How to Register an Enterprise Geodatabase with ArcGIS Server Using Different Credentials

[Anonymous User]

I have read a lot about how to register folders and geodatabases with ArcGIS Server so that publishers can create map documents and publish them as GIS web services.  We have this working already with an SQL Server instance that uses Active Directory Authentication.  Basically, the ArcGIS User account is given privileges to read and possibly edit feature classes on this enterprise geodatabase.  The user creates the map document using his or her own credentials, publishes it as a service, and ArcGIS Server can see it.

But now we have a 10.5 enterprise geodatabase that doesn't use Active Directory authentication.  I want the map document publisher to use his or her own user name and password to create the map, but I want ArcGIS Server to use a different user name and password to access the geodatabase layers in that map.  I definitely do not want ArcGIS Server to try to sync these two databases because they are, in fact, looking at the same geodatabase.

How do you suggest I register the data store so that publishers can use their own geodatabase credentials to make the map, and ArcGIS Server uses its own credentials to access the layers?

[JonathanQuinn]

You'll want to use the workflow outlined under The publisher's machine and the server are working with different databases in the following link:

About registering your data with ArcGIS Server—Documentation | ArcGIS Enterprise 

This doesn't exactly match your use case, but the general idea is that the Publisher, (your user), is using a different connection string than the Server, (ArcGIS Server).

[Anonymous User]

OK.  So when a user comes to me saying she wants to publish data on ArcGIS Server, I have to create that connection for her username AND her password?

[JonathanQuinn · Accepted solution]

I assume you don't want to give all publishers a SDE connection file with the credentials you want Server to use, so she can provide you her SDE connection file so you can create a data store that uses her credentials as the publisher and the credentials you want to use for ArcGIS Server as the server credentials.

What's the reason you don't want the Server to use her credentials to access data in services?

[Anonymous User]

That will work nicely!  I opened my own .sde file in Notepad.  Although there is a lot of plain English, my password is encrypted so that even *I* don't recognize it.  This seems good.