Multiple Machine Deployment Definition

[ChristopherBates]

Hello,

Whether I'm looking for technical support or working on our update plan on our ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, I'm almost always immediately asked whether we have a single-machine or a multiple-machine enterprise deployment. I've never really been sure exactly how to answer this seemingly simple question because I find Esri's definition somewhat ambiguous.

If a single-machine deployment is: all components of ArcGIS Enterprise are installed on one single machine, either physically or virtually. Meaning the single machine acts as a database server, application server, and web server... 

Then is a multiple-machine deployment: components of ArcGIS Enterprise are installed on multiple different machines. Ie. ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Data Store, and ArcGIS Web Adaptors are installed on multiple different machines (some components could be on one machine while others installed on others)

OR does it mean...

That the ArcGIS Server component of the enterprise deployment is installed on multiple machines and that there are multiple machines added to the ArcGIS Server Site?

In my case I have ArcGIS Server and Portal installed on one server, the ArcGIS Web Adaptors installed on another server, and ArcGIS Data Store installed on a third server. So should I consider this a multiple machine deployment even though there is only one ArcGIS Server machine added to the ArcGIS Server Site?

Sorry, if this seems like an obvious question.

Chris

[RachelSears · Accepted solution]

Hello Chris,

Within the context of technical support, this is how we typically refer to these configurations:

A single-machine site usually refers to an ArcGIS Server site (whether part of an Enterprise stack or as a standalone server) that has a single ArcGIS Server machine.

A multi-machine site is an ArcGIS Server site that has one or more additional ArcGIS Server machines added to the site.

A single-machine deployment is an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment where Portal, Server, Data Store, and Web Adaptor are on the same machine.

A multi-machine deployment is simply an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment that has more than one machine as part of its configuration.

A High-Availability environment is a multi-machine deployment that has redundancy with its ArcGIS Enterprise components, typically more than one machine for each component.

The configuration that you describe would be a multi-machine deployment with a single-machine ArcGIS Server site.

I hope this helps!

-Rachel

[ChristopherBates]

That helps a ton - thank you Rachel!