Move Raster Dataset from Folder to Geodatabase

[ABishop]

I have a raster dataset that I created and cached locally.  I managed to move it to a network folder for sharing with other staff members, but I am having trouble copying it into our multi-edit geodatabase a.k.a. SDE.

I used "copy raster" and let it run over the weekend and this morning when I checked it, the tool said it completed.  But when I add it to a new map in ArcGIS Pro, and check it on to see it, it doesn't show up... even at smaller scales.   Is there something I am missing?  Do I need to perform other processes on the copied raster for it to appear in the map when added from the geodatabase?  Or is there a way for me to verify that the copy was successful before attempting to do further processing?

Any help will be much appreciated.

[George_Thompson]

I usually do not store rasters in the Enterprise Geodatabase (EGDB), I use a MD to reference the raster on disk.

How big is the raster?

[ABishop]

Hello George,

149 GB

[George_Thompson · Accepted solution]

I wonder if the database does not have the space to load it......

What is the RDBMS being used?

Is there a cap on the size of the DB, from the DBA team?

I would highly recommend the mosaic dataset option for something that large...... Put the raster on a network share, create the MD in the EGDB, then use that.

[ABishop]

thank you for the insight.  I now am attempting to load the raster into a mosaic dataset.  

[George_Thompson]

It may take some time if you are building statistics. But will perform much better.

[CodyBenkelman]

Amanda

It sounds like you're already on the right track but I wanted to chime in with agreement to what George said.  In most cases, we do not recommend storing rasters inside GDBs, but the mosaic dataset provides a management structure in a GDB to access pixels stored on disk (outside the GDB).  

We've published a lot of recommended best practices in https://esriurl.com/ImageryWorkflows, and you may want to review the section on image management here https://doc.arcgis.com/en/imagery/workflows/resources/using-mosaic-datasets-to-manage-imagery.htm 

Best wishes

Cody B. 

[ABishop]

Thank you Cody!

Yes, I actually saw those same workflow resources and decided to recreate the mosaic dataset and cache it locally.  After it is done caching, I will be zipping it and moving it to a shared network drive and then copying the mosaic dataset into our enterprise geodatabase.  

However, I did create a new model for the imagery processing workflow in ArcGIS Pro.  Would you mind looking it over for me and telling me if I missed anything? (see attached zipped toolbox with "ImageryProcessing" model inside).

[MattPugh]

Hi Cody,

I am having the same issues as Amanda. I have ArcGIS Server 10.6.1 (I know, its old and will be upgrading soon) with a SQL Server Express SDE database and I need to publish a 186 GB aerial imagery raster as a tile cache map service. I do not have ArcGIS Image Server, or ArcGIS Enterprise... just Server. Does your recommended workflow work in this instance?

Thanks,

Matt