topic Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances? in Data Management Questions

How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VaL — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:32:34 GMT

Hi all
could someone point me to the direction of this article on how to run multiple SDE service.
What I need to do is to have 3 Oracle 10g database and to have 3 SDE instances, each pointing to separate oracle DB.
Running 9.3.1 SDE 64bit/Oracle 10g 64 on win2008.
Any advice welcome.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VinceAngelo — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 18:33:51 GMT

A search in the upper bar (of arcgis.com, not just forums) on "multiple ArcSDE services"
pulled up at least half a dozen likely links in the first page (of 1100+ matches). If you
remember to use the proper product name, the search engine should be reliable.

Keep in mind that you're likely to run into the non-interactive desktop heap limitation
on Windows hosts if you run more than 66-70 total application server clients across
the three instances.

- V

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

ModyBuchbinder — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 03:59:22 GMT

Hey

I think this link will help you: http://resources.arcgis.com/content/kbase?fa=articleShow&d=35522

Have Fun
Mody

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VaL — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:33:11 GMT

Hi all
this is now done. I created 3 services and 3 oracl DBs.
I have populated one DB with some data. The other 2 are empty.
Here is the problem.
I deleted all 3 services and recreated them.All went OK
Now if I try to connect to an empty DB it connects OK.
But for the populated DB it just hangs - never connects and shows the data.
All 3 sde services are running OK.
Any ideas?
Thanks

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VaL — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:54:29 GMT

Hi all
all the questions above are now solved.
I have created 4 ODBs and SDE services using this method exactly:
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Using_multiple_geodatabases_in_Oracle

The 4 DBs are now populated with data.

Normally they work fine. This is until I restart the PC. And I started getting an 'bad user' error message when tried to connect to either SDE service from catalog.

I noticed the following:

I have copies of the dbinit.sde file:

the original dbinit.sde
dbinit_chevdb.sde
dbinit_enidb.sde
dbinit_geology.sde

each of them is pointing to a different ODB.
My default DB is callled orclsde and this is what must be set in the the original dbinit.sde. But now it has changed to the database that is pointed to by dbinit_geology.sde. This made all SDE services useless.

If I delete all SDE service and recreate them again using postinstall's last step 'create SDE service' they all work fine until next restart. Using only the last step in the post install DOESNT use customized dbinit.sde. It uses the DB name though.

Any ideas why it does this? How can I have stable 4 instances of SDE.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VaL — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:43:36 GMT

Hello,
Anyone, any ideas.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

ForrestJones — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:57:20 GMT

Hi Vasil,

I would try deleting and recreating the sde services using the sdeservice command instead of the gui post installer. See if that makes any difference.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

CherylCleghorn — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:33:18 GMT

You can try creating another db_init called dbinit_orclsde.sde and set the ORACLE_SID accordingly.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

NatCarter — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:25:24 GMT

Hi all
all the questions above are now solved.
I have created 4 ODBs and SDE services using this method exactly:
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Using_multiple_geodatabases_in_Oracle

The 4 DBs are now populated with data.

Normally they work fine. This is until I restart the PC. And I started getting an 'bad user' error message when tried to connect to either SDE service from catalog.

I noticed the following:

I have copies of the dbinit.sde file:

the original dbinit.sde
dbinit_chevdb.sde
dbinit_enidb.sde
dbinit_geology.sde

each of them is pointing to a different ODB.
My default DB is callled orclsde and this is what must be set in the the original dbinit.sde. But now it has changed to the database that is pointed to by dbinit_geology.sde. This made all SDE services useless.

If I delete all SDE service and recreate them again using postinstall's last step 'create SDE service' they all work fine until next restart. Using only the last step in the post install DOESNT use customized dbinit.sde. It uses the DB name though.

Any ideas why it does this? How can I have stable 4 instances of SDE.

I have run into the same issues when connecting via SDE services to my 3 databases. Followed same protocol and instructions as you and ended up with same results as you. Any updates on how to keep the SDE Services in tact after restart???

It looks like after a restart all SDE Services look for the entry in the default "dbinit.sde" file and ignore the custom ones defined when they are initially created. If you manually change the Oracle_SID entry in the dbinit.sde file to the right SID before starting the cooresponding SDE service...the SDE Service performs correctly like it did when you initially created it using the custom dbinit file for each SDE Service.

Do I need to write my own batch job that runs at start up to control this or is there an ESRI fix??

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

NatCarter — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 14:45:54 GMT

As the ESRI documentation of using one SDEHOME and creating unique dbinit.sde files for each instance only works for initial creation, and not one the service is restarted, one solution is to create a separate SDEHOME for each instance.

1. Create a named folder on your C drive for each instance; maybe even the same name as the instance to help keep track of everything. In my case I created 3 new folders C:\DEQGPRD, C:\DEQGPUB, C:\DEQGFLD for my 3 instances.
2. Go to the current installation of ArcSDE and copy and paste the entire thing into each folder.
3. Update the service and dbinit files within each new "home" to reference just the one service they will manage.
4. Be sure to update the windows\sys32\drivers\etc\service file with any changes to the service names.
5. Do not run the ArcSDE Post Installation wizard but instead use the sdeservice commands to set up the services for each separate SDEHOME. See http://help.arcgis.com/en/geodatabase/10.0/admin_cmds/Support_files/serveradmin/sdeservice.htm#xregister for help with the sdeservice command parameters.

When I restarted the services manually or the rebooted the server all SDE services remained in tact the way they were set up.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

ForrestJones — Sat, 11 Dec 2021 20:19:27 GMT

Hi all,

For the case where you'd like to use the same SDEHOME for all your sde services, would you be able to try the following, please?

