New deployment GIS Enterprise 12

dwebeltch · ‎03-11-2026

Have a customer that wants to upgrade to the newest GIS version but also wants to move the back-end to Azure. This customer has zero IT experience and only knows how to use the GIS system.

I'm a bit confused on how this is set up. I've read the documentation and watched some videos but things still aren't connecting.

There's a 1 server setup or a 6-7 (or however). Why use so many if 1 suffices?

There's something called Portal but also something called Online. We were assuming the Servers connected to the Online portal to work but some things read like this is set up as a web server. We don't want to manage a web server so is this something that connects to a SaaS front-end tenant?

The confusion in this is making it difficult to figure out what questions to ask to get this going so I'll stop here and see where this takes me.

thanks.

dwebeltch · ‎03-12-2026

Thanks everyone for the replies. I'm reading through things as I can.

I do understand a bit more on this as coming into this blind has been really frustrating.

The company is on v11. They are using a server per app build so I think that means each piece is on a different VM in Vmware. I cannot speak to what they use inside the system so not sure if things are depreciated or not. I'd assume 11 is recent enough to be still supported.

The company wants to move to v12. They are also looking to move these into Azure for more reliability as they are running the current system now in house with no redundancy (other than backups).

My thinking is that they will need to upgrade the current system to 12 first; then we need to work with ESRI support to get a migration plan document (I assume support has instructions on how to do this) and build out the Azure POC/test/all that. Once all is good then cut over when the data is synced or however ESRI does this.

I would be 100% for a consultant here and will speak to my management regarding that but it's a long shot so I feel most of this will be on my shoulders even though I know nothing of any of this. I guess 'IT Tech' means I know everything that plugs into the wall or runs on computer.

RyanUthoff · ‎03-12-2026

I'd assume 11 is recent enough to be still supported.

It depends on what your definition of supported is, but no, not all versions of v11 are fully supported. For example, v11.0 is fully retried already, and 11.2 is already in mature support. See Esri's lifecycle here: https://support.esri.com/en-us/products/arcgis-enterprise/life-cycle

My thinking is that they will need to upgrade the current system to 12 first

This is not a hard requirement, but won't really hurt either way. However, you should (imo) always be on a supported release of ArcGIS Enterprise, otherwise you won't get bug fixes and security patches. If the specific version of Enterprise is already out of support, I'd recommend upgrading first just so you can take advantage of bug fixes and security patches.

then we need to work with ESRI support to get a migration plan document (I assume support has instructions on how to do this)

Your milage may vary depending on the tech support person, but this is typically out of scope for Esri support. Again, you'd need to engage with someone from Esri Professional Services (extra $$) or hire a consultant (again, extra $$). See Esri's scope of support here: https://support.esri.com/en-us/knowledge-base/scope-of-support-000029916

I believe you would fall under #7 which would be considered out of scope.

I would be 100% for a consultant here and will speak to my management regarding that but it's a long shot

I'll be honest here and say that it's pretty wild that you are going to be expected to manage an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment (not to mention a migration to Azure along with it) with no Esri experience. Of course we here in the Esri community are always willing to help when we can, but it's not going to be a replacement for hiring a consultant.