Error configuring Object Data Store backup on S3 after 11.5 Upgrade

[AnkitaGawai]

Hello Esri Community,

We are looking for assistance with an issue regarding our Object Data Store backup configuration after upgrading ArcGIS Enterprise from 11.3 to 11.5.

Our Environment: We are running a distributed, High Availability (HA) deployment that includes:
2 Portal machines, 2 Hosting Servers, and 2 Web Adaptors
2 Data Stores (Primary/Standby - Relational & Tile Cache)
Additional servers: 2 Image, 2 Dynamic, 2 Raster, and 1 Notebook Server

The Workflow: After the upgrade, we followed the official documentation to configure the Object Data Store on an AWS S3 bucket. We successfully migrated our Scene Layer services from the Tile Cache to the Object Store and subsequently removed the Tile Cache.

The Issue: The Object Store appears to be working correctly: it validates in ArcGIS Server Manager, files are creating in the S3 bucket, and we can successfully publish scene layers.

However, when we attempt to configure the backup location for the Object Data Store (pointing to a different S3 bucket) using the configurebackuplocation.bat utility, it fails with this error:
Error encountered: 'object' data store is not configured on the current machine.

We would appreciate any guidance on how to resolve this.

Thank you,
Ankita Gawai

[TimoT]

Hi @AnkitaGawai 

The configurebackuplocation.bat utility works only with ArcGIS Data Store managed data stores. Because your deployment uses an S3 cloud object store, there is no ArcGIS Data Store object store component installed, so the backup utility cannot interact with it. This is expected behavior.

When the object store is configured to use cloud storage, ArcGIS Enterprise does not provide a built-in backup mechanism for content stored there. In this architecture, ArcGIS Enterprise relies on the inherent durability of the cloud provider.

If you need protection against accidental deletions or want to maintain recoverable versions of the stored data, you can enable cloud-native features such as S3 bucket versioning and/or AWS Backup. These S3 protections should complement your broader ArcGIS Enterprise backup strategy, such as VM snapshots and WebGISDR, to ensure complete coverage of your system.

[AnkitaGawai]

Hi @TimoT , 

Thank you for the quick response and the clear explanation.

That clarifies why the utility wasn't functioning as expected with our S3 configuration. We will move forward with your recommendation to utilize S3 versioning and AWS Backup to ensure durability and recovery options for the 3D cache content.

Appreciate the guidance!