Full Technical Support Parity with Linux and Windows

[RyanUthoff]

I am proposing that all Esri ArcGIS Enterprise Technical Support articles/documentation regarding common issues in Windows also have a corresponding article/documentation for Linux if the issue exists in both Windows and Linux environments.

For example, the issue described in this Esri Technical Support article (https://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000012007) is valid for both Windows and Linux. However, the article only references Windows environments. I experienced this issue yesterday in a Linux environment, yet the only documentation that exists for this issue is for Windows. We had to do a lot of searching around to find the file in a Linux environment. If an issue for any Esri product is possible to exist in both Windows and Linux, then the article should have troubleshooting steps for both environments, not just Windows by default. The link I posted above is just a single example, but it is a common issue.

I realize most organizations probably choose Windows to deploy ArcGIS Enterprise, but if Esri is going to support Linux, then Esri's Technical Support articles should have troubleshooting steps for both Windows and Linux environments if the issue the article is describing exists in both environments. The article shouldn't be in Windows by default, with Linux users left to troubleshoot the issue on their own.

[AdamStewart]

I feel like the API documentation suffers from the same challenge of not being able to switch between platforms.  I often have to Bing search a question and get a result for a different platform, or the same platform and a different version, then try to "figure out" the difference from a different language.

Esri has it working very well to switch between platforms on the Install/Setup guides.  I'd like to see the same behavior on Tech Support and API Docs.

[RyanUthoff]

I agree. If Esri claims they are going to support a product, then there needs to be full documentation parity between all platforms. Don't leave your Linux users out to dry. 

[MatthewLevey]

I fully agree and feel that technical support parity could be taken even a step further. Far too often when requesting technical support for an issue with our ArcGIS Enterprise deployment on Linux, the analyst says something like, "I am not a Linux person but I will try to help you".

I too often feel that Linux is not truly supported but rather offered as a courtesy to those who can't or won't run Windows.

[JonEmch]

Hello all,

   Thank you for reaching out about our support documentation and process. We offer full documentation parity between our Windows, Linux and Kubernetes offerings within the Enterprise documentation site. However technical support documents and articles are typically logged from analyst experiences in a given technology, which is more often than not in Windows.

   Your feedback and observations on our Linux technical documentation offering is valid, and we are constantly working on better improving our documentation and processes. If you have feedback on specific documentation, the "Feedback on this article" link at the bottom of these doc pages is an excellent way to request changes to those docs. If you have specific documentation you would like to see paired, I would be happy to pass that along to the team.

Jon