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Deploying the ArcGIS Data Appliance (ArcGIS Server and Data)

To deploy the ArcGIS Data Appliance, you need to configure your ArcGIS Server system to use the cache directory on the appliance. After setting the appropriate permissions, you can then use the map documents on the appliance to create services that run on your ArcGIS Server. This document walks you through the necessary steps:

NOTE: See Requirements for a list of supported environments.

Step 1: Share the cache and source document locations on the appliance

You need to share two folders on the ArcGIS Data Appliance so that your ArcGIS Server machines can access them. These are the cache and source_documents folders in the appliance's file structure. These folders store map and globe documents and their caches.

The ArcGIS Data Appliance runs the Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 operating system. The steps for sharing a folder using Windows Storage Server are the same as in other recent Windows operating systems. To share a folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance:

  1. Browse to the source_documents folder using My Computer or Windows Explorer.
  2. Right-click the folder name and click Properties.
  3. Click the Sharing tab, click "Share this folder," and click Permissions. Under Group or user names, make sure Everyone is highlighted. Under Permissions, for the Change (or Write) option, check Allow, and click OK. Then, click OK on the Properties dialog box.

    Sharing a folder in Windows Storage Server 2003 R2

  4. Repeat steps 1–3 for the cache folder.

Step 2: Give the SOC account permissions to access files on the appliance

When you ran the ArcGIS Server post install, you specified a SOC account for your server to use when accessing data throughout the network. The SOC account needs to be accessible on the appliance and have permissions to any data or caches referenced by your services. How the SOC account gets its permissions depends on whether you're using a domain account or a local account (recommended) for the SOC account.

If you're in doubt or can't remember if your ArcGIS Server's SOC account is a local account or a domain account, you can do several things:

Local SOC account

For security reasons, the ArcGIS Server documentation recommends using a local account for the SOC account. If you used a local account, you need to create an identical local SOC account on the ArcGIS Data Appliance. Follow these instructions to create the account:

  1. From the ArcGIS Data Appliance, right-click My Computer, and click Manage.
  2. Expand Local Users and Groups, and click Users.
  3. Right-click the Users folder, and click New User.
  4. Enter the same user name and password that you used for the SOC account on all other machines of your ArcGIS Server system. Upper and lower-case letters in the user names and passwords must match.
  5. Uncheck "User must change password at next logon".
  6. Check "User cannot change password" and "Password never expires".
  7. Click OK.

When using local accounts for the SOC account, you must create the SOC account on the ArcGIS Data Appliance.

Once you've created this local SOC account, you don't need to explicitly grant it permissions to any folders on the appliance. This is because Windows automatically adds the new account to the "Users" group, which has Read access to all of the necessary files on the appliance. Additionally, when you shared the cache and source_documents folders, the Windows "Everyone" group (which includes the SOC account) was granted Change (or Write) access to the shared folders. This is how your local SOC account gets permissions to access the shared folders.

If you change the Windows defaults to remove permissions for the Users or Everyone groups, you will need to explicitly grant the local SOC account both share and file (NTFS) permissions to the cache and source_documents folders.

Domain SOC account

If you designated a domain account as the SOC account, you will need to add it to the Windows "Users" group on the data appliance. Members of the Users group have Read access to all files on the appliance. To add the SOC account to the Users group, follow these steps:

  1. From the appliance, right-click My Computer, and click Manage.
  2. Expand Local Users and Groups, then select Groups.
  3. In the list of groups on the right-hand side, double-click Users.
  4. Click Add, and add the domain account that your server uses for the SOC account.
  5. Click OK to dismiss the dialogs. Your SOC account will now be able to read the caches and source documents on the appliance.

When you shared the cache and source_documents folders on the device, the Windows "Everyone" group was granted Change (or Write) access to the shared folders. Thus, the SOC account gets its share permissions by virtue of belonging to the Everyone group, and its file (NTFS) permissions by being in the Users group.

If you change the Windows defaults to remove permissions for the Users or Everyone groups, you will need to explicitly grant the local SOC account both share and file permissions to the cache and source_documents folders.

NOTE: In the previous sections of this document, you worked with the ArcGIS Data Appliance. Now, you'll switch to configuring your GIS server. To complete the next step, you need to be able to access your Web server administration software and Manager.

Step 3: Configure ArcGIS Server to use the cache directory on the appliance

ArcGIS Server maintains a list of directories in which it can find map and globe cache tiles. You need to explicitly add cache directories to this list. It's possible that you have a cache directory already in your existing ArcGIS Server deployment. Whether you do or not, you need to add a new cache directory that references the ArcGIS Data Appliance.

Click a link to view the steps for your configuration.

Windows with IIS

If you're using ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, skip to step 3B: Add the cache directory to your server. You don't need to complete step 3A.

