Add Layer to Map Service without Republishing?

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1
09-15-2022 12:38 PM
ojlarson
New Contributor

We host a map service with near-real-time satellite imagery. When we receive new image throughout the day, we currently use a script to add the .tif as a new layer and republish the service as quickly as possible.

However, this causes the service to come down briefly and this causes issues due to the high viewership of a web app using this service. Is there a way to add a layer to a map service without overwriting the service?

We need to retain the ability to click on and off layers, each with a name that contain timing information, so a mosaic dataset will not work for us, since it shows up as a single layer when hosted (unless someone knows how to split a mosaic dataset into layers within the AGOL environment).

We don't control the web app and thus have limited options post-publishing.

1 Reply
Scott_Tansley
MVP Regular Contributor

Clearly, I'm now aware of any of your licensing or IT constraints.  But, one of the ways that I've seen this tackled is to have two ArcGIS Servers.  Server A is live with the last release of data.  Server B is the release before.  When new data arrives, then Server B receives an updated Map Service with the new datasets.  A load balancer is then switched to Server B.  Server A then goes quiet until a new dataset comes in and the roles reverse again.

In this way, you never incur user downtime while republishing happens.

It's a reasonably advanced workflow, but I've seen it work to good effect.

Scott Tansley
Consulting Architect (ArcGIS Enterprise)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scotttansley/