Import fails with webgisdr, public portal URLs different

[Dixie_MDavis]

Greetings, all!

Can anyone provide any insight into what I might have wrong here?  I am attempting to follow the example outlined in the ArcGIS Enterprise blog, Migrate to a new machine in ArcGIS Enterprise using the WebGIS DR tool.  I have installed and configured the software on the secondary machine three times in an attempt to get this working.  The first time was a rookie mistake as I had the IP address for the primary machine recorded incorrectly in the secondary machine's hosts file.  

Here are the details:

I have two identical VMs. I installed and configured the primary server as a base deployment (I did not use the Enterprise builder). I registered a file-based data store using a file share, created sample content in the Portal, and updated the Portal's identity store with our Active Directory. I then created a backup using the webgisdr tool. The backup is on the same server that hosts the registered file-based data store.

Next, I configured a secondary server. As recommended in the blog, before installing software I added entries to the secondary server's local hosts file to use the primary server's host name followed by the IP address for the secondary server.

During the web adapter installs and configurations for Portal and Server, I used a reference to the primary host for the Server and Portal URLs (see image 1 below). Both reported success in configuration and reported the registered machine name as that of the primary host. There was not a mention of using the primary's hostname during configuration in the blog, but I figured it was necessary.

During configuration, I was able to launch Portal, Server, Portal Admin and Server Admin on the secondary machine using the primary machine's hostname in the URL. I was able to federate the Server with Portal and set the Server as its hosting server, though I was asked to authenticate via the Portal using the secondary hostname in the URL.

When I tried to restore the site using webgisdr on the secondary server, I received an error indicating the PublicPortalURL value was not the same for both sites (see image 2 below).  

I know the PublicPortalURL parameter is present in the Server's properties object, can it be modified directly in the Server Administrator (see image 3 below)? Is there another way to make sure the two URLs are identical?

Thanks in advance for any guidance. I feel like I am close, but am just missing something pretty critical.

Best wishes to all for a bright and beautiful 2020!
Dixie.

[JonathanQuinn]

From what I gather, it looks like you're registering the web adaptors on the new machines to the portal and server in your primary site. Instead, you want to register them to the portal and server in your secondary site. In your first screenshot, the URL you reach the web adaptor registration page with should be the URL to your primary environment. However, since you have the etc\hosts entry on that machine, those requests should resolve to the standby web adaptor:

In the example above, my production/active system is accessed via enterprise.domain.com. The enterprise.domain.com machine has a web adaptor on it and the WA is registered to Portal and Server on m1.domain.com. These are all entries in DNS. I want to stand up a new environment to migrate to, so I'll:

1) Create the new machines. They end up with hostnames enterprise1.domain.com and m2.domain.com. enterprise1.domain.com has an IP address of 10.0.0.2.

2) In the etc\hosts files on each machine, i'll add a entry that resolves enterprise.domain.com to 10.0.0.2:

   10.0.0.2 enterprise.domain.com.

   Now on each of those machines, if I reach enterprise.domain.com, the request will resolve to the machine that has an actual FQDN of enterprise1.domain.com.

3) Install the web adaptors on enterprise1.domain.com.

4) Install Portal, Server, and Data Store on m2.esri.com and create the sites/register the data store

5) Register the web adaptor on enterprise1.domain.com to m2.domain.com via https://enterprise.domain.com/<wa context>/webadaptor/portal to portal and https://enterprise.domain.com/<wa context>/webadaptor/server to server. Again, these requests will be directed to enterprise1.domain.com

6) Federate

7) Run the DR restore

The approach described above minimizes downtime for your original environment. Another approach would be to:

1) Set up your new machines for only Portal, Server, and the Data Store, (m2.domain.com)

2) Register the web adaptors on enterprise.domain.com with the machines on m2.domain.com

3) Continue to set up the environment, (registering the ArcGIS Data Store and federating)

4) Run the DR tool to restore the backup

This will take down your production environment for a bit.

I'll take a look at the blog and make sure that our instructions are clear.

[Dixie_MDavis]

Wow!  Thanks, Jonathan Quinn for the speedy response!

I am a bit confused about your step #5 above.  We are not using a separate web adaptor machine, everything is installed on a single machine.  Therefore, are you saying that during the web adaptor configuration process, I should use the machine name for the secondary host as the URL for Portal and Server?

For the sake of illustration - gis1.domain.com (primary) and gis2.domain.com (secondary).  So, while preparing the secondary server, I should use gis2.domain.com:6443 and gis2.domain.com:7443 for the Server URL and the Portal URL during the web adaptor configurations?

Thanks again, Dixie.

[JonathanQuinn · Accepted solution]

I see, it'd be a similar principle. I'm a bit confused as to how you're registering the WA with the machine on primary if you're using the etc\hosts to resolve that machine name to the new machine, but:

1) Create the new machine, (enterprise1.domain.com). enterprise1.domain.com has an IP address of 10.0.0.2.

2) In the etc\hosts files on the machine, add a entry that resolves enterprise.domain.com to 10.0.0.2:

   10.0.0.2 enterprise.domain.com

3) Install the software on enterprise1.domain.com. It'll pick up enterprise.domain.com

4) On enterprise1.domain.com, configure the deployment using enterprise.domain.com for all URLs

5) Run the DR restore

[Dixie_MDavis]

Thanks for your patience, Jonathan Quinn.

I believe I did follow your steps outlined above. I used enterprise.domain.com as the URL references on enterprise1.  I will try it again (maybe fourth time is a charm?).  

Thanks again for your time, Dixie.

[Dixie_MDavis]

Thanks so much for your help, Jonathan Quinn‌!  The fourth time was a charm!  I was able to do a restore and have not yet completed the testing by making a change in DNS, but will tomorrow.  But, there is content in the secondary Portal when there was none before.

Cheers!

[sl_dsny]

EDIT: Like Dixie, fourth time was the charm. The webgisdr method from the blog post was able to successfully restore content. Didn't do anything different, webgisdr finally recognized the routed public portal url after a 4th reinstallation. Sorry nothing new to add to this besides keep trying if anyone else runs into this problem.

Thanks!

Hi @JonathanQuinn and @Dixie_MDavis - I know this is an old thread but I've been experiencing the same exact issue. This is on my 3rd attempt also and maybe 4th time really is the charm.

I've followed all the guidelines in the blog and these posts where etc/hosts has an entry resolving enterprise.domain.com to new machine IP and all parameters for web adaptors and data store point to enterprise.domain.com.

Within my new machine (enterprise1) on the web, by entering all the variations of enterprise.domain.com/(portal/server/manager/portaladmin... etc) it successfully loads all these pages as enterprise.domain.com. I'm getting pretty excited at this point as the original domain is recognized.

However, once I got to DR restoring it doesn't recognize my public portal url as enterprise.domain.com. It only sees it as enterprise1.domain.com. Is the mistake in the webadaptor settings? I was confused on whether the web adaptor on the new machine is supposed to point to the old or new domain url.

[EricBranton]

This is an old thread but I ran into this issue and refused to accept that I should have to uninstall and reinstall enterprise 4 times in hopes that the publicPortalURL would eventually populate as specified rather than somehow finding the machine name on its own.

I updated the WebContextURL in the Portal Administrator Directory (Home>System>Properties>Update) with the publicPortalURL that I needed, allowed the portal to restart, then restarted the new server (probably wasn't necessary), and that got the publicPortalURL in my new instance to match the one in my backup, allowing the webgisdr restore to complete.

Hope this helps someone!

-Eric