Cannot register folder with ArcGIS Server 10.1

[DonaldBrown]

ArcGIS Server 10.1 is installed on a Linux VM. I am trying to connect to a Linux file share via a samba mount.
I am in the 'ArcGIS Server Properties' > 'Data Store' tab. I can register my Enterprise Postgres databases just fine, but when I try to register a folder, I get the error:
"The ArcGIS Server is not able to connect to the specified directory. Please ensure the folder exists and has the appropriate permissions for the ArcGIS Server to access it."

This doesn't make sense because when I click the '+' sign and browse, I can see the folder. The agsadmin user has read/write privileges to the directory. What am I missing?

[DonaldBrown]

Does anyone know how to change/modify the 'ArcGIS Server Account' after the initial install for ArcGIS Server 10.1 on Linux??? I've heard that it defaults to whatever user installs the software(not ideal). The Windows version has a nifty tool to do this, does the Linux version have a tool?

[DonaldBrown]

I had my systems admin person re-install the Server software as a user named 'arcgissoc'. I still cannot register a folder. Doing a ls -l in the install directory tells me that user 'arcgissoc' installed the files. I can log onto the ArcGIS Server VM as 'arcgissoc'. I can also log into the shared file system as 'arcgissoc'. Why can't I add this folder in the 'Server Properties'? I'm using a UNC path to reference the samba mount on our Linux file share.

[JeffSmith]

When you register the folder, are you unchecking the option 'Same as publisher folder path'?  This needs to be unchecked so your publisher folder path is the UNC path to your Samba share and the Server folder path is the Linux path to that same folder in Linux format (ex /arcgis/data).  In your case the 'arcgissoc' account needs read access to that folder.

[DonaldBrown]

Thanks for your help Jeff!
Can you tell me specifically what I would need to put in the box for 'Server folder path'

The name of my Linux file share is 'nas1'
On 'nas1', the data I want to register is in the directory:
/array0/dist/docs/arcgisdata

The Windows samba mount for this same directory is:
\\NAS1\arcgisdata

If it matters, the name of the Linux 10.1 GIS Server machine is igskbacb6016.

[DonaldBrown]

For now, I do not need the GIS Server to create and maintain a separate copy of the data. In this situation, it is my understanding that I would leave the box checked for 'Same as publisher folder path'.

Anyway, I still can't get it to work with any combination of 'checked' or 'unchecked' mixed with any combination of filepaths that I can think of.

Not sure why this doesn't work. I can click the 'Add' button and navigate to my samba mount in this window.

[EricBader]

Hi Donald.

Actually, in this case, I think you do need to maintain the data in 2 places. Here is the reason why:
In Windows, your data is accessed through a file path that looks like this: "\\NAS1\arcgisdata".
But your Linux Server will never be able to make sense of a file path like that.
Linux must see the share as: "/array0/dist/docs/arcgisdata".
The software looks at these paths explicitly.

Therefore, when you try to publish from ArcMap with "'Same as publisher folder path'", it will not work.
You will need to copy the data to the Linux machine and tell the Server (during the publish process) to translate the path as it is seen from Windows to a Path that Linux will understand.

Alternatively, you can package the data with the Service and not have to worry about it. But still, you will end up with 2 versions of the data either way: one version on Windows, one version on Linux.

Does this make sense?

[DonaldBrown · Accepted solution]

I figured it out. The answer is to create a NSF mount from the Linux file share to the Linux GIS Server.

[VivianMurga1]

I recently had this issue and it was corrected by adding a service account to the user permissions. So basically you may have to adjust the user permissions to register a folder. I was able to register a database with no problem, but faced the issue on the register a folder. Also type your paths in all lower cases from the root of the path.