is going. It’s the Enterprise portal we experience, and it is easy to conflate the portal with ArcGIS Enterprise based on this experience.     The driver  Then comes the day when we get our driver’s license and we are in control… oh, what a day! I get it, not everyone was as enthusiastic about that day as I was. But with the change we also started relating to the car differently. We must do the work to get to the destination. It requires more attention to the car, the parts that make it go and that can break down.   So too our experience and relationship to ArcGIS Enterprise changes when we become content creators. You are in control of what others can use in the system, you drive the content of web layers, web maps, web apps, and many other products available to your passengers… err colleagues. With that added responsibility comes a greater exposure to the rest of the system too. While not required, it is also helpful to think about the system more holistically, and consider bottlenecks, best practices, and our user’s experience working with the resources we create. If we do not, no one will want to ride with us.     The mechanic  For some of us, we need to go deeper. We need to get our hands dirty and want to work on the car and its components. We learn about the inner workings of the engine, and we tune the suspension. There are modifications to the paint job or the interior that we want to perform to make it “ours”. And we want to make sure it is safe, not just for us, but for everyone who rides in the car too.   When we take on the role of an ArcGIS Enterprise administrator, our relationship and understanding of the system changes too. In many cases, we oversee the architecture, deployment, and maintenance of the system. We configure the experience others will have with Enterprise and its shared resources, and are responsible for the security of the content and members. So, we start to look at the car differently.     The parts of ArcGIS Enterprise  ArcGIS Enterprise architecture drawing As you work with ArcGIS Enterprise you will discover that ArcGIS Enterprise is a system of connected software components that work together. Again, just like a car. This modularity is very powerful and allows you to architect and deploy it to meet your organizations needs and adjust it through time to grow the system.   To be clear, the parts can be deployed on one computer or across many, they can be in the cloud or on premises, then can be configured for redundancy as individual parts or as a separate passive system ready for failover.      Portal for ArcGIS   I like to think of the Portal for ArcGIS software component, aka the ArcGIS Enterprise portal, as the interior and exterior of the car. It is the part that most of us will interact with in some way, whether you are leveraging content as a non-GIS subject matter expert, a decision maker, or data editor. Or if you are making portal content or administering the system, you will at some point use the portal home application. Notice how I referred to the Enterprise portal here as the “home application.” Because the portal software really is much more than one web site. It is a fully functional content management system. It has administrative applications, it includes the map viewer and scene viewer applications, and many other licensed designer applications that are installed together to support its core function.   The core function of the portal is to connect people to GIS resources and functionality in the system. Members have a range of roles that can be applied to them to define if they are a passenger, driver, or mechanic of the system. It also provides security for the system limiting access to resources and capabilities. Kind of like the buttons in a car that save the seat and steering wheel settings and apply them for individuals.   But like a cool looking rusty old truck on the side of the road, it is not going to do much on its own, because it is missing vital parts like an engine.       ArcGIS Server  ArcGIS Server is the Enterprise engine. It does the work to provide the GIS functionality and data through web services that are accessed via web maps and apps. Those services are managed and secured through the web layers in the portal that reference them. Before ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Server was deployed “stand alone”… think a bare car chassis. In this state, it is still functional to do the work and share data, but it is not very user friendly.   