ArcGIS enterprise configuration in an intranet environment

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10-26-2017 06:07 AM
SaraEL_MALKI
Occasional Contributor II

Hi guys,

I've been reading the documentation for hours and hours but it's getting me LOST,

I wanna know briefly what's the optimal configuration for an intranet environnement for arcGIS server and Portal? 

we do have a windows server standard, arcGIS enterprise 10.5.1, Oracle enterprise database and a geodatabase.

some developers will use WAB Dev edition, edit and add content to the portal and server and others viewers of the Portal.

- for the SSL certificate, I will create a domain certificate, but what I didn't understand is will I need to buy a domain site and use it for this certificate or just create one by my own ?

- Will I need a multi-tiered deployment or all-in-one deployment ?

Deployment scenarios—Installation Guides (10.5) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

Excuse my basic questions because I'm a literal beginner

Derek Law‌ Robert Scheitlin, GISP Rebecca Strauch, GISP

Portal for ArcGIS‌ ArcGIS Server (10.0 and prior)

thanks in advance for your help,

Sara

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DerekLaw
Esri Esteemed Contributor

Hi Sara,

> what's the optimal configuration for an intranet environnement for arcGIS server and Portal? 

There is no 'best fit solution' to answer this question. It will depend on how many end users you will have, how many services you will publish, the types of services, if you will enable the ability for end users to also be able to create new hosted services in Portal, your security model, etc.

At minimum, if you want to leverage the full capabilities of a Web GIS - then you should start with a base deployment,

Base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment—Portal for ArcGIS (10.5.x) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

To learn more about ArcGIS Enterprise deployments,

Web GIS: Architectural Patterns & Practices - YouTube 

> for the SSL certificate, I will create a domain certificate, but what I didn't understand is will I need to buy a domain site and use it for this certificate or just create one by my own

If you end clients will only be from within your organization (intranet) then I think a domain certificate should be fine. As the client machines should have a domain certificate already installed. It is typically provided by your IT/systems group. If your end clients may be outside your network, then I recommend purchasing a CA certificate.

> Will I need a multi-tiered deployment or all-in-one deployment ?

Deployment scenarios—Installation Guides (10.5) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

The link you referenced mainly applies to an ArcGIS Server site, and does not factor in Portal for ArcGIS. Again, please see my answer to your first question.

Hope this helps,

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14 Replies
DerekLaw
Esri Esteemed Contributor

Hi Sara,

> what's the optimal configuration for an intranet environnement for arcGIS server and Portal? 

There is no 'best fit solution' to answer this question. It will depend on how many end users you will have, how many services you will publish, the types of services, if you will enable the ability for end users to also be able to create new hosted services in Portal, your security model, etc.

At minimum, if you want to leverage the full capabilities of a Web GIS - then you should start with a base deployment,

Base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment—Portal for ArcGIS (10.5.x) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

To learn more about ArcGIS Enterprise deployments,

Web GIS: Architectural Patterns & Practices - YouTube 

> for the SSL certificate, I will create a domain certificate, but what I didn't understand is will I need to buy a domain site and use it for this certificate or just create one by my own

If you end clients will only be from within your organization (intranet) then I think a domain certificate should be fine. As the client machines should have a domain certificate already installed. It is typically provided by your IT/systems group. If your end clients may be outside your network, then I recommend purchasing a CA certificate.

> Will I need a multi-tiered deployment or all-in-one deployment ?

Deployment scenarios—Installation Guides (10.5) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

The link you referenced mainly applies to an ArcGIS Server site, and does not factor in Portal for ArcGIS. Again, please see my answer to your first question.

Hope this helps,

SaraEL_MALKI
Occasional Contributor II

Hi,

thanks a lot for your answer and helpful links,

I have chosen to make it a all-in-one deployment, my machine has 10 GB RAM, and I read here

Plan a base deployment—Portal for ArcGIS (10.5.x) | ArcGIS Enterprise 

that it needs a 16 GB RAM ? what can I do in this case ?

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RandallWilliams
Esri Regular Contributor

16 gb RAM is the minimum recommended memory for a performant Web GIS in a production environment. You can install the all-in-one deployment on an underpowered machine, but be aware that users will likely find the performance to be unacceptable - especially under any kind of load. In terms of machine upgrades, RAM and HDD space are relatively inexpensive. I'd add more RAM, or if this is a VM, request that the VM admin bump up your allocation.

SaraEL_MALKI
Occasional Contributor II

Randall Williams

Derek Law

Robert Scheitlin, GISP

thanks for your response,

but excuse me, what do you mean by a "production environnement" ? 

