How much server do I need for Enterprise?

[AustinDotson]

I work for a city with a population just below 20k. We are looking to get a server to install Enterprise onto. I've looked at the Hardware requirements [ArcGIS Server 10.8 system requirements—ArcGIS Enterprise system requirements | Documentation for Arc...]...but those are requirements, the minimum.

I was wondering what the specs are for the servers individuals are already using to run Enterprise.

[George_Thompson]

Are you planning on installing ArcGIS Enterprise on a single machine or have multiple machines that make up the site?

Estimating machine sizes can be tricky based on the user needs, how much data, the complexity of the data, # of services, etc.

Enterprise Architect‌

[AustinDotson]

One Machine

[DavidBlauert]

Hi Austin,

One of the hardware requirements is 8 GB RAM per component (ie ArcGIS Portal, Server, or Data Store).  If you were to install all 3 components of your Enterprise on a single machine, then we would recommend that machine have 24+ GB RAM.

Thanks,
David

[George_Thompson]

Review this information on Enterprise builder: ArcGIS Enterprise Builder 10.8 system requirements—ArcGIS Enterprise system requirements | Documenta... 

I would also say at a minimum 4 cores of CPU, depending on your licensing.

[DEWright_CA]

Austin Dotson, the first thing you need to consider is how you plan to really use ArcGIS in your city. If you are planning to integrate into various other city functions and support the public then you really need to look at more than a single machine. ESRI will allow you to deploy a Active/Passive cluster to support redundancy.

You really want to think through your scenarios. Will you be running Windows as your OS? If so then you need to plan for some monthly minor downtime for MS-Patching etc, you can handle this with a low-level cluster (patch the passive machine, reboot, swap the active/passive, patch the now passive etc).

As George says, look at a min of 4 cores, and RAM is much cheaper; I don't deploy any machines with less than 32GB for the simple fact that ArcSOCs can be a hog.

[MarcoBoeringa]

As always, your likely best resource is the "System Design Strategies" Wiki pages maintained by ESRI as part of the Wiki GIS platform:

System Design Strategies - GIS Wiki | The GIS Encyclopedia 

And things like the "Capacity Planning" tool referenced therein, a spreadsheet that allows you to do calculations.

More general information about GIS accessible here:

New to GIS - GIS Wiki | The GIS Encyclopedia