Tips for deploying ArcGIS Enterprise

Information extracted from this Esri Community post:

1) Put one component per physical server or VM* (if you have a big server with space for many VMs). One for ArcGIS Enterprise Portal, one for ArcGIS Enterprise Server, one for ArcGIS Data Store, and one for your Database Server. ArcGIS Portal, Web Adaptors, and IIS on one.

*I would recommend Virtual Servers to have the snapshot availability. I guess I do not fully trust Esri’s backup and restore tools. I still use the backup tools, but I think using both is safer.

2) One of the reasons for one component per VM is snapshot backups. Whenever you call Esri Support, and they hit a broken component that they can’t fix, they will say, “Can you drop back to yesterday’s snapshot?” and if the SQL Server is on the same machine, the answer will be “NO, we will lose work.”

3) Another reason is that you will have some license limit on the CPUs, and if you have (like us) a 4 CPU limit, you get 4 per machine = 16 vs 4 total for everything.

4) Be patient; some of the installers can take a long time to complete and look like they are not doing anything. Depending on the servers, it can take a while. But… sometimes the installers will hang for some reason. I do not think that happened during my last fresh install, but it has happened often with upgrades. Contact Esri Support before trying to cancel or close anything.

5) Create an admin account to manage the deployment and a separate account to publish/create content.

6) Choose the Database Server that works best for you or your team has more experience with.

7) Upgrades have always been a pain. Every time we upgrade, something breaks. Last time, EVERY Web App Builder application stopped working (and no, Esri could not figure it out.) Only the Developer Edition apps survived, so that’s all we use now.

8) Make sure your storage for ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Portal config directories have good performance with small, random input/output. Otherwise, ArcGIS Enterprise will be slow for many operations (https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/latest/install/windows/choosing-a-nas-device.htm).

9) Come up with some standards for naming conventions (for services, items, folders, tags, etc.) and content organization before you start loading content.