Does ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder creates the VMs or they need to be created before

[Thanasis_A]

Hi, 

I have to deploy an arcgis enterprise installation on Microsoft Azure and I haven't understood yet if the virtual machines need to be already created or does the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder creates them through the wizard.
I need to make a 3 machine deployment, should I create them, prior, on Microsoft Azure dashboard and then run ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder?
Its pretty important because I have to let the IT team know what to do and hosting machines on Azure and then deleting them isn't that cheap.

Below you can see that i have created one just for testing, but I could deploy ArcGIS Server through the builder on it.

Thank you 🙂

[SimonAlfordEsriAU]

Hi Thanasis,

ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure will create the virtual machines.

For more information refer to the following resource.

Deploy ArcGIS Enterprise on Microsoft Azure
https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/cloud/azure/deploy-web-gis-on-azure.htm

In fact, ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure will create all the necessary resources - resource group, virtual machine(s), virtual network, application gateway, storage account, etc.

[Thanasis_A]

Thank you Simon for your answear.
If you could assist me with one more question. If somebody wants a different architecture than the one that the builder suggests, for example to deploy ArcGIS Server and Data Store at the same machine, is this still doable using the cloud builder? 

[SimonAlfordEsriAU · Accepted solution]

Hello Thanasis, you are welcome. I am very happy to help when I can.

Unfortunately ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure does not provide a way to change the architecture (for example to deploy ArcGIS Server and Data Store at the same machine).

The options with ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure are

1. All ArcGIS Enterprise components on a single machine (single-tier).
2. Each ArcGIS Enterprise component on its own machine (multiple-tier).
3. With Version 11 there is an additional option (Dual Machine Single Tier).

I have used ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure version 10.9.1 extensively, and noticed that in a multiple-tier environment, all components (Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Data Store) are installed on all machines. But only one component is enabled (all other components have their Windows service start-up disabled).

It might be possible to reconfigure the Windows services on the ArcGIS Server machine (for example, configure ArcGIS Data Store service to start Automatically). You would then need to configure ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Data Store to connect to each other on the single machine.

Once you get ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Data Store working on the same machine, you can delete the ArcGIS Data Store virtual machine.

I have not completed this workflow, so I cannot share any other advice or experience. I would suggest if you take this action that you make sure everything is working properly (create/consume hosted services), before exposing users to the environment.

Good luck!