topic Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0? in Oriented Imagery Questions

Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

CameronRex1 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 20:22:26 GMT

I'm trying to serve an Oriented Imagery Dataset from a secured Amazon S3 cloud store (not public) using the $virtualCacheDirectory workflow documented for ArcGIS Enterprise 12.0, and I've hit a wall where the service publishes and resolves correctly but images never actually load. Before I go further, my real question for the community: has anyone gotten OID secured storage working end-to-end on AWS S3 with Enterprise 12.0? If you have, I'd love to know what your setup looked like. If you tried and couldn't, that's useful to know too.

Reference docs for the workflow I'm following:

Secured storage section: https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/12.0/use/work-with-oriented-imagery-layers-mv.htm
Generate Service From Oriented Imagery Dataset: https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/3.6/tool-reference/oriented-imagery/generate-service-from-oriented-imagery-dataset.htm

Environment

ArcGIS Enterprise 12.0, base install (Build 58905), no patches
Single-machine deployment (Portal + hosting Server federated on one machine), on AWS
Imagery in a private S3 bucket, registered as a cloud store
OID authored for 360 corridor imagery; discrete JPEG frames

What I'm seeing

ImagePath is formatted as documented, e.g. $virtualCacheDirectory:<folder>/<filename>.jpg. Published with the native Generate Service From Oriented Imagery Dataset tool with the Virtual Cache Directory parameter set to the registered cloud store.

In ArcGIS Pro: the image resolves to a well-formed URL (https://.../arcgis/rest/directories/dsid_<storeGUID>/<folder>/<filename>.jpg) but fails to load.
In Portal Map Viewer: the same service resolves to https://.../arcgisnull/<folder>/<filename>.jpg — the cache directory base resolves to the literal string null.

What I've already verified / ruled out

S3 access and objects are good: using the same access key registered for the cloud store, a separate cloud store connection in ArcGIS Pro lists and opens the exact image objects the OID references.
The registered cloud store's GUID matches the dsid_<guid> in the resolved Pro URL, so the service is resolving to the correct store.
Single machine, so the "cloud store must be on the same server as the OID service" requirement is satisfied by definition.
Reproduced with the native GP tool (not just my own Python toolbox), so it's not my code.
Tried multiple store registration variations (plain name; ags-objects- prefixed name; with "Register Cache directory" enabled + arcgiscache folder; with the credential temporarily granted write access). Identical result every time.
Both Server and Portal WebContextURLs are set and aligned (/arcgis and /portal respectively).
In Server logs at DEBUG, the /rest/directories/dsid_<guid>/...jpg request appears and then dead-ends silently — no CloudStore, CacheDirectory, S3, or object-store entries follow it, and no error. The FeatureServer query for the same service logs normally and returns features with their imagepath values.

Open questions

Is OID secured storage via $virtualCacheDirectory actually functional on 12.0, and does it require any server role/capability (e.g. Image Server) that isn't mentioned in the secured-storage docs?
The "Secured storage" section present in the 12.0 oriented imagery viewer help appears to have been removed in the 12.1 docs. Is this workflow still supported in 12.1?

I have an open Esri support case on this (#04187998) and have worked through it extensively with Enterprise support, but we haven't been able to resolve it through standard troubleshooting. I'm hoping someone here with direct experience getting OID secured storage working on AWS (or on the Imagery team) might recognize what's going on. Any pointers appreciated.

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

SCampbell_TRC — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:21:52 GMT

Very similar approach and results, also in version 12.0, but I'm getting a 500 error when trying to access the images thru the Oriented Imagery Viewer. Did you make any headway?

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

CameronRex1 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:28:11 GMT

Not yet, Esri Support is currently reproducing my environment and testing to see if it is a misconfiguration or a bug. They have acknowledged that the documentation is not very clear, I will be sure to follow-up here whatever the outcome.

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

SCampbell_TRC — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 23:54:04 GMT

Thanks!

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

SCampbell_TRC — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 22:50:38 GMT

I'm curious about the error that you are getting? I followed the same instructions you specified. Slightly different environment with a hosting, image, raster, and mapping server. Same private S3. I setup the cloud store connection on all the servers (via server manager). When I click on the image using the OID tools, the icon spins as if it's loading the image and then comes back with a

"Error occurred while loading the image. Unable to load https://FQDN.com/hosting/rest/directories/ags-objects-projectimages/test/S100441.JPG status: 500"

Is this the same error you get?

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

CameronRex1 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:25:24 GMT

Yes, this is the same error I am getting. The only difference is that the resolved URL is resolving dsid_<storeGUID>, not the cloud store name as shown in your error.

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

CameronRex1 — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 20:30:18 GMT

I had the opportunity to talk with the Esri Imagery & Remote Sensing team at the UC last week about OIDs, and specifically the Secured Storage issue present in 12.0.

Over the weekend I received a message stating that there are issues with OID Secured Storage in 12.0, and the feature has been pulled till likely 12.2. Given this new information Esri Tech Support is trying to figure out how they want to log the issue.

If I receive any additional information on OID Secured Storage I will be sure to update here.

Re: Has anyone successfully served an Oriented Imagery Dataset from secured AWS S3 storage ($virtualCacheDirectory) on Enterprise 12.0?

Geraldine — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 06:41:05 GMT

Same issue with a secured Azure Cloud storage and AGE 12.0. The OI widget from the map viewer gives an error message 'error occured while loading the image - unable to load <ImagePath>'.

In the browser console it looks like an http path is expected instead of the $VirtualCacheDirectory path, which doesn't make sense:

Cross-Origin Request Blocked: The Same Origin Policy disallows reading the remote resource at <Imaage path> (Reason: CORS request not http)

Quite disappointed at Esri staff who told me that this worked perfectly during last EU Dev Summit in November. It also took us weeks to figure out the exact workflow and what was/wasn't possible in version 12.0, even our local distributor got confused by the contradictory doc.

Local distributor is in contact with Esri Inc to follow this up.