With the way our state is serving GIS data through our GEOHUB, we can load the metadata to the site in either FGDC or ISO formats. I have been having a problem exporting the metadata for the map services that we needed to upload. I have found where the metadata is stored on the server for the map service. The best part of this is if you set the metadata to the FGDC standard then this is the stored version in the metadata location on the server. the user can give their system administrator the following path (with key items changed to your server), and then copy the xml to a location of your choosing. The user can then change the name to a name that makes sense to them. Here is the path:
C:\arcgisserver\config-store\services\<Service_Name>.MapServer\esriinfo\metadata\metadata.xml
The cool thing is there is no need to export, at this point because this file is in the format that you choose all ready. I hope this helps people who may be new to setting up metadata for a map service.