For each service (after created), run the sdeservice command to specify the NET_SERVICE_NAME to be used for the particular service:

C:\>sdeservice -o modify -i sde_service1 -r NET_SERVICE_NAME -v <TNSENTRY_NAME>

That might do the trick.

see the sdeservice -o modify help for more info:

sdeservice -h

...
...
-r    Registers/Unregisters/Modify following windows registry keywords:
      SDEHOME                              ArcSDE software location.
      SDE_DBA_PASSWORD                     ArcSDE DBA password.
      SDE_DBA_USER     (SQLSERVER only)    ArcSDE DBA user.
      ADMIN_DATABASE   (DB2/INFORMIX/SQLSERVER/POSTGRESQL only)
                        ArcSDE admin database.
      NLS_LANG         (ORACLE only)       ArcSDE server codepage.
      NET_SERVICE_NAME (ORACLE only)       Oracle TWO_TASK or
                                           LOCAL environment variable.
...
...

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

TimDine — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:00:38 GMT

Is it possible to do this with:
Multiple SDE Services
One SDEHOME
Remote Databases

It seems that the only method I can find that will satisfy the multiple SDE Services and the remote database requirements is the multiple SDEHOME directories.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

ForrestJones — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:10:11 GMT

Is it possible to do this with:
Multiple SDE Services
One SDEHOME
Remote Databases

It seems that the only method I can find that will satisfy the multiple SDE Services and the remote database requirements is the multiple SDEHOME directories.

Hi timdine,

Yes. It should work if you follow the steps here:

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Using_multiple_geodatabases_in_Oracle&anchor=mgdb2o

and then also specify the NET_SERVICE_NAME to be used for each particular service.

This can be done using the sdeservice command or by setting LOCAL=<TNSNAME> in the dbinit files (LOCAL for windows, TWO_TASK for unix).

If that is not working for you, what error(s) are you encountering?

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VinceAngelo — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:49:48 GMT

Back in the days of 100Mb disks, I had to do ugly things with symbolic links to run multiple copies
of SDE from a single SDEHOME (faking multiple SDEHOMEs to save disk space).

Now that ArcSDE supports multiple Oracle instances fom a single SDEHOME, I wouldn't consider
using that feature if I was running under 15-20 instances. Instead I copy the ora*exe directory
to D:\ESRI with the instance in the folder name (e.g. D:\ESRI\sdeexe931sp1_prod), open a
command window, set the SDEHOME and PATH to use %SDEOME%\bin, establish the correct
ORACLE_SID/LOCAL, and run 'sdeservice' manually. This way, when it's time to upgrade, I can
apply the SP to the base install without corrupting my instances, and upgrade them each over
time. The way I see it, the space savings on a 200-500Gb disk just aren't worth the dependencies
caused by using a single SDEHOME for multiple instances.

- V

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

TimDine — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:26:30 GMT

Hi timdine,

Yes. It should work if you follow the steps here:

http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.3/index.cfm?TopicName=Using_multiple_geodatabases_in_Oracle&anchor=mgdb2o

and then also specify the NET_SERVICE_NAME to be used for each particular service.

This can be done using the sdeservice command or by setting LOCAL=<TNSNAME> in the dbinit files (LOCAL for windows, TWO_TASK for unix).

If that is not working for you, what error(s) are you encountering?

I've used those instructions and tried to follow them very closely, it's possible I've got something slightly off though. Everything works great except for the creating my windows service. I can direct connect without issue. If I use the post install wizard it fails unable to connect to my database as it doesn't let me connect to a remote database through the wizard noted http://resources.arcgis.com/content/kbase?fa=articleShow&d=23753 I can get one of my services running connected to my remoted if I use the sdeservice command instead to create the sercice, to modify the NET_MANAGER_NAME equal to LOCAL, AND modify the dbinit.sde file to include "set LOCAL=<oracleInstanceName>". If I use sdeservice though it overwrites the dbinit.sde file each time rather than let me specify a unique file for each windows service. Any ideas? It isn't the end of the world to have multiple folders, it is just duplication that seem I seem so close to being able to avoid.

The ability to do independent upgrades on each instance is appealing on it's own and may be enough reason to go that way on it's own.

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

TimDine — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 18:35:38 GMT

So the next logical step of the thread is upgrading them. My multiple services have been working well for a while and we'd like to upgrade. To do this do the steps below make sense?

Upgrade the base installation with the upgrade application
Stop the service I would like to upgrade
Use the sdesetup command in the base installation directory to upgrade one of the geodatabases
Replace the contents of the SDEHOME associated with the database I just upgraded with upgraded base installation except for the files unique to the service (dbinit, etc.)

Do these steps make sense? Do I need to recreate the sde services as well?

Re: How to run multiple SDE services/intances?

VinceAngelo — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:45:29 GMT

I prefer to use the service SDEHOME for the actual upgrade (so the logs stay
with the instance), but other than that, you've pretty much nailed it.

Different sites have different situations, but If I'm retaining the custom SDEHOME path
(vice tweaking the name to include the SPn), then I'll:
+ stop the service
+ rename the custom SDEHOME
+ copy the installation to the service SDEHOME path
+ copy the etc directory contents from the old SDEHOME
+ manually set SDEHOME to the new directory in old name
+ prepend %SDEHOME%\bin to the PATH
+ set the ORACLE_SID/LOCAL variable
+ grant the necessary privs (or DBA) to SDE
+ execute 'sdesetup -o upgrade' (or, at 10.x, the Catalog/Python equivalent)
+ revoke the unnecessary privs from SDE
+ restart the service
+ if all has gone well, either zip and burn the old directory(ies) to CD-ROM, or
just delete the old directory

If I chose to rename the service directory, I delete the service after stop and recreate
it before start (renaming the directory is the only reason to drop the service).

- V