If you're using ArcGIS Server 9.3, first you need to create a virtual directory. Then, you add the cache directory to your server.

A. Create a virtual directory that references the cache directory

If you're using ArcGIS Server 9.3, before you add the cache directory to your server, you need to create a virtual directory that will reference it. A virtual directory allows client applications to access the cache directory using a URL, which is often the fastest way to get the tiles.

You create a virtual directory on your Web server machine, using your Web server's administration software; however, the cache directory itself does not have to be on the same machine as the Web server. In this case, the virtual directory will reference the shared cache directory on the ArcGIS Data Appliance.

Instructions for creating a virtual directory in Internet Information Services (IIS) 6 are provided. Even if you are using a different Web server, you may find these instructions helpful when configuring your virtual directory.

  1. Open IIS Manager by opening Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. (If you don't see the IIS Manager shortcut, you may need to install IIS. To do this, navigate to Control Panel > Add or Remove Components > Add/Remove Windows Components and check the Application Server box.)
  2. Under your computer name, expand the Web Sites folder.
  3. Right-click Default Web Site and select New > Virtual Directory. You'll be presented with a wizard that will help you create the virtual directory. Click Next to dismiss the splash screen.
  4. Type an alias for the virtual directory (for example, "cache_sm") and click Next.
  5. Enter the UNC path to the shared cache folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance (for example, "\\APPLIANCE\cache"). Click Next.
  6. Since your virtual directory is referencing a shared location, a screen to enter security credentials will display. The virtual directory should access the ArcGIS Data Appliance using the SOC account.
    1. Uncheck "Always use the authenticated user's credentials when validating access to the network directory".
    2. Fill in the user name and password boxes with the information for the SOC account. If you are using local accounts for the SOC account, enter the name of the local SOC account on the Web server machine (for example, "MYWEBSERVER\ArcGISSOC"). Or, if you're using a domain account for the SOC account, enter the domain account name (for example, "MYDOMAIN\ArcGISSOC").
    3. Click Next.
  7. Make sure the box to allow Read access is checked.
  8. Click Next to create the virtual directory, then click Finish to exit the wizard. You should be able to expand your virtual directory and view the cache folders as in the graphic below:

    A successfully created virtual directory that references the ArcGIS Data Appliance.

B. Add the cache directory to your server

Once you've given the SOC account permissions to access the cache folder if you're using ArcGIS Server 9.3, you're ready to add the cache directory to your server. To add a server cache directory, perform the following steps within ArcGIS Server Manager:

  1. Click the GIS Server tab.
  2. From the View menu on the left, click Directories (or "Server Directories" ifyou are using Java Manager).
  3. Click Add Directory.
  4. For the path to the directory, enter the path to the cache folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance (for example, "\\APPLIANCE\cache").
  5. From the Type dropdown list, choose Cache.
  6. For the Virtual Directory:
    1. For ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, leave it blank.
    2. For ArcGIS Server 9.3, enter the URL to the virtual directory you created in step 3A. The URL will include your Web server machine name and the alias you selected for your virtual directory. For example, if you created the virtual directory on a machine named Server1 and the alias you chose for the virtual directory was VirtualCache, the URL would be http://Server1/VirtualCache.
  7. You do not need to specify a Description, Cleaning Mode, or Maximum File Age.

    Specifying server cache directory properties in ArcGIS Server Manager 9.3.

  8. Click OK to add the directory. By default, you'll return to the list of output directories. To verify that the cache directory was created successfully, you can select Cache Directories from the Show dropdown menu.

NOTE: ArcGIS Server for the Microsoft .NET Framework deployments with REST applications must configure an IIS application pool to run using the ArcGIS Web Services user that was established/created during the ArcGIS Server post install. This is not necessary for ArcGIS Server for Java Platform installations using REST applications. To do this, see Create an application pool to improve system performance.

Linux with Apache

First you need to mount the shares you created, and for ArcGIS Server 9.3 you need to create a virtual directory in Apache. Then you add the cache directory to your server.

A. Mount the shares you just created

  1. From the Linux host, using the Linux shell script below as an example, mount the shares that were created in step 1:
    mount.cifs //esri_data/source_sm /media/SourceWorld -o user=demo_user,password=demo
    mount.cifs //esri_data/cache_sm /arcgis/server/serverdir/arcgiscache/ -o user=demo_user,password=demo

B. Create a virtual directory in Apache

For ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, skip to step 3C: Add the cache directory to your server.

For ArcGIS Server 9.3, you need to create a virtual directory that will reference the directories on the ArcGIS Data Appliance. A virtual directory allows client applications to access the cache directory using a URL, which is often the fastest way to get the tiles.