With the administrative process of federation, the engine is connected to the rest of the car to provide a user-friendly experience to create, share, secure, and leverage the services provided by ArcGIS Server. The foundational deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise, referred to as the “base deployment”, requires ArcGIS Server to be licensed as a GIS Server and configured as the “hosting server” of ArcGIS Enterprise. Basically, this means some of the ArcGIS Server software functionality is enabled by license to support standard types of GIS web services and can use specific types of data. It is also granted the exclusive capability of supporting core types of software managed services, aka hosted services.  Just like there are many types of powertrains for our modern cars, so too there are different types of ArcGIS Server licensing roles that we can add to our ArcGIS Enterprise car. Like hybrid electric, diesel, electric motors, or fuel cells, ArcGIS Server licensing roles include Image Server, GeoEvent Server, GeoAnalytics Server, Notebook Server, Knowledge Server and more that use specific types of data to provide specific functionality through ArcGIS Enterprise.      ArcGIS Data Store  To store the data needed by the hosting GIS Server, the base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment requires a fuel tank, or two. ArcGIS Data Store is the software that is used to deploy those fuel tanks for the Enterprise car. Like the ArcGIS Server software can be configured to do different things, so too the ArcGIS Data Store software can be configured to make specific data repositories to store distinct types of data for different types of hosted services.  Our base deployment requires the relational data store for hosted feature services and the tile cache data store for hosted 3D scene services.   But remember, this is just the required starting point for ArcGIS Enterprise. Maybe you want a plug-in hybrid-electric car, like I do. You don’t have to stick with the base model. You can add your own user managed data stores like an enterprise geodatabase or a folder with file geodatabases in it to your ArcGIS Enterprise through the process of data store registration. Or you may need a multi-engine car with each one consuming distinct types of fuel. ArcGIS Enterprise can be configured like this too. With added ArcGIS and/or user managed data stores supplying data to different ArcGIS Server sites providing needed capabilities to your organization.     ArcGIS Web Adaptor  The last parts of our ArcGIS Enterprise car are the tires. The ArcGIS Web Adaptor software provides this connection between the road and the rest of the ArcGIS Enterprise car. They are most basically, conduits of communication between a client application and the rest of ArcGIS Enterprise. The web adaptor software is deployed such that one web adaptor is needed to forward communication from a host web server to either the Enterprise portal or an ArcGIS Server site. We need this configuration because the portal listens for its requests on a separate TCP/IP port than ArcGIS Server uses. This is a good thing because the two software components serve specific roles in our deployment and respond to different types of requests.    With all these parts connected and working together ArcGIS Enterprise is ready to take you and your organization for a great ride through the world.     Resources to Learn More: Sharing Content to ArcGIS Enterprise ArcGIS Enterprise: Configuring a Base Deployment   ArcGIS Enterprise: Administration Workflows  ... View more

Sharing Content to ArcGIS Enterprise Bring your enterprise GIS portal to life. Web maps, apps, and other authoritative GIS resources are the lifeblood of an ArcGIS Enterprise portal website. This course covers key workflows and best practices to add resources to your portal and make them easily accessible. Get the information you need to efficiently share a variety of resources that support operational workflows, collaboration within and across business lines, and the ability of portal users to infuse their projects with location-based insight. Lesson Resources Lesson 1- Introduction to ArcGIS Enterprise ArcGIS geoinformation model  Base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment  What can you add to ArcGIS Enterprise?  Lesson 2 - Adding items to the portal Add files from your computer  Manage hosted feature layers  Enable editor tracking on a hosted feature layer  Attribute field management  Set hosted feature layer view definition  Item details  Hosted layer management  Lesson 3 - Sharing content in ArcGIS Enterprise Share items  Create groups  Shared update groups  ArcGIS Enterprise Apps  Lesson 4 - Sharing GIS resources using ArcGIS Pro Manage portal connections from ArcGIS Pro  Understanding services, layers, and maps  Introduction to saving service definitions  Lesson 5 - Publishing workflow for ArcGIS-managed data Configure a web feature layer  Apps and functionality that require ArcGIS Data Store  Create hosted feature layer views  Hosted layer dependencies  Lesson 6 - Publishing workflow for user-managed data Make your data accessible