Setting up ArcServer from scratch

[LisaRitchie]

I've volunteered myself for the project of getting a local municipality's GIS installed & up to date. This is a large project and I need some guidance on how the process should go. I will include all the information I have and hopefully with your help I'll know the right help articles to read.

It's a small town of 13,000. They just bought a brand-new Windows 8 server to host all their GIS. Everything will go on this single machine, and the machine will be solely dedicated to GIS. They have a Basic license for Arc 10.3 and have six or so maps on ArcOnline. I've installed ArcServer on the new machine and authorized it using their authorization number. I've also cleaned up their existing data, gotten everything into the same projection, and titled things so they make sense.

The end goal is to have all their geodatabases in one place, to host maps for internal use as well as public consumption, and to administer various user accounts for editing online content, all from this new server. Basics, really; apps & development & multiple machines are not even on the radar. What I'm wondering is, what are the next steps?

My thinking is that the following needs to happen:

1. Get their geodatabases onto the new server

2. Re-direct their online maps to the new server

3. Get ArcGIS & ArcCatalog & the license manager onto the new server

4. Link our desktop machines to the new locations for ArcGIS & ArcCatalog

5. Clean up programs & data from the previous locations

6. Set up backups & data redundancy

Am I on the right track?

[JayantaPoddar]

Don't see any problem with that. Let us know if you face any issue during the installation and configuration of ArcGIS.

[OwenEarley]

I think you are on the right track. One more thing to consider is that if you are exposing the server to external users you will want to have a reverse proxy as well.

[PaulDavidson1]

What I've seen often is that you separate your source geodatabases that your data editors and ArcDesktop applications (Explorer, Map and Catalog) are accessing. (SDE..., although the word SDE still is used a lot, you no longer need an SDE server, just a database server and then drivers on the desktops of your data editors.)

You then put your data into file geodatabases and copy them onto and register them with ArcServer.

You can script updates to the file geodatabases with Python that run via Task Manager on some regular basis.

You could write Models I believe but Python is much faster.

Sounds though like maybe you are the only Desktop user and data base editor though? 

In which case, forget a database server, use file geodatabases that are hosted on your ArcServer?

Simplify your headaches.  I think this is what you're proposing?

With a small town like that, I'd say leverage ArcGIS Online (AGOL) as much as possible.

You could even let AGOL host your non-secure data if your budget allows.

Credits are pretty cheap, named users not so much.

What you're basically doing is outsourcing a lot of the IT side of GIS to AGOL.

Where it gets a bit trickier is when you have secure data on your Win8 server inside your firewall.

[PatrickJackson]

Greetings Lisa,

Congrats on the new project assignment! Great job being willing to take this on. I am sure you will learn a lot and find it to be a rewarding experience.

Deploying ArcGIS Server can be done successfully in may different ways. This all really depends on what is planned for the ArcGIS Server. We will need to consider what the physical resources look like, how many published services it will be running and other factors as well. I would highly recommend exploring the System Design Strategies documents  over on the Wiki. You can find a link to these documents here:

System Design Strategies - GIS Wiki | The GIS Encyclopedia

This will give you a ton of info and will demonstrate several different types of deployments for various purposes. There is definitely an optimal deployment but this will vary on what the end goals are for the machine.

Let us know if you have any further questions or concerns as you move forward. Have a good one!

Patrick

[LisaRitchie]

Thanks for all the advice. The good news is that we have a GIS contractor who the town has worked with before, and they'll be in next week to get some of the bones of this system set up. I will surely call on this thread when we are ready to start using & streamlining the GIS.

What I'm working on now is trying to figure out a way to work with ArcGIS on some local machines. Currently our network hosts our data and our License Manager, while the Arc applications themselves are on the local machines. If I copy our data onto one of these local machines, can I bypass the network altogether, or will Arc still be trying to connect with the License Manager on startup?

[PatrickJackson]

Greetings Lisa,

That sounds like a good plan. It is always nice to have some back up to assist with these deployments.

The Desktop Client will still be connecting over the network to pull the license from the License Manager as long as you are set to use concurrent licenses. If you use a single use license on each client machine it wont need to connect to the License Manager on startup to pull a license down.

I hope this is helpful.

Patrick

[RebeccaStrauch__GISP]

You can also setup the License Manager to allow a Desktop client to "borrow" a license for a given period of time (and other ways you can make it more permanent, but I haven't used that).  With the borrowing option, the client machine will need to attach to the license manger to select what they was to take "offline" and then can work with the local data while being disconnected from the network.  We use this option for those going out in the field (remote sites and boats).

One thing to be care of with the LM allowing borrowing, if you make the timeline too long, and something happens to the client machine (i.e. fries), there is no way to get the license back to the LM until the time expires or with esri intervention (i.e. customer service must fix with new authorization).

The other option is to install a local copy of the LM on the client machine and authorize one of the licenses on that machine.  However, another caution...the more you split up administrating of licenses (assuming these are concurrent licenses) the harder it can be to manage/administer them.....distribution and annual-maintenance included.