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Installing ArcGIS Enterprise

Rev. 17 August 2025

This tutorial covers the installation of ArcGIS Enterprise 11.5 on Windows Server 2025.

This configuration was a virtual server with two cores, 32 GB RAM, and 250 GB storage.

ArcGIS Enterprise architecture

Installation Files

You will need a license (.prvc) file to authorize ArcGIS Enterprise. In commercial settings, you can get this file from your My Esri site.

Portal for ArcGIS has a separate .json license file that you can also get from My Esri or your system administrator. A license will require the following information (with values used in this install):

Operating under an institutional license at the University of Illinois, I downloaded installation files from our webstore.illinois.edu, who administers our organization.

Installation files from the U of I WebStore

Configuring the Server

You will need to configure the server and web services before setting up ArcGIS Enterprise.

Security Patches

The version of Microsoft Server in the image should be updated with the most recent patches as quickly as possible after configuration to optimize system security. The version in the image will be old and servers are prime targets for hacking bots.

Installing security updates

Additional Windows Components

Install these additional Windows components.

Install .NET Desktop Runtime

ArcGIS Server

ArcGIS Server is the ArcGIS Entrprise component that listens for service requests and responds with formatted data from the data store or enterprise database.

  1. Start the self-extracting installer .exe file (ArcGIS_Server_Windows_115_195344.exe).
  2. After installation files are extracted, select Launch the setup program and Close.
  3. Authorization Options: I have received an authorization file and am no ready to finish the authorization process (browse to the .prvc file and Next)
Installing ArcGIS Server

Server Setup

The Server Manager web page will open (https://localhost:6443/arcgis/manager).

  1. Accept the self-signed certificate warning
  2. ArcGIS Server Setup Wizard: Create New Site
  3. Primary Site Administrator Account: Supply a new site administrator username (siteadmin is the default) and password (Next)
  4. Specify Root Server Directory and Configuration Store: Accept defaults (Next)
  5. Configuration Summary: Click Finish to create your ArcGIS Server site. This will take a few minutes
Server manager setup

The ArcGIS Server Manager will appear. Log in (https://localhost:6443/arcgis/manager).

Server manager

Server Web Adaptor Configuration

Configure the first Web Adaptor for the server to route port 443 to server port 6443.

  1. Launch the Web Adaptor self-extracting installer .exe
  2. IIS requirements verification: If you have missing components, click I agree to install those components. This was my list:
  3. The Web Adaptor setup will start.
  4. The https://localhost/arcgis/webadaptor configuration page will launch with a certificate warning. Go to https://domain.com/arcgis/webadaptor instead.
  5. Enter the URL for the ArcGIS Server Manager page (https://localhost/arcgis/manager) to verify port 443 is rerouted to server port 6443.
  6. Try accessing the ArcGIS Server Manager on an outside browser using the domain name (https://domain.com/arcgis/manager).
Web adaptor config for ArcGIS Server

Test the Map Service

Although you will almost certainly prefer to access services through Portal for ArcGIS as described below, you can use ArcGIS Pro with feature and tile services directly on the server.

ArcGIS Server comes with a sample map service to test connectivity.

  1. Start ArcGIS Pro and open a new Map project.
  2. On the Map ribbon, click Add Data and Data From Path.
  3. Enter https://domain.com/arcgis/services/SampleWorldCities/MapServer/WMSServer.
  4. The map should display after a few seconds.
Test server map service

Publish a Map Service

Although it is generally easier to publish feature services via Portal, you can publish map services to your server through the Catalog Pane.

  1. Add a connection to the server.
    2. Connecting to a server
  2. Create and symbolize a map. In this case we use Export Features to copy data from an existing Minn 2019 World Energy Indicators ArcGIS Online feature service into the project geodatabase.
  3. Right click on the server in the Catalog Pane and select Publish, Map Service.
    4. Publishing a map service directly to the server
  4. Confirm availability of the service in the Catalog Pane and create a new map and verify that the feature service can be added as a new layer.
    5. A web map from a map service published directly to the server

ArcGIS Data Store

The ArcGIS Enterprise data store stores data for portal:

To install and configure:

  1. Launch the Data Store self-extracting installer .exe.
  2. The configuration web page will open (https://localhost:2443/arcgis/datastore).
  3. Log into the server manager (https://domain.com/arcgis/manager).
Configured and validated data stores

Portal for ArcGIS

Portal for ArcGIS is a service that provides a flexible web-based user interface to access, manage, and web map data store(s) and ArcGIS Servers. Portal is the same interface used by ArcGIS Online, except it runs on your server rather than one of ESRI's cloud servers.

You will need to obtain a portal authorization file from My Esri or your system administrator before you can create a portal. This is a separate (.json) file from the .prvc file used to authorize the server.

Install Portal

  1. Launch the Portal for ArcGIS self-extracting installer .exe.
    2. Portal installed
  2. Clicking Finish from the installer will take you to the portal home page (https://localhost:7443/arcgis/home)
Creating the portal

Portal Web Adaptor

You need to create a second installation of ArcGIS Web Adaptor that will reroute server requests on port 433 to port 7443 used by ArcGIS Portal.

