Portal for ArcGIS on AWS - Uncomment preferredidentifier=ip property in hostidentifier.properties file

[Ranga_Tolapi]

Is the Step #6 mentioned at Deploy Portal for ArcGIS on AWS documentation is mandatory?

If yes, why and how does it really helps this particular deployment?

6. Open the hostidentifier.properties file and confirm the preferredidentifier=ip property is uncommented. The file is found in the <Portal for ArcGIS installation directory>\framework\runtime\ds\framework\etc\ directory.

Can someone help to understand this please.

[ChristopherPawlyszyn · Accepted solution]

EC2 instances aren't guaranteed to have unique hostnames, so by using the IP address as the host identifier you avoid the possibility that two machines have the same hostname and communication doesn't route properly between the instances.

For a single-machine deployment, it isn't necessarily required, but if the site plans to scale in the future then it should be implemented prior to site creation since it can't be done after site creation.