Latest Contributions by PaulDavidson1

There's an existing thread that seems related: Re: Adding unsecured services and from that, it appears the only option is to set security on the AGS to "HTTP and HTTPS" ? I am pretty sure that at the UC and the installation and admin docs, Esri has made it clear that SSL is the way to go. I believe the statement in a session on Portal administration was something to the effect of:  "We used to say the Best Practice was to use HTTPS and SSL.  Now we are saying it is the required practice." I sure hope there's a solution for this! I am busy building up a Portal with only https/ssl like yours because Geo Net has indicated that's the best way to get WAB to work with services behind firewalls. ... View more

If you turn on the logging for the connection: 35704 - Diagnose ArcSDE connection and performance issues using SDEINTERCEPT you might get an idea of how much those domains affect the connection speed. Also, I agree with Blake.  Keep it clean. As I guy who just stepped into a position of overseeing a rather large legacy system, I spend an awful lot of time just figuring out if something in the system is still in use, be it in the database, mxds, services on the servers, etc... When you leave detritus laying around, it's just more stuff to trip over. ... View more

Have you looked at the Data Interoperability extension? I have not used it yet but it's supposed to be a powerful ETL and most ETLs allow for pushing schema changes around.  from some Esri docs: "If the output require schema changes then the Spatial ETL Tool should be used." Another tool you might consider are the ones from Red Gate : All Redgate's products for SQL Server, .NET, and Oracle I see they have a new Database Lifecycle Management suite that might be very useful for you. Now of course, you're working with a Geodatabase so things can get a bit tricky here. I used to use their SQL Developer Suite to do exactly what you're talking about. BUT it was not with a Geodatabase. I had a web app with a failry large database of CIP projects. I'd make schema changes to my local development copy, modify web code, etc.... Then I'd use the SQL Compare tool to migrate the schema changes up to the database on the Test Server environment.  After testing by various folks, I'd repeat the migration with SQL Compare to push the Schema changes up to Production environment. I would also use the Compare and Data Compare tools to help verify schemas were consistent and to move data around as needed.  For example, I could build a new table for something, like say a drop down list (DDL) (aka a Domain in arc speak) and populate it on my desktop.  Then just push the schema change and the data up to Test and Prod. I guess I'd first look at the Data Interop tool. Since it comes from Esri (yes, I know, it's a 3rd party tool but with Esri's blessing), it's more likely to carry all the required hidden SDE stuff down at the database level. OTOH, since SDE is basically an abstraction layer (I think that's fair to say?) the Red Gate (and similar tools) should pickup any and all changes down in the dB Schema and take care of anything. Best of luck. ... View more

Looking forward to your results Jacob. Might be worth running System Test against your setup, especially if you had similar results from the prior version. https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=e8bac3559fd64352b799b6adf5721d81 I was getting hung up a bit in a system design as to whether to separate or combine components. Obviously, it depends a lot on load and resource availability. I think I'm going with your method of more VMs with fewer cores than one monster machine. I've tried to arrange the design so that taking out components may not necessarily bring down the entire system. And generate fail overs (even though we have full DR setup.  I sure do like working in the Virtual world!) ... View more

I recently came across a post or a blog that had a method (I think based in arcpy) for clearing locks.  But I cannot find the link or the sample code. I bring this up because my memory (faulty at best) tells me that it was using an arcpy function specifically for the task.  Hence it was almost a one liner. Ring any bells for anyone? BTW - we've been using Stacy's clearWSLocks since it's early days when it was just a few lines of code. Works great and is a staple component of our nightly python scripts. Thanks Stacy! ... View more

Esri first adds new features to AGOL and then brings them into Portal as their schedule allows. At least, that's my understanding. However, I believe Portal does allow you to have Hosted Feature Layers. But, you need to install the DataStore for that functionality. Which also means a Hosting server for Portal. What is ArcGIS Data Store?—Installation Guides (10.3 and 10.3.1) | ArcGIS for Server There was a very recent thread on this regarding tiled layers: https://community.esri.com/message/543744?et=watches.email.thread#543744 Best of luck. ... View more

Thanks Steven... I heard the same thing at the UC. Basically it seems like if you have the resources, you separate things. But I also talked to a number of folks who had Porta/AGS-Hosting/DataStore and 2 web adapters on one box. But I think this depends a lot on your resource availability and how heavy your load will be. I'm going with separate Portal and AGS-Hosting VM boxes. Now trying to figure out where to put the Data Store and data config files. I also need a filer server for our file geo databases that our other AGS units dish up. Thanks for providing that note! ... View more