To install a second Web Adaptor:

  1. Launch the web adaptor installer .exe again.
  2. Splash screen: (Next)
  3. Welcome: (Next)
  4. Master Agreement: Accept (Next)
  5. Select Web site for the Web Adaptor: Default Web Site (443) (Next)
  6. New Virtual Directory: portal (Note that this needs to be changed to be distinct from the server arcgis web adaptor name)
  7. Ready to Install the Program: This takes a couple of minutes (Install)
  8. Successfully installed: (Finish)
Installing the portal web adaptor

The installer will launch the ArcGIS Web Adaptor configuration page (https://localhost/portal/webadaptor).

  1. Accept the security risk from the self-signed certificate.
  2. Which component?: Select Portal for ArcGIS (Next)
  3. Accept the security risk from the self-signed certificate.
  4. To configure the web adaptor...
  5. The confirmation will be the green box under the form.
Portal web adaptor configuration confirmation complete

Enter the Portal URL (https://domain.com/portal/home) to verify port 443 is rerouted to server port 7443.

Accessing the portal through the web adaptor

If you get the Invalid redirect_uri error when you try to log in, you may need to manually edit the configuration for your Portal web adaptor to change the web adaptor URL to use the appropriate domain name. This occurred on my system because the domain name (arcgis.ggis.illinois.edu) actually resolves to ggis-arcgis.ad.uillinois.edu.

  1. Log in to the portal admin console using the server name (https://servername/portal/portaladmin).
  2. Portal admin console: Select System
  3. System: Select Web Adaptors
  4. Web Adaptors: Select the web adaptor
  5. Add /edit to the end of the URL in the browser to edit the web adaptor.
  6. Change the Web adaptor URL from the machine name to the portal home page using the domain name (https://domain.com/portal/home).
  7. Click Edit Web Adaptor. This will take a minute or two to restart the portal.
  8. The portal should now be accessible through https://domain.com/portal/home.
Invalid redirect_uri error

Federate The Server to Portal

Federation is the interconnection of servers to delegate security. Portal for ArcGIS can be federated with ArcGIS Enterprise so that server security can be managed conveniently through Portal's full-featured interface.

  1. In Portal, go to Organization, Settings, Servers and select Add Server Site.
  2. Configure server role: Configure as a Hosting Server (Save server role)
  3. If you have any problems federating through the Portal settings, you can also federate (and unfederate) through the portal administration page (https://localhost:7443/portal/portaladmin) under Servers, Select the federated server, and Unfederate.
Server federation

Patches

To maximize security and minimize bugs, you should generally install the latest patches to the software.

You can find the latest patches at the ESRI support page, but the more convenient choice is to use ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notifications. These should appear in the Recommended section of your start menu, but you can also run the tool manually from Start Menu, All Apps, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server, Check for ArcGIS Enterprise Updates.

  1. Review the list of available updates.
  2. Click the download icon by the first patch.
  3. Select Update to install the patch. Note that these patches can have equivalent install times to the original software (e.g. two hours for Portal).
  4. Repeat for successive patches.
ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notification tool

Test Publishing in Portal

You should try uploading a geospatial data file into the portal to create a hosted feature service and map.

Web map from a hosted feature service published in a portal

Enterprise Portals in ArcGIS Pro

You can use choose between ArcGIS Online and Portal for ArcGIS as the server you use for both publishing new services and for managing existing services.

Managing portalsin ArcGIS Pro

Publishing a Feature Layer

Click the user name at the top of the screen to change the active portal that will be used when adding or publishing data.

The active portal is used when you Share as Web Layer.

Publishing a feature layer using Portal for ArcGIS

Using Portal for License Authorization

With ArcGIS Pro you need access to a portal that authenticates you as a licensed user. While in academic settings ArcGIS Online is used as the portal, you can also use ArcGIS Enterprise for license authentication.

Start ArcGIS Pro and select Configure Licensing.

ArcGIS Pro licensing

If you try to log in to ArcGIS Pro and get the message, "An assigned license was not found. Please contact your administrator for more information," the problem may be that the portal URL specified in your portal licence .json file does not match the public URL of the portal you are trying to use.

You (or your site administrator) needs to create a new license file in My Esri with the correct portal URL and you need to import that license file into the portal under My Organization, Licenses. Note that the URL should begin with https and have no closing slash (/) at the end.

The assigned license was not found

PostgreSQL

The PostgreSQL relational database management system with PostGIS extensions can be used as an enterprise geodatabase data store with ArcGIS Enterprise.

Installing PostgreSQL

Although the installed data store seems to run PostgreSQL processes, you need to install PostgreSQL to be able to set up a separate geodatabase.

Check the supported version numbers before installing. For this installation I used PostgreSQL 16.8 with PostGIS 3.1.11.

  1. Launch the self-extracting installer .exe.
  2. The installer begins:
PostgreSQL installer

PostGIS

After the PostgreSQL installer completes, the Stack Builder component installer will start.

