Change Portal Web Adaptor URL to new URL

[AdamCottrell]

Hello, I was wondering if it possible to change the Portal web adaptor URL to a new URL without breaking portal, the federated server, hosting server, etc?  For example, if existing URL is https://gis.agency.com/portal and I want to change it to https://gis.agency.org/portal.  I'm getting conflicting information.  I know an agency that had to change and it broke their portal.  They had to rebuild in a new environment.  I found the document "Unregistering ArcGIS Web Adaptor with Portal for ArcGIS" and I think this is what I need to do to remove the web adaptor but concern it will break everything.  The reasons for this are:

1. Our agency public facing websites have changed from a ".com" to ".org"
2. Our GIS web server needs replaced.

I know I will need to update web application URLs for the custom web mapping apps that I created so that does not bother me.  I'm mainly concern about breaking the CORE products: Portal, Server, and Data Store.

Thank you in advance.

[Scott_Tansley]

Hey sorry, I can't put my hand on the esri doco FAQ that answers this, but the answer is unfortunatley no.  The URLs get encoded into the content 'files' that are stored on disk.  This makes it a massive and unsupported task to update.

[AdamCottrell]

Thanks for the quick response.  So do I need to spin up a whole new environment and move portal items, server items, etc.?  Is there a tool to "copy" portal to portal?  Could I use the AGOL assistance web tool?

Once again, thank you so much for the quick response.  It is much appreciated!

[Scott_Tansley]

The lowest hanging fruit would be a quiet conversation to ask if you can retain the old URL as it will save so much work.  

Beyond that, yes, you're looking at a redeployment.  Depending on what version you are using you could use principles from this blog:

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-enterprise/administration/moving-content-across-tie... 

AGOL assist is uber-geeky and if you have lots of content then can be slow.  Without 'knowing' your environment it's hard to say specifically.

[Scott_Tansley]

and here's another resource that may help:

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/migration-strategies.htm 

[Scott_Tansley]

I found the article I was mentioning earlier. 

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/install/windows/determine-your-organization-s-url.htm 

I play it safe and interpret statements like:

• Before installing ArcGIS Enterprise, identify the URL that will be used to represent your ArcGIS Enterprise organization
• The configuration described in this topic must be performed before federating any ArcGIS Server site with your ArcGIS Enterprise organization
• Adding a DNS alias or reverse proxy after an ArcGIS Server site has been federated with your portal is not supported

as meaning that we should choose a DNS/URL before we install; deploy/configure to it, and then stick with it.

However, I do note that at 11.1 Esri state:

"If you need to change the hostname in your organization URL, contact Esri Professional Services or another trusted consulting partner for guidance."

I'd like to think of myself as a trusted consulting partner, but frankly I wouldn't want to take this task on.  🙂  

As mentioned elsewhere, I'd be requesting retention of the original URL to save a world of pain.  

[AdamCottrell]

Scott, once again, I cannot thank you enough.  Unfortunately, at the time of creating this deployment, the URL was in line with our organization's URL.  Skip ahead 5 yrs, they decided to change it.  It was unknowing and not predicted that this change would occur.  Unfortunately, we will need to make this move.  I have both hosted features in a datastore and published services from a SQL instance.  It looks like I will have to dive into this nightmare head first. 🙃  

Also, I thought I added the link to my original post for the "Unregistering ArcGIS Web Adaptor with Portal for ArcGIS" link.  Here it is.  I wonder what the purpose of this is if it will not work.

 https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/10.9.1/install/iis/unregister-arcgis-web-adaptor-portal...

[Scott_Tansley]

I see that being useful if you wanted to upgrade the web server.  Say you had a win server 2019 configured for TLS 1.2 and you wanted a new host with server 2022 to support TLS 1.3.  You could deregister the old host before registering the new.

Swapping the DNS would keep the URL and the name of the portal constant and there would be no breakage.  My understanding is that changing the URL or the context ‘after’ you’ve created your first items will break the portal.  Each item holds references within rhe individual JSON/XML files. So,  if you deployed and wanted to change the name before using it in anger then this would also be useful. 

It’s some time since I was last asked to try this, but I’d recommend cracking open some of your content on disk to confirm.  Don’t amend any of it manually!!!!  There is no internal URL rewriter that willl update the content. 

[AdamCottrell]

Thank you sir!  Much appreciated! 

[Brian_Wilson]

We added the domain clatsopcounty.gov but did not change the old one co.clatsop.or.us at all. To gauge the effort to change I have been watching for instances of the old name for about 6 months now, and I can confirm they are buried EVERYWHERE. They are referenced in JSON files, in config files, in .sde and .ags binary files and on and on. The county gave me the option so I decided not to touch it.

If really had to do this I think I'd set up brand new VMs on the new names and then migrate the content over. I'd feel more comfortable scripting that process. I'd be able to test the new servers out before decommissioning the old ones.

Best wishes in your adventure.