Best practices is an ongoing question and discussion and quite frankly, from my experience, you are not going to get a definitive answer.  This is probably because in most situations, a multitude of different layouts will work. I spent a  lot of time at the UC this year going to presentations regarding this question. My interest is mostly with Portal as the center hub. Even among Esri employees, you will get different answers as to best configuration. The typical advise is to engage professional services for help with your design. I finally realized that the best practice was too customized for each solution for that to be a definitive BP guide. One thing that I kept hearing was: consider your data configuration location.  If that goes down, your site goes down. Ditto with your web adaptor. So I've spent some time trying to get a handle on criticality and Your layout looks fine to me. I think many folks run the web adaptor on the main AGS box (physical in your case) without any issues. We do this with 10.1 with no apparent issues (although as a caveat, I have one inherited massive AGS unit that needs a reboot with regularity.  I think this is a more a javaw thing....) Are you running IIS or Apache on there?  And are you going to host web apps/sites on that box? If you're only standing it up for web adaptor, seems like a possible resource waste.  Would depend on how many hits you're having across the wire, etc.... Another thing to consider is Failover and Disaster recovery. Then there's the question of security/SSL: are you federating or just leaving everything open? A main point out of this years UC was that SSL used to be recommended best practice, especially with Portal, but now is basically considered required. For me, diagraming is the thing to do.. You get a good feel for dependencies, resources, etc... that way. Dave Peters offers a 3 day online course regarding Building a GIS and you could get his book, 2nd edition. There is a head spinning amount of info there. Portal is a whole other beast.  In 10.3.1, the new Data Store comes into play as well as a hosting server and federation, etc...  And as looks like you know, Portal requires its own web adapter.  The forums indicate there are issues getting Portal and AGS to run on the same server with individual web adapters but that it can be done with care. With your design, I think you could add Portal in without a huge headache, just would require another server or two.  some folks run Portal, the Hosting Server and the Data Store all on one box along with the data config files.  If any of those go down, you're Portal is almost down anyway. I suppose you could lose the Hosting and Data Store stuff and still have a Portal limping along using any resources registered from your other servers? When I start considering all of this, I can see why one can't really get a BP answer. My feeling is you do your best and set it up and go from there. It does seem that one recommendation from a majority of Esri folks has been to put each major component on its own VM box as much as possible (and to create a fail over for it)  That can consume a lot of resources though. And I've heard and read that two individual VMs of say (2) cores and 8GB @ is better than one (4) core 16 GB vm box.  But then, I recently read that the latter is the case from Esri's own info:  Virtualization and ArcGIS Server—Installation Guides (10.3 and 10.3.1) | ArcGIS for Server  I suspect a lot of this doesn't come into play until you're one of the folks out there having to deal with 1000s of users. ... View more

There seem to be many issues with using Chrome and AGOL and WAB and even geonet....  Do a search on Chrome here...  Interestingly, seems like most of the web demos at the UC were done via Chrome. ... View more

John: What's the SOP for keeping data up to date? We script most everything via python. Is that an option with Data Store? Or do you just republish the updated data via the original method? Thanks ... View more

Thanks Bernie...  that helps, I was wondering if there was something I was missing. ... View more

Bernie: When you say you "then publish that service to ArcGIS Online" do you mean you are then registering that service with AGOL or you then re-publish that service up to AGOL.  If the later, then you can just skip the step to AGS right?  I mean publish directly up to AGOL? ... View more

Mark: With ArcGIS Server and a published Feature or Map service you should be able to create a map in Portal/AGOL that does what you need.  I think one step Jonathan didn't mention is registering the AGS services in your Portal (which can be AGOL) after you publish them to the server. Add Web App Builder (WAB), into the mix and you'll be able to put out dynamic maps with additional functionality.  i.e. an actual web app rather than just a dynamic map. And the new native app builder, still in beta (3), looks to allow you to create just that, native apps for iOS, etc... HTH That said, I have had problems with getting map services inside our firewall to work with WAB and AGOL.  I can get the dynamic map to work but when I try to turn it into an app, it drops the layers in the firewall. There is a local layer tool that is supposed to help with this.  Since we've switched gears to setting up an in house Portal, I didn't pursue those issues. ... View more

Hey Freddy: If I can insert a comment here.... You mentioned maintaining 4 machines (or more) for dealing with all the ArcGIS versions you need to support. Have you considered the Virtual world? We use VMware to setup each environment as needed. Much easier than hardware. And then look at using Vagrant for spinning up the work environments. I'm still working on that piece of the puzzle but it looks to be quite helpful. Cheers ... View more