ArcGIS Enterprise software components are dependent on foundational storage to accomplish various functional requirements. If you have deployed ArcGIS Enterprise in a cloud environment, and in some cases, in on-premises environments, you can satisfy these requirements with cloud services. The following table summarizes the cloud options for foundational storage requirements:
| Storage requirement | Applicable ArcGIS Enterprise deployment | Supported ArcGIS Enterprise deployment platform |
|---|---|---|
Object store | Base deployment, ArcGIS Video Server | Cloud only |
Raster data store | ArcGIS Image Server | Cloud or on-premises |
System directories | Any | Cloud only |
Backup storage | Any | Cloud or on-premises |
The following sections describe the recommendations for integrating with cloud services for each of these foundational software requirements.
Object store
An object store is a requirement of a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. It stores data in a flat structure that makes it easier to write and retrieve large amounts of data. The object store is used for hosted scene layer caches, hosted 3D tiles layers, cached query responses for hosted feature layers, and more.
The object store can either be provided by installing the ArcGIS Data Store software component, or by a cloud storage service. ArcGIS Enterprise deployments in the AWS or Azure cloud can take advantage of the object storage option native to those cloud platforms for use as an object store. The cloud storage services that are supported for providing the object store include the following:
- Amazon S3
- Azure Blob Storage
For more information, see the instructions for adding an object store for ArcGIS Enterprise on Amazon Web Services and ArcGIS Enterprise on Microsoft Azure.
For ArcGIS Enterprise deployments on-premises or on virtual machines in clouds other than AWS and Azure, the object store cannot be configured to use a cloud service. For these deployments, use ArcGIS Data Store to provide the object store instead.
Raster data store
ArcGIS Image Server requires a raster data store to support hosted imagery layers such as those created when an organization member directly uploads imagery or runs raster analysis tools. You can use a cloud storage service for the raster data store as an alternative to a local file system or file share. The supported cloud storage services include the following:
- Amazon S3
- Azure Blob Storage
- Google Cloud Storage
- Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS)
Note:
While on-premises deployments of ArcGIS Enterprise support the use of cloud services for raster data stores, it is recommended that you use an on-premises network share to minimize latency. See Register a raster store for more information.
System directories
Cloud services can be used to store system directories and data for individual ArcGIS Enterprise software components, as an alternative to using the local file system or network share. The environment in which the software is deployed as well as the configured components will impact the available options.
For example, in every base deployment, the Portal for ArcGIS component stores content that is saved and uploaded by members of the organization in a portal content directory. The portal content directory can use cloud storage in the following ways:
- When installing a base deployment in the cloud, an administrator may use a cloud storage service to store the portal content directory
- An administrator can also update the portal content directory locations of an existing deployment to use a cloud storage service. See Change the portal content directory for more information.
Similarly, any ArcGIS Server site depends on a configuration store that contains information about the essential properties of the site. When creating an ArcGIS Server site in the cloud, an administrator may use a cloud storage service for the configuration store. For cloud-based deployments of ArcGIS Server, the configuration store location cannot be changed after the initial site configuration.
Supported cloud services for storing the portal content directory and configuration store include the following:
- Amazon S3
- Azure Blob Storage
- Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS)
See Change the portal content directory and Specify the configuration store location for instructions.
Back up storage
You can use a cloud service to store an ArcGIS Enterprise backup when your deployment is in the cloud or on-premises. Because cloud storage services are both scalable and resilient, it can be beneficial to use them for this purpose to prevent the size of the backup from filling up disk space and to protect against data loss.
The ArcGIS Enterprise backup utility installs with the Portal for ArcGIS component and creates a backup of your Portal for ArcGIS deployment. The backupdatastore utility installs with the ArcGIS Data Store component and creates backups of individual data stores. Both utilities support writing backups directly to the following cloud storage locations:
- Amazon S3
- Azure Blob Storage
See ArcGIS Enterprise backups and ArcGIS Data Store utility reference for more information.
As with all cloud integrations, if the ArcGIS Enterprise deployment is not in the same cloud region as the cloud service, the process to create and restore backups takes longer than it does if the deployment and backup storage locations are in the same region.
Tip:
Instead of writing backups directly to cloud storage, you can write backups to a local drive, then copy the backup files to a cloud storage location. This strategy has the advantage of reducing backup time and allowing you to use cloud storage options that aren't supported for direct writing.