Field Maps Offline with the Utility Network in Enterprise

[Ariggs]

Hi All,

Enterprise 11.5, UN v7

I've just configured offline areas for a utility network data map of mine, which is of course in Enterprise for compatibility reasons. However, our mobile users require a VPN connection to access our Enterprise environment in the field. Isn't the purpose of offline areas to have functionality even in areas without cell service?

Is there anyone who has found a way to work around this whose organization also requires the VPN connection?

Thank you!

[CodyPatterson]

Hey @Ariggs 

What it sounds like is that your Enterprise environment is not publicly exposed, and people on the internet normally cannot see your items. If that's the case, then you may be in a tough spot without some type of proxy or externally facing environment, the reason is because ArcGIS Field Maps authenticates with your Portal environment over the internet, so a VPN is required because it puts you onto the internal network. Without the VPN, the Field Maps authentication and connections cannot reach your internal environment, because there's no external view, so offline mode would not work without a VPN because you wouldn't be able to authenticate in the app.

That's what I believe at least, and to get around this with my previous organization, I needed to place my environment within a DMZ, and utilize a DNS change to forward requests using a reverse proxy from the internet. If you'd like more info I can definitely help out!

Cody

[Ariggs]

Hi Cody,

Thanks so much for the response! All this makes sense. Are you please able to explain a bit more about the DMZ and DNS change?

Thank you!

Alana

[CodyPatterson]

Hey @Ariggs 

In terms of our DMZ, I managed an environment where the DMZ was located between our intranet and the internet, that allowed the reverse proxy we have to be contacted by the public. To do this, we had to use a NAT translation to ensure a 1-1 mapping from the public IP to the server itself. Once this was done, the public was able to access the server. For the DNS, we attached the website we hosted our portal on to this public IP, once that was done, we were able to start the process of configuring everything together.

If you have a specific question about it, I can definitely try and help out, ours was done through Apache and Cisco Meraki!

Cody