Is it possible to install and configure Portal for ArcGIS on a standalone virtual machine?

[JonathanBailey]

For a demo, I'm trying to set up a base deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise 10.5.1 on a standalone virtual machine using the ArcGIS Enterprise Builder. The ArcGIS Enterprise Builder configuration failed when configuring the web adaptor for the portal. Through trial-and-error, I've been able to successfully configure the ArcGIS Server instance and its web adaptor, including SSL via a self-signed certificate.

However, I'm still experiencing problems getting the Portal configured. For one, I can't figure out how to properly configure the Portal to work with a self-signed certificate. Most importantly, however, I'm not having success configuring the Web Adaptor to work with the Portal. When I try to configure the Web Adaptor to work with the Portal, I'm just specifying the machine name (i.e., http://<machine-name>:7443), since it's not on a domain, but I get an error indicating that I need to specify a fully-qualified domain name for the Portal. Then, I came across this part of the installation documentation, which seems to suggest that the portal needs be on a domain. So, is it even possible to configure portal to work on a machine not connected to a domain?

[JakeSkinner]

Hi Jonathan,

When configuring the web adaptor for Portal try using [machine name].local:7443.  I believe the .local will alleviate the domain error you are encountering.

[JonathanBailey]

Thanks, Jake. That got my web adaptor configured.

I had it working this morning -- all of my setup completed, ArcGIS Server federated with the portal -- I had just not set up HTTPS. I was able to add a zipped shapefile to the portal, created a hosted feature layer, and added it to the portal's map viewer. Then, I rebooted the machine.

Now, I'm stuck again. Since ArcGIS Server is now federated with the portal, it authenticates through the portal, but something's not right.

If I try to log in to the Portal through the Web Adaptor (https://, the request gets redirected to the internal URL (https://<servername>.localdomain:7443/arcgis/home). If I try to validate the federated servers from the portal, validation fails. If I try to add a new one, I get an error indicating that federation of servers is disabled when accessing the portal without using the web adaptor. So, I go back to try to re-configure the web adaptor. I get various errors depending on what URL I try for the portal:

https://<servername>.local:7443 : "Failed to get administrator token from Portal. Please verify that the Portal URL specified can be accessed successfully."

http://<servername>.local:7443 : "Failed to get administrator token from Portal. Please verify that the Portal URL specified can be accessed successfully."

https://<servername>.localdomain:7443: "Unable to configure the Portal with the Web Adaptor. Please make sure that the Portal and WebAdaptor are of the same version."

http://<servername>.localdomain:7443: "The server committed a protocol violation. Section=ResponseStatusLine"

This is very frustrating! I've been banging at this since Friday, trying to do something which should be very simple: set up a base install of ArcGIS Enterprise on a single VM using the ArcGIS Enterprise Builder and it. doesn't. work!

[BillFox]

I don't think your portal will be happy until at least a domain SSL certificate is used.

Reference:

Enable HTTPS on your web server—Portal for ArcGIS (10.5.x) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

[JonathanBailey]

Thanks, Bill.

I ended up setting up a domain controller and a CA on the machine. I used the CA to issue a domain certificate, which I then bound to IIS/HTTPS, and also added it to the Trusted Root Certification Authorities. However, when I browse to https://localhost or https://<machine-name> or https://<machine-name>.<domain-name>, I'm still getting a security error (works fine for FQDN on IE, errors on Chrome and Firefox).

[JonathanBailey]

For the Esri folks:

In general, this is the experience that I'm having setting up a base deployment of ArcGIS Enterprise. I solve one problem, only to find 2 more. Really, it shouldn't be this hard, particularly since I'm not setting up a production environment.

[JonathanQuinn]

Not sure why you see a cert error in Firefox, but did you set a SAN for the certificate?  If not, that's likely why you're seeing an error in Chrome. Chrome expects a SAN for the certificate now, so you can reissue your certificate with a SAN set the same as the CN.

[BillFox]

A complete web browser cache clearing might help too, and UN-Check the top item "Preserve Favorites website data", Then select the Delete button and OK, Then close any open browser windows
 

[JonathanQuinn]

Can you sign into Portaladmin and go to Machines, and see what the machine name is?  Then, in the URL to register the web adaptor, go to https://servername.local/<wa_name>/webadaptor/portal and then enter the exact machine name you see in the Machines list over 7443, (https://servername:7443). If the machine name is just the short name, (likely, as it won't have a FQDN), but you enter servername.local as the hostname, that's likely turning into a certificate mismatch problem and the request to generate a token is failing.

[JonathanBailey]

Hi Jonathan,

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking me to do here, but here's what I did:

1. The machine name is "abcd-efg-hijk"
2. When I open a browser and navigate to https://abcd-efg-hijk/portal/portaladmin/machines, I can see that the machine name is listed as ABCD-EFG-HIJK.
3. I then opened the URL to configure the web adaptor (https://abcd-efg-hijk/portal/webadaptor/portal). I see that the portal URL that's currently registered is https://abdc-efg-hijk.local:7443.
4. If I edit this URL to remove the ".local" domain extension, and click Configure, then I get the error "Portal configuration requires fully qualified domain name in the Portal URL", as before.

Thanks,

Jon.