Installing ArcGIS Enterprise

This tutorial covers the installation of ArcGIS Enterprise 11.1 on Windows Server 2022.

This configuration was a virtual server with two cores, 16 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.

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

.NET Desktop Runtime

Install the .NET Desktop Runtime 6.

Install .NET Desktop Runtime

ArcGIS Server

  1. Start the self-extracting installer .exe file.
  2. After installation files are extracted, Launch the setup program.
  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 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
  6. The ArcGIS Server Manager will appear: log in
Server manager setup

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. Some additional components that needed to be installed separately included:
  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
  3. 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.
  4. Right click on the server in the Catalog Pane and select Publish, Map Service.
  5. Publishing a map service directly to the server
  6. 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.
  7. 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 data stores

Portal for ArcGIS

Portal for ArcGIS is a service that allows you to access and manage data store(s) and ArcGIS Enterprise services. 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
  3. 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 Setup.exe installer in Documents/ArcGIS 10.9.1/WebAdaptorIIS
  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 distinct from the server arcgis web adaptor name)
  7. Ready to Install the Program: (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 will need to manually edit the configuration for your Portal web adaptor.

  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 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

License Manager

If you want to be able to authorize ArcGIS Pro and other software through your Portal, you will need to install the License Manager.

You can get a License Manager installer .exe file from My ESRI.

Note that ArcGIS Enterprise 11.1 ships with the 2022 license manager, which only authorizes ArcGIS Pro up to v3.1.x. If you want to use ArcGIS Pro 3.2. or 3.3, you need the 2024 license manager.

  1. Launch the Portal for ArcGIS self-extracting installer .exe.
  2. The license manager setup program will run.
  3. The ArcGIS License Server Administrator will start.
  4. ArcGIS License Server Administrator
  5. Start ArcGIS Pro and select Configure Licensing.
ArcGIS Pro licensing

If you try to log into the portal from ArcGIS Pro and the connection fails with no message, it may be an invalid WebContextURL.

  1. Sign in to the portal administration console (https://domain.com/arcgis/portaladmin)
  2. Go to System, Properties, Update Properties.
  3. Add this property based on your own domain.com.

    {
       "WebContextURL": "https://domain.com/portal"
    }
    
  4. After the portal restarts, you should be able to log in.

If you try to long in with ArcGIS Pro and get the message ArcGIS Pro failed to connect to the License Manager, there are a number of possible causes. In this case the problem was firewall settings on the host.

  1. Search for Windows Defender Firewall on the server.
  2. Go to Advanced Settings.
  3. Select Inbound Rules in the left pane.
  4. Select New Rule in the right pane to start the New Inbound Rule wizard.
  5. Repeat configuration of new Inbound Rules for ARCGIS.exe and LSAdmin.exe.
  6. Configure new Outbound Rules for all three executables.
  7. Test login with ArcGIS Pro.
ArcGIS Pro failed to connect to the License Manager

Choosing 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

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 14.6 with PostGIS 3.1.11.

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

PostGIS

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

  1. Welcome to Stack Builder: Select PostgreSQL 14 (x64) on port 5432 (Next)
  2. Select applications: Spatial Extensions, PostGIS 3.4 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

PostgreSQL Tools

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

cd 'c:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\13\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

pgAdmin 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:

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 Enterprise Database 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