What are configuration keywords?

As part of the process of creating new datasets in a geodatabase, you can optionally use configuration keywords to specify how data is stored in the geodatabase. Configuration keywords represent a setting or group of settings that tell the geodatabase where or in what format to store data contents in each dataset.

Configuration keywords are used with file geodatabases and ArcSDE geodatabases licensed with ArcGIS Server Enterprise. Each of these geodatabase types has its own set of keywords. In the case of ArcSDE geodatabases, there are a number of configuration keywords that can be used for specifying geometry storage (which varies by database management system [DBMS]) as well as for managing geometric networks, topologies, and terrains.

Here are some examples of configuration keywords and their uses:

• DEFAULTS—This uses reasonable default configuration and storage settings for most geodatabase uses.
• MAX_FILE_SIZE_256TB—If you are importing an extremely large image into a file geodatabase, you can specify the MAX_FILE_SIZE_256TB configuration keyword, which tells the geodatabase to allow the raster dataset to be up to 256 terabytes in size.
• SDELOB—If you want to add a feature class to an ArcSDE for Oracle geodatabase, you could specify the SDELOB configuration keyword, which tells the database to store the spatial data in BLOB format.
• TEXT_UTF16—If you are creating a file geodatabase feature class that will contain attribute data in Chinese, Russian, or another language with non-Latin characters, you can specify this keyword so the text characters store in UTF-16, a more efficient storage format for these languages.

In most cases, simply choosing the default option creates new datasets that will work well for you. However, there are some cases in which you must specify a configuration keyword, for example, if you want to use a nondefault raster storage setting in an ArcSDE geodatabase or you need to store a large raster dataset (one that is a terabyte or more in size) in a file geodatabase.

Note:

Configuration keywords are only used with file geodatabases or ArcSDE geodatabases licensed with ArcGIS Server Enterprise; they cannot be specified for personal geodatabases or geodatabases created on the Database Servers node in ArcCatalog.