When generating an offline map area on demand, which component of ArcGIS Enterprise is doing the work?

[JonSwoveland]

Hi all, I'm trying to size an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment that will have to support users taking maps offline. Can anyone tell me if the heavy lifting is done by ArcGIS Server, or by Portal?

or a bit of both?

[JonathanQuinn]

Portal rarely does much work, it usually passes off that responsibility to the hosting server or other federated servers. Any of those long-running processes are typically GP tool, so they're running on the Server.

[JeffreySutherland]

Jonathan Quinn‌ is correct. Whether creating preplanned offline map areas in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal or defining and downloading an offline map area directly on your device (i.e. in Collector for ArcGIS), almost all of the processing is being done by the ArcGIS Server.