Apache has a concept of virtual directories which maps a URL path to a location on disk. It is necessary to create a virtual directory to work with the cached content on the ArcGIS Data Appliance.

  1. Back up your httpd.conf file found at <Apache install location>\conf.
  2. Open your httpd.conf file in a text editor. See if there are any directory entries for your cache directory already. It would look something like this in most cases:
    ## Entry for the data appliance (Basemap Collection)
    Alias /dataapp/cache_sm "//esri-da-01/cache_sm"
  3. If the directory does not exist, add an Alias entry to the httpd.conf file.
  4. Save the changes to the httpd.conf file.

C. Add the cache directory to your server 

Once you've mounted the shares, and created the virtual directory if you're using ArcGIS Server 9.3, you're ready to add the cache directory to your server. To add a server cache directory, perform the following steps within ArcGIS Server Manager:

  1. Click the GIS Server tab.
  2. From the View menu on the left, click Directories (or "Server Directories" if you are using Java Manager).
  3. Click Add Directory.
  4. For the path to the directory, enter the path to the cache folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance (for example, "\\APPLIANCE\cache").
  5. From the Type dropdown list, choose Cache.
  6. For the Virtual Directory:
    1. For ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, leave it blank.
    2. For ArcGIS Server 9.3, enter the URL to the virtual directory you created in step 3B. The URL will include your Web server machine name and the alias you selected for your virtual directory. For example, if you created the virtual directory on a machine named Server1 and the alias you chose for the virtual directory was VirtualCache, the URL would be http://Server1/VirtualCache.
  7. You do not need to specify a Description, Cleaning Mode, or Maximum File Age.
  8. Click OK to add the directory. By default, you'll return to the list of output directories. To verify that the cache directory was created successfully, you can select Cache Directories from the Show dropdown menu.

Step 4: Create the services

The most important step for deploying the ArcGIS Data Appliance is to create map services. These services will reference the caches and map documents on the appliance. You create these services the same way you create any other ArcGIS Server service.

Creating map services

Follow these instructions for each 2D map service that you want to create:

  1. In ArcGIS Server Manager, click the Services tab.
  2. Click Add New Service.
  3. In the Name field, enter the exact name of the corresponding map cache folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance, for example, World_Street_Map. The name of the service must exactly match its cache folder name.
  4. Verify that the Type is Map Service and the Startup Type is Automatic. Then, click Next.
  5. In the Map Document field, browse to the source_documents\2D_map_documents folder on the ArcGIS Data Appliance and select the map document that you would like to publish.
  6. In the Server Cache Directory field (or "Cache Directory" if you are using Java Manager), select the cache directory you added that references the cache directory on the ArcGIS Data Appliance. If you don't see the directory listed, you will need to revisit the section in this document titled Configure ArcGIS Server to use the cache directory on the ArcGIS Data Appliance.
  7. You've set all of the essential properties for your service, so accept the rest of the default properties and create the service. If you want to make an adjustment to the service, such as changing the maximum number of instances that can be created, you can edit the properties in Manager.
  8. If necessary, start the service in Manager by checking the box next to the service name and clicking Start.
  9. Repeat this process for any other map services you want to configure.

Step 5: Configure your Web server to return a blank or no data tile for empty map areas

For ArcGIS Server 9.3 on Windows with IIS, you need to configure your Web server to return a "Data not available tile" for empty areas of your basemap services or a blank tile for empty areas of your reference overlay services. To display a tile, you need to create a custom error response in your virtual cache directory for HTTP Error 404: "Not Found". Instead of an error message, the Web server returns the tile. The blank.png and data_not_avail.jpg tiles are located on the ArcGIS Data Appliance in the cache folder.

• Use blank.png for reference overlay services, such as, transportation or boundaries and places.

• Use data_not_avail.jpg if you wish to perform these steps on 2D basemap services, such as, street maps, imagery, or topographic maps.

For ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, this step is not needed; the ArcGIS tile handler automatically returns a blank or no data tile for empty map areas.

In the Web application above, the Web server was configured to return a gray tile with the message "Map data not yet available" in places where the cache has not been generated.

Following are steps for configuring Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 to return a "Data not available" tile. These steps are optional for basemap services, but you may find they improve the usability of the service.

  1. Navigate to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
  2. Navigate to the virtual cache directory, and find the folder containing the World_Street_Map map cache. Right-click the folder, and click Properties.

  3. Click the Custom Errors tab, scroll down, and select the 404 error code.
  4. Click the Edit button. In the URL box, specify the tile that IIS should return whenever a tile is missing. Use a relative URL and not just a path to a file.
  5. Click OK. Your dialog should look similar to the one below. Click OK again to return to IIS Manager.

Step 6: Use the services

For specific instructions on how to connect to your services and create basemaps from them, see the appropriate user guide for the ArcGIS application you are using: