WebgisDR returns user read write permission error

DryCreekEng · ‎09-26-2024

Hello Enterprise Community,

Im hoping you can help me with a problem. My client has a distributed Enterprise platform on 4 VMS (one each for Portal, WebServer, Hosting Server, and Data Store) that we just got stood up a few months ago with ESRI's help. I need to upgrade the Enterprise platform from 11.2 to 11.3, and first need to run the Webgis DR tool to back everything up. I have ensured there is a shared drive accesible on all 4 VMs and I have read and write privileges to the drive. When I run the WebgisDR tool in the Portal VM, I keep getting the error:

Cannot access the location \\shared_drive\ArcGIS_backups\backups. You must ensure that user account running the WebGIS DR utility has read and write permissions to the specified location \\shared_drive\ArcGIS_backups\backups.

As you can see, I have the folder location appropriately named with the right backslashes. I have worked with ESRI tech support and my client's IT support, and no one can figure out why this error keeps happening. I appreciate any input you can give.

Thanks,

Natalie

DryCreekEng · ‎10-18-2024

UPDATE #2 - Working with ESRI tech support and the IT department, we finally got Webgisdr to run. These are the steps that made it happen:

1. Within the ArcGIS Portal VM, created the backup and temp folders on the C: drive. To create a shared folder that is accessible by all VMs, right-clicked on the backup and temp folders --> Sharing --> Share. This creates a network path to each folder that is accessible from all connected VMs (Hosting Server, Data Store, Web Server). Used the created network paths in the Webgisdr properties file as the locations for backup and temp.

2. Went in to "Services" (type into windows search bar) for each VM and made note of the "Log On As" user name for each ArcGIS system (Portal, Server, etc). Noticed that it was logging into Portal as a Local Administrator (./yvadmin), not a Domain adminstrator (yvadmin@google.com). Logged in as the Domain admin in each VM.

3. In the Webgisdr properties file, had to change the very last line for Portal PKI properties to True.

After all this, it finally ran. Thank you all for your input along the way of this journey.

View solution in original post

Dan_Brumm · ‎09-27-2024

I know it doesn't help, but I run into this issue all the time. My backups will run perfectly for weeks and then out of nowhere I get that same error message. Typically, the only fix for me is to reboot my GIS host machine.

Daniel Brumm
GIS Nerd

DryCreekEng · ‎09-27-2024

Hi Daniel,

I rebooted the VM yesterday and it didnt help. Which is sad, becuase that is the sure-fire way to fix IT issues when all else fails.

Natalie

MichaelVolz · ‎09-27-2024

So is the account that runs the various services on the 4 VMs (Portal, Server, Web server, and Data Store) the same? I'm not familiar with a Web server service, but the other 3 services in my distributed environment are the same.

I ran into this issue myself and found that I was running webgisdr with a specific admin account as per ESRI documentation, but webgisdr was writing to the output folder with the account I was running the services under which did not have the proper write permissions.

Could it be the case that there are 2 accounts involved here and you did not provide write permissions to the correct account?

TraeTimmerman · ‎09-27-2024

@DryCreekEng ,

Is the service account for the ArcGIS Enterprise components a domain user, and have you confirmed that this user has read and write access to the shared location? If possible, you might run notepad as the service account and confirm that you can save a text file to that location as that user.

DryCreekEng · ‎09-27-2024

Hi Trae,

My account is a domain user with admin privileges , and I have verified with ESRI tech support and the IT dept that I have read and write access to the shared location. Im not sure what you mean by running notepad as a service account, but I did open notepad and save it to each of the shared drive folders (backup and temp) and it worked fine.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Natalie

JustinS · ‎10-02-2024

@DryCreekEng, typically I'd login to the server using the associated service account to test permissions.

TraeTimmerman · ‎09-27-2024

Hey Natalie,

ArcGIS Enterprise components use a service account for operations that are performed on behalf of the applications, https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/create-web-gis-backup.htm

If you open the services console on the hosting server for ArcGIS Server, for example, and look at the ArcGIS Server Windows service, you should see an account listed in the "Log on as" column. You would want to ensure that account has read and write access to the shared location.

"The domain account or accounts you use to run your ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Data Store services must have write access to the shared directory you specify for the backup files." https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/portal/latest/administer/windows/create-web-gis-backup.htm

DryCreekEng · ‎09-27-2024

Hi Trae,

I checked the account listed for ArcGIS Server as you instructed, and it shows the Server Admin username and pw. I think I read somewhere that the Server and Portal usernames should be the same to run a tool like WebgisDR across VMs. Is that correct? Do you think that could be the problem?

Thanks,

Natalie

JustinS · ‎10-02-2024

@DryCreekEng, it's common practice to run all of the ArcGIS Enterprise components in the same deployment using the same service account.