Deploying a Solution Behind a Firewall

[CodyLyons]

Hey,

Last year I found a fair bit of use with the Road Closures solution when I deployed it on ArcGIS Online. I would like to continue to do so, but I would like to make more use of our Enterprise suite if it's possible.

Our Enterprise is currently on a system behind a firewall with 0 access to the internet (we are planning on exploring using Portal to get limited access later, but it currently is not set up that way). Is there a way that I can deploy a solution (the Road Closure solution in particular) on our Enterprise without any internet access?

Something like packaging the solution to move it across the firewall? Or just a straight up installation package?

I do know of the Solutions for ArcGIS Enterprise App, but as far as I'm aware that is not really what I need (unless I'm mistaken of course).

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[ChrisFox]

@CodyLyons, a couple of things here. First, it is very common that the servers hosting enterprise are behind a firewall and have no access to the internet, but does this also mean that your Desktop that you use to connect to the Portal also doesn't have access to the internet? If your Desktop has access to the internet and you can connect to the Portal on your internal network you can still deploy ArcGIS Solutions into your portal. To do this you would go to the app launcher within Portal and open the Solutions app. From there you can search for the solution and deploy it into your portal.

Second, if you are interested in sharing your closures with the Community Maps program, as discussed in the blog below, I would still recommend you use ArcGIS Online to host this solution. It is possible to deploy the solution to Enterprise, but you would need a way to share the road closures feature layer with ArcGIS Online so that it could be shared with the Community Map program and be aggregated and shared with our consumer mapping partners.

https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-solutions/local-government/smooth-riding-with-the-r...

[CodyLyons]

To clarify, right now there is zero connection from Enterprise to the internet either through Portal or through the associated desktop. I figured it was at least somewhat common, which is why I thought to post here.

Sharing the closures with the Community Maps program is an interesting idea for the future that I hadn't considered, as of right now I have simply found the Road Closures solution an excellent way to help catalogue spring road conditions through flood season. It's not mission critical to have it on Enterprise, and I've already got the Solution set up to use via Online like I did last year when I was testing it for our use here. I would consider running it on Enterprise the next logical step, it's just a question of whether it can be deployed there given our current limitations (limitations that we are planning on rectifying in the relatively near future).

If it's not possible to deploy without any internet, it's not a big deal. I'll just wait until we have the Portal access set up later and just run it via Online for now.

[ChrisFox]

In my experience it is common for the portal to not be accessible from outside the organization's network, i.e. only users on the internal network can connect to the portal. However, it is less common that all the users connecting to the portal on the internal network also do not have external access to the internet.

If you can connect to the Portal on your internal network, i.e. login in to the portal via your browser, from your computer and your computer has access to the internet, than you can deploy solutions to Enterprise. It is very easy to test this out. Connect to the portal from your machine via the browser, open the Solutions app from the app launcher in portal, and if any solutions load then you can deploy them to your portal.

With regards to the next logical step of moving the Road Closures solution to Enterprise. I would say it depends on your use of the solution. If you intend to share your road closures out with the public or to the community maps program I would say Online is a great environment for this as it is easy to share out with the public and always up and available.

[CodyLyons]

Thanks for sharing your opinion either way. It always helps to have outside perspectives on things.