ArcGIS Data Store Questions

[Mark_Hotz]

I have installed ArcGIS Data Store 10.6.1, and have upgraded ArcGIS Enterprise to 10.6.1.  My ArcGIS Desktop is also now 10.6.1, and I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.2.  Our ArcGIS Server and Portal for ArcGIS are also federated.

It has become apparent though that I now need to change the managed database to an ArcGIS Data Store relational data store (our data is still in an enterprise geodatabase, but it is now publishing directly to Portal).  However, there are two paths from which to choose: 

1. Changing the existing managed database to a registered database, and
2. Republishing our hosted feature layers

If I understand the true meaning of "hosted", as far as I know, nothing on our servers is hosted.  All map and feature services that have been published simply reside in Portal.

So I have 3 questions:

1) Does it matter if our ArcGIS Server and Portal for ArcGIS are federated (is this a concern for configuring Data Store)?

2) If vying for option "b" above, does the data need to be hosted before republishing hosted features?

3) Does the ArcGIS Data Store implementation process create a hosted server?

[JonathanQuinn · Accepted solution]

1) To have a full base deployment, you need Portal, Server, and the ArcGIS Data Store. The Data Store is registered to Server and Server federated to Portal and set as the hosting server. You'd get the most use out of the Data Store if it's registered to Server and the Server set as the hosting server:

Configure a hosting server—ArcGIS Server Administration (Windows) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

2) If you had existing services that were "hosted' but used data in your enterprise database, those services need to be republished. The act of republishing will move the data into the ArcGIS Data Store.

3) Registering the ArcGIS Data Store doesn't automatically set it as the hosting server. You need to designate that Server as the hosting server after federating, (link above describes that).

[Mark_Hotz]

Jonathan:

Thanks a million for the response and the clarification...this is extremely helpful.  I have not yet designated a hosting server, but I'm thinking now that this is probably what I need to do first (so thanks for that pointer and direction as well).  The republishing sounds like more work (to reformat all of my existing map and feature services etc.) but the end result sounds much more robust and better, so I will probably go that route for sure.  I had better do that now anyway, before I get too far down the proverbial rabbit hole .  I currently only have about 8 map/feature services in Portal. 

I'm assuming that once I have set up the hosting server and have republished then I can configure the Data Store?  ArcGIS Data Store has been installed, just not yet configured (the installation process warned me that my Data Store needed to be the same version as ArcGIS Enterprise, so I just finished up grading everything to 10.6.1).

Just to be clear, as our ArcGIS Server and Portal are federated, do I republish the Server, or Portal?  I'm guessing that if I'm republishing the geodatabase then it's probably Server, but I'm just curious if the federated servers will change the order of operation...or if in fact they have to be federated before I can even start to republish.

Thanks again.

[JonathanQuinn]

Yes, if you intend on our existing "hosted" services to remain hosted, then republish them after configuring the ArcGIS Data Store and setting your Server as the hosting server.

It's definitely easier to sort out any configuration problems before your enterprise is fully up and running, so I agree with your rabbit hole statement.

The hosting server can only be set up after you configure the ArcGIS Data Store. The workflow would be:

1) Register the ArcGIS Data Store with your Server (step 8)

2) Since it sounds like your Server is already a federated server, set it as the hosting server, (step 12). If not, federate your Server first with Portal, (step 11)

3) Republish your data as hosted services, which automatically moves the data into the ArcGIS Data Store.

Once you have a full base deployment, you can actually still publish to both, but the resulting service is slightly different:

• If you publish directly to the Server, you're creating a traditional service. This runs a process on the Server machine that will consume resources, (RAM and CPU). The data will likely reside in a file geodatabase or your own enterprise geodatabase.
• If you publish directly to Portal, you're creating a hosted service. This doesn't consume any resources, (they're sometimes referred to as "lightweight" services) and these scale far better than traditional services

Here's a white paper on the differences between "user managed", (data residing in your own enterprise database), and "ArcGIS managed", (data residing in the ArcGIS Data Store), that might be helpful:

https://community.esri.com/community/gis/enterprise-gis/arcgis-enterprise/blog/2018/06/13/esri-white... 

[Mark_Hotz]

Jonathan:

Excellent...thank you very much again.  You have just confirmed my project for the next couple of days .  I'm actually looking forward to this process (it's pretty new to me...but I'm doing this all in an isolated sandbox first before I try it in production just in case I blow things up).

I'm glad you clarified the order of operations too...much appreciated.  I now have a very clear understanding of what needs to be done, and in what order.

Thanks again

[Mark_Hotz]

Jonathan:

OK...mission accomplished.  I have (with additional help from ESRI) fully implemented ArcGIS Data Store, and have published my entire geodatabase to Portal as hosted layers.  Everything seems to be working as advertised.  So far so good.  I do have one additional question, but I'm going to post that separately as it shouldn't really be a part of this thread.

Thanks again for your help...it definitely got the proverbial ball rolling and it's now completed in the sandbox environment.  Today I will start on the upgrade and implementation in the production environment.