Is there a maximum number of layers in MXD to publish to map service?

Question

I have an mxd that contains hundreds of layers that are all OFF and all point to the same feature class. (I have added a layer for each field in the feature class.) I am able to create an msd file and publish the map service but unfortunately the map service fails to start. Since the map service will only ever display one layer at a time, I was hoping that the number of layers would not matter. A couple of questions: is there a maximum number of layers I can have in the mxd? Is there a way to increase the startup timeout interval for starting the map service?

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Barb Patterson

ElieRizk · Answer

hello,

sorry to revive this thread, but I have MXD with more than 1500 scanned images, the scanned images are stored in a folder on the map server machine where the ArcGIS installed.

the problem is that I am not able to publish this map service with this count of images (startup time error generated) during the publishing.

I tried to reduce the number to 1250 and successfully published. when trying to increase this number the publishing service startup time out.

BarbaraPatterson · Answer

Thanks for the feedback - this info will be helpful.

Barb

AlexManduley · Answer

Hi Barb,

We're running three services as MSDs with about 600 (and growing) layers apiece. You may just need to set a longer timeout period in order to give it the necessary time to start. Also, I have had significantly better results when the server has two or more cores.

Alex