to ArcGIS Server  User-managed data stores in ArcGIS Enterprise  Manage data store items  Publish layers in bulk from a user-managed data store  Manage bulk-published layers  Lesson 7 - Understanding the performance of layers PerfTools (Build 122) for ArcGIS Pro 2.x is now available for download  How To: Use ArcGIS Pro PerfTools to measure bookmark rendering times  Operational layers in web maps  Basemap layer  Lesson 8 - Optimizing basemap layers Tips and best practices for map caches  Author a map for vector tile creation  Tile layers  Share a vector tile layer  Multiple vector tile sources  Create Vector Tile Index  Update vector tile layer style  ArcGIS Vector Tile Style Editor  Hosted vector tile layers  GitHub - Esri / arcgis-vectortile-style-editor  PowerPoint presentation - ArcGIS Pro: Creating Vector Tiles  Lesson 9 - Optimizing operational layers Author a multiscale map  Feature services  Author maps to publish feature services  What is a map service?  Improve map service display performance  Lesson 10 - Using optimized layers in a map Preserve layer and table IDs  Prepare data for replication  Create Replica (Data Management)  Geodatabase Replication  Additional Web Based and Instructor-Led Training ArcGIS Enterprise: Configuring a Base Deployment  ArcGIS Enterprise: Administration Workflows  Get Started with ArcGIS GeoEvent Server  Technology Resources Content Management Techniques for your ArcGIS Enterprise Portal  ArcGIS Enterprise: Best Practices for Layers and Service Types  The ArcGIS GeoInformation Model  Components of ArcGIS URLs  Webinars and Books Getting to Know Web GIS, fourth edition    ... View more

Learn administration essentials to install and configure an ArcGIS Enterprise base deployment that enables individuals to securely access, create, and share geospatial resources. You will learn how to license and install the four software components of a base deployment and ensure system security and performance.     Resources Lesson 1 – ArcGIS Enterprise overview What is ArcGIS Enterprise? Base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment ArcGIS Enterprise Functionality Matrix Esri UC 2019: ArcGIS Enterprise: An Introduction Esri UC 2017: ArcGIS Enterprise—Improving Installation and Configuration ArcGIS Enterprise deployment tools Installation Guides Understand the relationship between ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Online   Lesson 2 – Configuring a secure environment Ports used by Portal for ArcGIS Ports used by ArcGIS Server Ports used by ArcGIS Data Store Enable HTTPS on your web server Restrict TLS protocols and cipher suites Esri Developer Summit 2020: ArcGIS Enterprise and SSL Considerations   Lesson 3 – Setting up a portal Steps to get Portal for ArcGIS up and running Changing the portal content directory Change the Portal for ArcGIS account Import a certificate into the portal   Lesson 4 – Setting up a GIS Server Steps to get ArcGIS Server up and running The ArcGIS Server account About server directories Specify the configuration store location Federate an ArcGIS Server site with your portal Integrate your portal with ArcGIS Server Migrating standalone ArcGIS Server to ArcGIS Enterprise   Lesson 5 – Managing GIS resources What is ArcGIS Data Store? Apps and functionality that require ArcGIS Data Store Tasks to perform after you create a data store Add machines to a data store ArcGIS Data Store command utility reference Data and publishing in ArcGIS Enterprise Introduction to sharing web layers Register your data with ArcGIS Server using Server Manager Register your data with ArcGIS Server using ArcGIS Pro  User-managed data stores in ArcGIS Enterprise  Make your data accessible to ArcGIS Server Data sources for ArcGIS Server (including scenarios for registering data) ArcGIS Data Store vocabulary Functions available through integration (highlighting benefits of a hosting server) Data in ArcGIS: User Managed and ArcGIS Managed   Lesson 6 – Securing a base deployment Portal authentication configuration Configure a SAML-compliant identity provider with a portal Disable anonymous access Use Integrated Windows Authentication Update Identity Store Portal Security best practices  Scan your portal for security best practices ArcGIS Server Security best practices Scan ArcGIS Server for security best practices ArcGIS Trust Center -- Secure and Trustworthy Add members to your portal Esri Academy Task: Configure ArcGIS Enterprise to use SAML Logins Esri Developer Summit 2020: ArcGIS Enterprise: Security Best Practices   Lesson 7 – Managing users and groups User types, roles, and privileges Default User Roles Matrix Configure member roles Share items Create groups   Additional Web Based and Instructor-Led Training ArcGIS Enterprise: Administration Workflows  Sharing Content to ArcGIS Enterprise Deploying ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes ArcGIS Enterprise: Administration Essentials (Learning Plan) ArcGIS Enterprise Fundamentals (Learning Plan) ArcGIS Enterprise: Security (Learning Plan) Migrating Standalone ArcGIS Server to ArcGIS Enterprise Data in ArcGIS: User Managed and ArcGIS Managed ArcGIS Enterprise: An Introduction (video) ArcGIS Enterprise Quick Start Guide   Technology Resources SSL Certificate Explained Services and portal items Esri UC 2023: ArcGIS Monitor: An Introduction Introduction to ArcGIS Monitor ArcGIS API for Python: Administering your GIS ArcGIS API for Python Fundamentals of configuring the organization Create a great home page for your organization Utility services ArcGIS Enterprise backups Create an ArcGIS Enterprise backup Restore ArcGIS Enterprise Upgrade ArcGIS Enterprise Upgrade your ArcGIS Enterprise portal Upgrade ArcGIS Server Upgrade ArcGIS Data Store Migration strategies Migrate to new machines Esri UC 2020: ArcGIS Enterprise: Migration Strategies Technical Support: Patches and Updates ArcGIS GIS Server capabilities and extensions  Introduction to extending services ArcGIS Server licensing roles About distributed collaboration Administering Your Collaboration - Tips and Tricks Architecting the ArcGIS System: Best Practices Introducing the ArcGIS Well-Architected Framework ArcGIS Well-Architected Framework and Architecture Center website   ... View more

Deploying Portal for ArcGIS is a two-day course in which you will learn best practices to deploy Portal for ArcGIS to meet your organization's need for private, secure geospatial content-sharing. This course introduces the architectural and security models that support Web GIS workflows. You will learn how to configure Portal for ArcGIS and its supporting GIS service and data-hosting components to enable a complete Web GIS in your infrastructure. Esri Resources: Esri.com – Esri’s primary website Training – Find and take instructor-led courses and self-paced e-Learning ArcGIS Resources – ArcGIS Help and software resources ArcGIS Help Current version Previous versions Esri Support – Esri’s online support center GIS Dictionary GeoNet ArcGIS Online ArcGIS Blogs Ideas 1. Web GIS concepts Lessons covered:  1 & 7 Resources The following are online help pages, books and articles to introduce you to Web GIS concepts. ArcNews article - Implementing Web GIS Esri Press book - Web GIS: Principles and Applications Online book - The ArcGIS Book - 10 Big Ideas about Applying Geography to Your World ArcGIS Help - About Web GIS ArcGIS Help topic for ports used in licensing ArcGIS Pro via Portal– Configure ArcGIS License Manager to work through a firewall The following videos are freely available via the Esri Events channel on YouTube UC 2016 Tech Session - Content: Vector Tiles: Styling Your Own Base Maps The follow User Conference 2015 Technical Sessions require an additional purchase, but are available as part of the 2015 UC Proceedings package which can be ordered from 2016 Esri UC Proceedings | 2016 Esri International User Conference UC 2015 Tech Session - The Road Ahead: ArcGIS for Server and Portal for ArcGIS UC 2015 Tech Session - Road Ahead - ArcGIS for Desktop UC 2015 Tech Session - Portal for ArcGIS Administration UC 2015 Tech Session - Introduction to the ArcGIS WebApp Builder: JavaScript apps made easy The following videos are freely available via E380 at Esri Video | Videos Covering GIS Events, Products, People, & Topics  . Most of these video expand on topics covered in our course and support concepts introduced in it. DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Vector Tiles in the ArcGIS Platform DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Real-Time GIS: GeoEvent Extension DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Real-Time GIS: Best Practices DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Real-Time GIS: Leveraging Stream Services DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Big Data and ArcGIS: Getting Started with GeoAnalytics for Feature and Tabular Data DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Spatiotemporal Big Data Store DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Best Practices for 3D Scene Services DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS: Development Tools and Techniques DevSummit 2016 Tech Session -  Security and ArcGIS Web Development 2. Portal installation and site creation Lessons covered:  2 & 3 Resources ArcGIS Help for Portal for ArcGIS - Portal for ArcGIS Help The follow User Conference 2015 Technical Sessions require an additional purchase, but are available as part of the 2015 UC Proceedings package which can be ordered from 2016 Esri UC Proceedings | 2016 Esri International User Conference UC 2015 Tech Session  - ArcGIS Server Performance and