I wanna all the computers connected to my Intranet to be able to connect to the Server/Portal and create Apps with Admin role and use the WAB Dev edition, I am afraid that you mean that ONLY the computer on which we installed these stuff, is the only one where we can do everything we want ?

- If I choose to do a multiple machine deployment, do I need to have two/many Servers in my organization and install on each server a different component ? or what exactly ? ( in case I can't afford the 16gb RAM)

excuse my basic questions,

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RandallWilliams
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi,

Many organizations maintain more than one environment for the implementation of a given solution. These are often defined as:

a. Test/Development - a sandbox type of environment where new functionality can be tested, apps built and rebuilt, prototyping and the like

b. Staging - This is where user acceptance and load testing is performed.

c. Production - this is the 'Live' site that's 'officially' used by clients. Prod is not to be touched prior to extensive testing.

See:

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/117945/staging-environment-vs-production-env...

Some (well, many) organizations don't have the resources for more than one environment, but this also presents implementation risks. It's a lot less stressful to break a DEV environment than it is to break the PROD environment.

With regard to this question:

I wanna all the computers connected to my Intranet to be able to connect to the Server/Portal and create Apps with Admin role and use the WAB Dev edition, I am afraid that you mean that ONLY the computer on which we installed these stuff, is the only one where we can do everything we want ?

This is not the case. Users of ArcGIS Enterprise won't be confined to using just this one machine, they'll be able to connect to it using a browser via the intranet.

However, because the machine you're thinking of deploying the Enterprise GIS on is a bit underpowered, the performance these user experience will likely be less than desired - depending on how many users are working with it.

If you elect to work with a multi-machine deployment, the performance impact will be lessened because you're distributing the components of ArcGIS Enterprise across two or more resources, which will lessen the resource impact on each machine.

If you're RAM constrained but can spin up multiple machines, I'd highly recommend this route rather than a single underpowered machine.

To summarize:

It is POSSIBLE to deploy ArcGIS Enterprise on a single machine that has only 10GB memory. However, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED - especially under an environment under any kind of production load where users are expecting the system to be available and performant - to have a MINIMUM of 16 GB RAM.

SaraEL_MALKI
Occasional Contributor II

randall_williams-esristaff

If I did get it right, I can start by a DEV environnement to test my Apps and rebuilt them than change it to a Production environnement when I have the final product !

for the second question, when talking about a multi-machine deployment, what are the constraints on these machines ? should each machine contain a Web Server ? 

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RandallWilliams
Esri Regular Contributor

Q: If I did get it right, I can start by a DEV environnement to test my Apps and rebuilt them than change it to a Production environnement when I have the final product !

A: Yes, that's correct.

Q: for the second question, when talking about a multi-machine deployment, what are the constraints on these machines ? should each machine contain a Web Server?

A. You only really need one web server, unless you want a high availability type of configuration. The web server would be where the web adaptors live. Windows servers ship with the IIS web server. Otherwise you could use the Java web adaptor on any supported OS with a J2EE application server. For an intranet-only configuration, the web server can be on one of the machines where a component of ArcGIS Enterprise is installed or a stand-alone web server.

Requirements for the individual components of ArcGIS Enterprise:

http://server.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/portal-for-arcgis-system-requirements.h...

http://server.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/install/windows/arcgis-server-system-requirements.htm

https://server.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/arcgis-data-store-system-requirements....

http://server.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/latest/install/iis/arcgis-web-adaptor-system-requirements.ht...

SaraEL_MALKI
Occasional Contributor II

randall_williams-esristaff

Okay thanks so much,

so I need one web Server, and install the ArcGIS server on it with a Web Adaptor (I have a Windows Server Standard 2008 R2) and on an other NORMAL computer install Portal with a web adaptor, isn't it ?

- for the domain that I will choose for the Portal, (that needs a SSL certificate) will I need BUY it as a domain OR just create one of my choice and then configure it with the port 443 ?

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RandallWilliams
Esri Regular Contributor

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 is out of mainstream support by Microsoft. While it'll likely work, it should be upgraded.

2. While frequently spoken of in terms of 'hardware', a 'server' is a role or a piece of software installed on a machine. For instance, I run windows 10 on my laptop, but I also run IIS as a web server on this same laptop as my dev/test server. My laptop is not a 'server class' machine per-se.

3. If you can create a domain certificate, that'll work. For an internal system, while there is a requirement that you have a certificate, there's no requirement that you purchase a certificate from a certificate authority.