Thank you for posting this! I know it's been a few years, but this same solution helped me yesterday with determining data sources for a map service in 10.5.1.
I struggle with this all the time in ArcGIS Server; I can't believe there's no other "likes" or replies to this thread yet. Simply knowing the original MXD path, as reported by ArcGIS Server Manager, doesn't conclusively answer the question about where a service is fetching its data. Often the original MXD is missing, or has been edited > re-saved in the interim.
Likewise, downloading the copy of the MXD that's stored on the server (.../arcgisserver/directories/arcgissystem/arcgisinput/<service>/extracted/v101/<service>.mxd) doesn't definitively identify a service's data sources, either. That document can point at local data sources from the publisher's machine that were subsequently uploaded to the managed geodatabase. Or, it can point at non-existent / incorrect files depending on whether the map was saved with relative or absolute paths.
Even setting the ArcGIS Server logging level to Debug and restarting services doesn't seem to report their source data locations. The only way I've found to determine a service's source data, for sure, is your MSD > ZIP rename trick. This information is so, so important, I have to assume that there's a better way of getting it, and that I'm just not aware.
- Can anyone recommend a better method than the above for determining the data sources for layers in a map service?
In the meantime, thanks again Stephen for your valuable post.
