"Poor Mans" create child geo dbase workflow

[KenLucas]

A gis administrator, passing thru our office, mentioned that we could set up a "poor mans" versioned editing scenario by creating 4 "child" geo dbases of a parent, that 4 of us could edit and then roll the data back into the parent. There is no chance that we'll edit the same feature; we just want to do some "stand alone" editing, but insure we are using the exact same attribute schema and be able to, efficiently, roll our new data, daily, back into the parent geo dbase.  We don't have arcSDE available, yet. The resource help seems to indicate that SDE is required to create replicants, although the gis admin's comment context is that our 10.2 standard licenses would allow us to do this.
    After researching the ESRI help the closest I've come to figuring out how to do this is the data management geo processing tool:  "create replica"  I've tried all of the options, in the pull down, for this tool to create a simple child of a personal geo dbase, which contains a single point feature class: the tool fails every time I run it. I'm, likely, missing a step or not setting the geo dbases or tool parameters correctly.  There is also a toolbar, distributed geo dbase. We're not locked into trying to figure our any of these options and are open to someone suggesting a workflow/geo processing tools/toolbars we could use?
Ken

[AsrujitSengupta]

Where is your data stored right now -- sde geodatabase, file geodatabase(*.gdb), Personal geodatabase(*.mdb) ??

You need an sde geodatabase to use the SDE Replication functionality.

[KenLucas]

Our data is in a personal geo dbase and we're trying to replicate to another personal geo dbase, located in the same file. I was not clear, until your reply, that I definitely needed arcSDE to create the parent geo dbase. My question, to the group, is is there a work around, to set up a simple multi editor scenario without arcSDE? Also, is create replica the best tool to use, if, somehow, we can get an SDE parent geo dbase created?
Thanks for your prompt response,
Ken

[AsrujitSengupta · Accepted solution]

Have a look at the below link:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/geodatabase/multi-user-geodatabase

Check the "Desktop" Multiuser geodatabase(also known as SDE Personal Geodatabase), which comes free along with ArcGIS Desktop.

But, there are certain things that you need to consider for the above type:
1. You need SQL Server Express to use that
2. Even though almost all the functionalities of SDE(versioning, replication, etc) is available with it...it has a limitation on the Number of Concurrent Users (1 editor and 3 readers)

[AsrujitSengupta]

File Geodatabase & Personal geodatabase(*.mdb) don't have the Multiuser editing functionality.....so yes, sde gdb is the only option for setting up a simple multi editor scenario.

There are multiple workflows which can be used to achieve the same objective -- Replication, Versioning, etc etc.  It will depend upon what resources you have at your disposal.

[MarcoBoeringa]

Have a look at the below link:
http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/geodatabase/multi-user-geodatabase

Check the "Desktop" Multiuser geodatabase(also known as SDE Personal Geodatabase), which comes free along with ArcGIS Desktop.

But, there are certain things that you need to consider for the above type:
1. You need SQL Server Express to use that
2. Even though almost all the functionalities of SDE(versioning, replication, etc) is available with it...it has a limitation on the Number of Concurrent Users (1 editor and 3 readers)

To extent on this, I have written a detailed instruction of how to install a "Desktop Geodatabase" a.k.a. "Personal ArcSDE" a.k.a. "ArcSDE Personal Server". You can find it in this post in another thread.

This is definitely the way to go for you, unless you need to store massive amounts of data (you are restricted by Microsoft to 10GB databases by SQL Server Express, but you can setup multiple databases), or need more than 1 editor and 3 concurrent readers directly on the SQL Server database (ESRI limits you to that).

This whole setup of SQL Server Express and a Desktop Geodatabase, could be considered "a poor man's ArcSDE" 😉 since you pay 0 for a separate ArcSDE / ArcGIS for Server license, but than, you already paid a serious price for your ArcGIS for Desktop "Standard" license... (you can not create a Desktop Geodatabase based on just a "Basic" license).

Note that you can also run this setup based on an ArcGIS for Home Use "Advanced" license, but only for non-commercial activities as restricted by the ArcGIS for Home Use program's license.

There is definitely a learning curve for all of this when coming from an Access / *.mdb personal geodatabase environment, especially regarding getting to know SQL Server, but it is well worth the effort to learn to manage this!

[JoshuaDamron]

To extent on this, I have written a detailed instruction of how to install a "Desktop Geodatabase" a.k.a. "Personal ArcSDE" a.k.a. "ArcSDE Personal Server". You can find it in this post in another thread.

Thanks for the link & the time you put into the step by step directions!

[MarcoBoeringa]

Thanks for the link & the time you put into the step by step directions!

Thanks, I'd be interested though to here some real confirmations that people actually managed to install their copy of an ArcSDE Personal Server using these instructions. Was it all clear enough? Any step or issue I forgot?

Did you manage to get it up and running in one go?

[AsrujitSengupta]

Marco...those steps cover almost every detail. I have done those installation steps personally and I don't think (rather I am quite sure) that you didn't miss out anything.