  1. Welcome to Stack Builder: Select PostgreSQL 16 (x64) on port 5432 (Next)
  2. Select applications: Spatial Extensions, PostGIS 3.5 bundle (Next)
  3. Review: The application will freeze (not responding) for a couple of minutes during the download.
  4. Start the installations: (Next)
  5. License agreement: (I Agree)
  6. Choose Components: Select everything (Next)
  7. Choose Install Location: Keep the default (Next)
  8. Database Connection: Specify database connection credentials (see above) (Next)
  9. Database Name: Keep the default demonstration database. The install will take a few seconds (Install)
  10. Installation Complete: (Close)
  11. Installation Completed: (Finish)
Stack Builder

Remote Access

If you need remote access to the database from another machine, you will first need to configure the database to receive connections.

If you are running Adminer on an older system (libpq 9.x.x), you will get the message: Unable to connect to PostgreSQL server: SCRAM authentication requires libpq version 10 or above.

You will need to revert to the less secure md5 authentication.

PostgreSQL Tools

Command line tools are available from the PowerShell in the installation bin folder.

cd 'c:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\16\bin'

>psql is the interactive shell.

.\psql -U postgres database_name

pg_dump can be used to backup to .sql files.

.\pgdump -U postgres -f backup_file.sql database_name

You can restore from a .sql file with psql.

.\psql -U postgres -d database_name -f backup_file.sql

Because this is a database-level utility, you may need to Register with geodatabase any restored tables before you can use them.

pgAdmin 4

pgAdmin 4 is the administrative console that comes with PostgreSQL.

pgadmin 4

If you do not see a database in the list, or if you get the Instance...is not persisted error when you try to create a new database:

PostgreSQL Enterprise Geodatabase Administration

You will generally want to perform administrative actions through ArcGIS Pro when using the server for geodatabases that will be used by ESRI software.

Keep the PostgreSQL hierarchy in mind:

Create a Database

You can create new databases in ArcGIS Pro with the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool.

Creating a PostgreSQL enterprise geodatabase

Create a New User and Schema

A schema is a set of relational database tables stored in a database.

To create a new schema, you need to use the Create Database User tool to create a new user that owns the schema.

Creating a new database user and schema

Connecting to a Database

You need to connect to a database before you can perform other actions.

Note that once you have connected to a database as a user, you will need to completely shut down and restart ArcGIS Pro if you wish to connect to the database as another user. This can be especially annoying for systems administrators when performing both administrator tasks (user postgres) and tasks as a database user.

In the ArcGIS Pro Catalog pane, right click on Databases and select New Database Connection.

New database connection

Copying Data into an Enterprise Geodatabase

Copy and paste a test feature class from the project geodatabase to the newly connected database. You can also view the new table in pgAdmin.

Feature class copied into the enterprise geodatabase
Feature class viewed in Adminer

Register the Data Store with Portal

To share feature services from the database, you will need to register your data store with portal.

On the Share ribbon, select Data Stores, confirm that the drop-down list is set to Portal Items, and click the Add button.

If your connection gets a Validation Error: The connection property set was missing a required property, you likely need to create a new connection where you save the username and password.

Test publish a layer using data from the database using Reference registered data and Feature.

Registering a data store with portal

Adminer

Adminer is a web-based database management application written in PHP. While pgAdmin 4 is powerful and full-featured, it is also complex and challenging for users who are new to relational databases. Adminer is a tidier solution for teaching interaction with databases using SQL. The challenge with Adminer on a Windows platform is that installation requires quite a few manual steps.

Enable FastCGI

FastCGI is a protocol for interfacing with interactive programs with a web server.

  1. Open Server Manager.
  2. Select Manage, Add Roles and Features.
  3. Go to Server Roles, Web Server, Application Development.
  4. If CGI is not checked, check it Next through to install.
Installing CGI on IIS

Install the Visual C++ x64 Runtime

Download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ x64 Runtime.

Install PHP

Download PHP Non-Thread-Safe version for Windows and unzip it into C:\Program Files\PHP

Add a Handler Mapping to Make IIS Execute PHP files as Scripts

  1. Open IIS Manager
  2. Clicking on the server node in the left panel
  3. Open the Handler Mappings applet.
  4. Select Add Module Mapping
  5. Add index.php to the Default Document list in IIS
  6. Restart IIS

Verify PHP is Working

Use notepad to create a phpinfo.php file in the home www directory (default C:\inetpub\wwwroot) containing a call to the phpinfo() diagnostic function.

<?php phpinfo(); ?>

Navigate to the PHP file in a browser to verify PHP works.

Enable the PostgreSQL Extensions

Enable the PostgreSQL extensions. If you try running Adminer with default php you will probably get the message None of the supported PHP extensions (PgSQL, PDO_PgSQL) are available..

  1. Go into the C:\Program Files\PHP folder and rename php.ini.production to php.ini
  2. In the php.ini file, located in C:\php, uncomment (remove the leading semicolon) for the following lines:
  3. Restart IIS
Modifying the php.ini file

Install Adminer

Download the Adminer PHP file and place it in the home www directory.

You should be able to invoke the script from a browser and use it to log into and manage your database.

Adminer login
Adminer listing of schema tables