Scalability: Optimizing GIS Services UC 2015 Tech Session - ArcGIS Online: Administering Your ArcGIS Organization through Scripting The following videos are freely available via E380 at Esri Video | Videos Covering GIS Events, Products, People, & Topics  . UC 2015 Tech Session  - Portal for ArcGIS Administration UC 2015 Tech Session  - Portal for ArcGIS: An Introduction DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - Getting Things Done in Portal with the REST API The following are other unsupported tools for portal administration and configuration Unsupported python module for scripting Portal for ArcGIS Administration - ArcRest on GitHub Unsupported administration tools web - Admin Tools New - Geo Jobe Unsupported ArcGIS Online Assistant - ArcGIS Online Assistant Unsupported Chef Cookbook to automate ArcGIS software installation - Esri's ArcGIS Cookbook Wiki 3. Portal site integration with enterprise and GIS Server systems Lessons covered: 4, 5, 6 & 7 Resources The following are ArcGIS Online Help starting pages ArcGIS Online help for ArcGIS for Server - ArcGIS for Server Help ArcGIS Online help for Web Adaptor (other versions can be accessed from this page too) - Welcome to the ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) installation guide ArcGIS Online help for the ArcGIS Data Store- What is ArcGIS Data Store? The following are ArcGIS Blog articles Designing Custom Roles for Your Organization | ArcGIS Blog More ways to collaborate on maps and apps | ArcGIS Blog The follow User Conference 2015 Technical Session require an additional purchase, but is available as part of the 2015 UC Proceedings package which can be ordered from 2016 Esri UC Proceedings | 2016 Esri International User Conference UC 2015 Tech Session - Portal for ArcGIS Administration The following videos are freely available via E380 at Esri Video | Videos Covering GIS Events, Products, People, & Topics  . UC 2015 Tech Session - ArcGIS Server and Portal for ArcGIS: An Introduction to Security UC 2015 Tech Session - ArcGIS Server: Advanced Security DevSummit 2016 Tech Session - ArcGIS for Server: Web GIS Security The following videos are freely available via the Esri Events channel on YouTube UC 2016 Tech Session - Web GIS: Server and Online: ArcGIS for Server Security: An Introduction UC 2016 Tech Session - Web GIS: Server and Online: ArcGIS for Server Security: Advanced The following are free Esri Live Training Seminars available from Esri Configuring Enterprise Logins for ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS Portal for ArcGIS: Leveraging Windows Single-Sign-On for your Organization The following is an ArcWatch article on security best practices Learn to Apply Security Best Practices to an ArcGIS Server Site 4. Configure Portal for High Availability and Disaster Recovery  Lessons covered: 8 Resources The follow User Conference 2015 Technical Session require an additional purchase, but is available as part of the 2015 UC Proceedings package which can be ordered from 2016 Esri UC Proceedings | 2016 Esri International User Conference (UC 2015 Tech Session - Building your Server for High Availability and Disaster Recovery The following videos are freely available via the Esri Events channel on YouTube UC 2016 Tech Session -Web GIS: Server and Online: ArcGIS for Server: High Availability and Disaster Recovery The following is a living document that’s updated regularly to support Architecting the ArcGIS Platform Architecting the ArcGIS Platform: Best Practices (April 2016) The following are specific links to ArcGIS Online Help topics and Knowledge base articles regarding Highly Available Web GIS system setup. Help Links for High availably configuration – Highly available web GIS Configuring a highly available portal Help links for ports used in HA Web GIS system – Before installing ArcGIS Web Adaptor Ports used by Portal for ArcGIS Ports used by ArcGIS Server ArcGIS 10.4 Data Store system requirements - Firewall settings Configure ArcGIS License Manager to work through a firewall Help links for ArcGIS Data Store HA setup - Tasks to perform after you create a data store - Define a backup location Add a standby machine Help links for SSL and a HA portal Enable HTTPS on your web server Import a certificate into the portal Federate an ArcGIS Server site with your portal Configuring HTTPS using a new CA-signed certificate -Configure ArcGIS Server to use the CA-signed certificate Knowledgebase technical article on IIS IWA for HA - How To:  Configure Integrated Windows Authentication with a highly-available portal The following are specific links to ArcGIS Online Help topics regarding Disaster Recovery of a web GIS system Disaster recovery and replication Configure disaster recovery for web GIS Web GIS backups ... 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