Utility Network and Distributed Collaboration

[jsarthur]

Has anyone successfully implemented a Distributed Collaboration (DC) using Utility Network (UN) feature layers? We set up a DC for our internal collaboration between the referenced feature layers in the ArcGIS Enterprise (AGE) Portal to our own AGOL portal and syncing as a copy. There are about 40 feature layers total in the DC, but half of these layers are erroring out on the sync. The other half sync with no issues. We are on AGE 10.9.1 and UN version 5.

The error message is: "Request made to publish items as new services but the item 'xxxxx' already exists. Unable to publish item. Remove existing item and sync collaboration workspace."

I have been working with Esri support and they say the collaboration configuration is correct. We created a new test collaboration and the same errors persist. I am speculating on whether it is even possible to use DC with UN layers because of their complexity (the UN feature classes contain numerous Attribute Rules, for example).  

I hope to find out if anyone else has a similar setup that is operating successfully. Thanks!

[MichaelParma]

I've not tried to implement the collaboration myself, but I seem to recall someone recently saying there was a limitation with the number of features that could participate in a collaboration and this may prevent it working with the UN.

[RobertKrisher]

Distributed collaboration is not supported with the utility network, but you can share the layers from the utility network to AGOL using collaboration. It sounds like there may be some problems with how you initially configured your feature services that have resulted in duplicate items/services in your AGOL.

Did you publish a new copy of the feature service that you're syncing with AGOL? If you remove the items from the collaboration and reshare them, does it correct the issue?

[jsarthur]

Thanks, @RobertKrisher for the information. The UN and DC are two fairly mature products, so it didn't occur to me that this was not supported. I haven't seen that in any documentation, but perhaps I missed it. I have been working with Esri support on this issue for weeks, so I don't think it's widely known in Esri support yet that this isn't supported.

Can you expand on what you mean in the second half of your first sentence, when you say I can share the layers from the Utility Network to AGOL using collaboration? Is there another way to do an AGE to AGOL collab besides DC? 

I have published the feature service numerous times in various ways. I have followed the Esri documentation and worked with Esri support when publishing to ensure the configuration is correct. I have removed the items from groups and reshared them many times with no luck. 

When publishing from ArcGIS Pro 2.9.x, the UN feature services will not sync at all from AGE to AGOL. When I publish with 3.2.x, the feature service will copy into AGOL, but the sync is unstable. Specifically, about half of our layers in the collaboration will eventually fail and the other half continue to sync with no issues. There's no common denominator that I can figure out with the features that fail.

Thanks for your message! 

[RobertKrisher · Accepted solution]

The utility network is not supported in ArcGIS Online, so if you attempt to copy data to ArcGIS Online that contains a utility network (and all its system tables) it will fail. When you create the service that you want to share, don't include the utility network and it will copy the classes from your utility network but will not include any of the system tables that AGOL cannot understand.

[jsarthur]

Interesting, thank you for elaborating. I think I am publishing the service the way you have described. I add the WaterDevice feature class to a map and apply a definition query to show a specific asset group/asset type. I do not add the UN object or any tables in the service. Can you confirm whether this scenario would be supported in AGOL? The feature class has attribute rules associated with it, which is why I thought the sync was failing. Thanks so much for the comments! This is very helpful!   

[RobertKrisher]

Collaboration with simple features is supported with AGOL. If you're seeing issues with attribute rules running, I recommend you keep working with support on the issue.

[jsarthur]

Ok, thanks for clarifying this for me, @RobertKrisher . I'm happy to hear that DC should be possible with simple features. I will continue working with support. 

[RobinsonJonathanDOIT]

Is anyone else able to successfully sync a federated feature service with a definition query within a distributed collaboration between ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise (10.9.1)?  It is not working for us.  I have not found any information in the documentation about this.  My next step is to open a case with support.

[jsarthur]

I was able to get distributed collaboration to work reliably using UN feature classes with a definition query. And I'm working in a federated environment also on AGE 10.9.1. I tested numerous scenarios and the most stable was when the feature layers were published using ArcGIS Pro 3.1.5. I could not get the feature layers to copy from AGE to AGOL at all using 2.9.x. I also stripped off the tables from the feature service. And I split our data into several categorized workspaces to reduce the load on each workspace and that has also made it easier to troubleshoot issues. In my scenario, I am publishing the layers for view-only purposes and not including the UN object. Distributed Collab will not work if you include the UN object when publishing. Hope this helps!