Upgrading from Arc Server 10.3.1 to 10.6.1

PaulHuffman · ‎08-16-2018

I'm interested in upgrading from Server 10.3.1 to 10.6.1, Windows and SQL Server, to use some of the new features in Portal. My previous upgrade from 9.3.1 to 10.3.1 was an ordeal, but this upgrade sounds easy. https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/get-started/latest/windows/upgrade-arcgis-enterprise.htm

Will I need new prvs files or license files?

One problem I had with 10.3.1 installation was that one of my locations does not have a Windows networking domain. Many places in the docs would tell me something like "Use the fully qualified domain name of the server" and I would have to figure out a way around that. Will I still be able to get around that with 10.6.1 or should my first step be to kick off a domain controller?

RandallWilliams · ‎08-17-2018

You will need an updated license file for 10.6. Do all of your sites have external access? If so, to centralize your operations, ease administration, and potentially lower cost, I'd consider deploying in either the Amazon or Azure cloud.

PaulHuffman · ‎08-20-2018

One of my locations, the one with a windows domain, has poor internet connection, but plenty of power users. The users report that they don't like to use ESRI base maps because of the slow draw time, but I think they complain too much. They could try turning off the base maps until their map is ready to finalize, for instance. And basemap performance from ESRI seems to be getting better. But that's why I run Server locally here, to provide base maps for them without loading their Internet connection.

At my other location, a major function for Arc Server is to serve up gigs of historic air photos that aren't available anywhere else. We scanned them in house. The photos are very useful to us, but probably not to the wider GIS community, because they have hand drawn engineering features of our irrigation systems on them. Moving all that to Amazon or Azure seems difficult, especially since I have the hardware and services already up and running under Server 10.3.1. But I did look into it a bit last week after your response.

PaulHuffman · ‎09-24-2018

This might be a problem. The help files tell me to back up the webgisdir.properties file and edit it, but I can't find it. These help files don't go back to version 10.3, windows. https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/10.4/administer/windows/create-web-gis-backup.htm

https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/get-started/latest/windows/upgrade-arcgis-enterprise.htm

RandallWilliams · ‎09-25-2018

WebGISDR didn't exist as a feature at 10.3, which is why it's not in the help.

PaulHuffman · ‎10-31-2018

The upgrade is almost complete and everything went smoothly. I was worried about not having a domain, but at the point where I was asked to supply the fully qualified domain name of the server in the url, I got it to work again by using the IP number of the server machine.

The biggest problem was getting the backup.py to run before starting the upgrade. I wasted a little time trying to figure out if I could run backup.py with its command line arguments in IDLE. I guess it isn't easy to use command line parameters with IDLE unless I modify the script to add a sys.arcv line. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2148994/when-running-a-python-script-in-idle-is-there-a-way-to-p... . So I went back to running backup.py from cmdtool. The python path wasn't set so I went looking for python.exe. I was reminded of the fact that there can be a python installed for Arc Desktop and perhaps a different on installed for ArcGIS Pro. I decided to use the Desktop version because the shorter path meant less typing.

Trying to run backup.py from python command prompt from, I got "Error when generating token. Please check it the server is running and that the user name and password are correct. " I kept thinking I had a problem with the certificate, since at this location, I don't have a certificate server (yet), and I just have users ignore the security warning at their browsers. Imagine my surprise when I finally discovered that the problem was write permissions on the output folder needed to be added for the arcserver account, the one I was using in the -u parameter of backup.py. Running from an admin cmdtool wasn't sufficient.

Getting confused about the last step, Installing Web Adapter for the ArcServer. https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/web-adaptor/latest/install/iis/configure-arcgis-web-adaptor-server....

Do I want to do this from the webadapter configuration page. It looks like WA is configured for Portal but not Server. Do I do that on the next page? https://www.dropbox.com/s/3mcshufilf7nu7d/WebAdapterConfig.PNG?dl=0 Or do I run the install files again for WA and this time choose the port for server?

JonathanQuinn · ‎10-31-2018

You'll want to run the setup for the web adaptor again to install a separate one for Server, giving it a different name other than "arcgis", (Step 4). The ArcGIS Enterprise Builder calls them "portal" and "server" by default. You can name your new one "server" if "arcgis" is already used for Portal.