Direct connections from ArcSDE commands to a geodatabase in PostgreSQL

Administration commands are used primarily by the ArcSDE administrator user to monitor and alter the ArcSDE geodatabase. You can read the command reference provided with the ArcSDE component of ArcGIS Server at the Enterprise level for complete information on using these commands.

When these commands make connections to the geodatabase, they use the options –s for the server name, –D for the database name, –i for the service or direct connection string, –u for the connecting user's name, and –p for the user's password (if using database authentication).

If you are connecting to a local ArcSDE geodatabase (one that is on the same machine as the client), you do not need to specify the –s option; it is assumed to be the local server. For connections to remote geodatabases, provide the name of the server with the –s option.

Type the name of the database with the –D option.

The –i option corresponds to the Service field on the Spatial Database Connection Properties dialog box in ArcCatalog; you provide either the ArcSDE service port or name or the direct connection syntax string for your database with this option. For a direct connection to PostgreSQL, type sde:postgresql:<server_name>, where <server_name> is the name of the server on which the PostgreSQL database cluster resides.

For the –u option, you should include the database user name.

When you use the –p option to specify the password of the database user, it shows up in plain text. For most commands, you can omit this option when using database authentication and you will be prompted to type the password. When you do this, the password does not appear on-screen.