Is the ArcGIS Data Store *really* needed for Survey123?
We have an ArcGIS stack hosted on MS Azure.
We installed, configured, federated , and set up hosting servers: AGS, Portal for ArcGIS, and an ArcGIS Data Store. Now we could publish Survey123's.
We quickly realized that we wanted to store Survey123 data on our local SDE instance - which happened to be on SQL Server. We looked into using the submission_url option and were quite pleased with the results.
Deciding to save VM costs at Azure, and recognizing that we really don't need all the stuff that the ArcGIS Data Store offers, we put the 2 ArcGIS Data Store VMs on ice.
Our existing Survey123 crew happily continued to march along, creating survey results and collecting data. This confirmed to us that the the ArcGIS Data Store wasn't really needed for Survey123.
Until we wanted to add a new client to the Survey123 crew. At which point Survey123 informed us that "Survey123 requires that Portal for ArcGIS 10.3.1 or later and is configured with a Hosted Server and ArcGIS Data Store"
So here's the rub: We've proven that existing Survey123s can consume surveys from Portal for ArcGIS where the surveys uses the submission_url option. This suggests that the ArcGIS Data Store isn't really needed in the Survey123 stack, except for the singular reason for Survey123 to connect to a federated Portal for only the initial connection. Once that connection is made, the Data Store is not used for anything ever again. And we're stuck paying the cost of maintenance on 2 VMs for the Data Store that (we think) isn't really doing anything.
- Which begs the questions:
Does Survey123 really require the ArcGIS Data Store? - If not, then how can we avoid the "Survey123 requires that Portal for ArcGIS 10.3.1 or later and is configured with a Hosted Server and ArcGIS Data Store" when attaching a new client.
TIA
