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Use nondefault ports for the portal's ArcGIS Web Adaptor

For the vast majority of ArcGIS Enterprise users, it's appropriate to run ArcGIS Web Adaptor on the default ports 80 and 443. In some rare cases, however, an instance of Web Adaptor cannot use these default ports on the web server that hosts it. For example, the host web server may already have an application running on these ports, or port access may be restricted in a secured organization.

In these situations where ports 80 and 443 cannot be used, a workaround is available at ArcGIS Enterprise 10.6.1 to allow the portal's Web Adaptor to run on nondefault ports. A reverse proxy server or load balancer must then be configured so that users access the portal through the default ports. The use of HTTPS should still be maintained to encrypt communication between ArcGIS Web Adaptor and Portal for ArcGIS.

In 10.6.1, the ArcGIS Web Adaptor configuration file has a new property, EnableDefaultPortValidation, which by default enforces the use of default ports 80 and 443 when configuring ArcGIS Web Adaptor with a portal. Changing the value of this property to false bypasses this validation, allowing ArcGIS Web Adaptor to run on nondefault ports.

Configure the portal's ArcGIS Web Adaptor on nondefault ports

If the web server intended to host your portal's ArcGIS Web Adaptor has to run the software on ports other than 80 and 443, you will need to follow some additional steps when setting up Web Adaptor via the installation and configuration wizards.

  1. Enable HTTPS on the web server that will host the web adaptor. Note the port being used for HTTPS communication, as it will be used to access ArcGIS Web Adaptor during initial configuration with the portal.
  2. Install ArcGIS Web Adaptor on the web server, using the Setup.exe installation wizard as a user with administrative privileges.
  3. On the machine hosting ArcGIS Web Adaptor, browse to and open the webadaptor.config file in a text editor. By default, this is located in the /root.webadaptor/<web adaptor name> folder.
  4. In the webadaptor.config file, locate the property EnableDefaultPortValidation, which has a default value of true. Change the value to false: <EnableDefaultPortValidation>false</EnableDefaultPortValidation>.
  5. Restart the web server.
  6. Open the ArcGIS Web Adaptor configuration page in an Internet browser on the HTTPS port being used by the web server using the URL format https://webadaptorhost.domain.com:<https_port>/webadaptorname/webadaptor/portal. If a DNS Alias will be used with the portal, Web Adaptor should be configured over the alias instead, using a URL such as https://dnsalias.domain.com:<https_port>/<webadaptorname>/webadaptor/portal.
  7. For the Portal URL property, type the URL of the machine hosting the Portal for ArcGIS software using the fully qualified domain name of the machine in the URL, such as https://portal.domain.com:7443.
  8. Supply the user name and password for an account that has administrative privileges to Portal for ArcGIS. Typically, you'll use the initial administrator account's login as defined when you first set up your portal. If you demoted or deleted the initial administrator account, you'll need to specify a different account with administrative access to the portal website.
  9. Click Configure.
  10. Configure the portal with your organization's reverse proxy server or load balancer, so that users access the portal through the default ports. To do this, you need to provide some information to the portal about the reverse proxy or load balancer. For full instructions, see Use a reverse proxy server with Portal for ArcGIS.
  11. After you have set up the reverse proxy or load balancer with your portal, refresh the ArcGIS Web Adaptor configuration page to update it.

When this workflow is complete, ArcGIS Web Adaptor is configured for use with your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. Users will only access the portal and the ArcGIS Portal Administrator Directory through the reverse proxy sever, with the URL format https://reverseproxy.domain.com/webadaptorname/home, rather than through port 7443.

Tip:

If you have configured your portal to use HTTPS for all communications, update the installed portal website and help shortcut URLs to use https rather than http.

Silently configure the portal's ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) on nondefault ports

The installation and configuration of your ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) can also be done from the command line, with additional steps to run on nondefault ports.

Note:

To execute the command line utility, the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) must be present on the machine hosting ArcGIS Web Adaptor. If the JRE is not present on your machine, an error will occur when executing the utility. See the Java SE Downloads site for instructions on how to download and install the JRE on your machine.

  1. Enable HTTPS on the web server that will host the web adaptor. Note the port being used for HTTPS communication, as it will be used to access ArcGIS Web Adaptor during initial configuration with the portal.
  2. Install ArcGIS Web Adaptor on the web server using the installation command line utility as a user with administrative privileges.
  3. On the machine hosting ArcGIS Web Adaptor, browse to and open the webadaptor.config file in a text editor.
  4. In the webadaptor.config file, locate the property EnableDefaultPortValidation, which has a default value of true. Change the value to false: <EnableDefaultPortValidation>false</EnableDefaultPortValidation>.
  5. Restart the web server.
  6. Configure ArcGIS Web Adaptor using the command line utility configurewebadaptor.sh, which is located in the <ArcGIS Web Adaptor installation directory>/webadaptor<version>/java/tools folder. You'll use the syntax ConfigureWebAdaptor.sh -m <Mode> -w <WebAdaptorURL> -g <URL> -u <Username> -p <Password>. The parameters to provide are as follows:

    • <Mode>—The product mode in which ArcGIS Web Adaptor will be configured. Set this parameter to portal for use with Portal for ArcGIS.
    • <WebAdaptorURL>—The URL of ArcGIS Web Adaptor that you want to configure from the command line. This is the same URL that would be used if you were accessing the configuration page in a web browser. You're required to specify the HTTPS URL of ArcGIS Web Adaptor—for example, https://webadaptorhost.domain.com:<https_port>/webadaptorname/webadaptor. If a DNS Alias will be used with the portal, Web Adaptor should be configured over the DNS Alias instead, using a URL such as https://<dnsalias.domain.com>:<https_port>/<webadaptorname>/webadaptor.
    • <URL>—The URL of the machine hosting Portal for ArcGIS. Include the fully qualified domain name of the machine in the URL—for example, https://portal.domain.com:7443.
    • <Username>—The user name of an account that has administrative privileges to Portal for ArcGIS. Typically, you'll use the initial administrator account you defined when you first set up your portal.
    • <Password>—The password of an account that has administrative privileges to Portal for ArcGIS. Typically, you'll use the initial administrator account you defined when you first set up your portal.

    Example command

    configurewebadaptor.sh -m portal -w https://webadaptorhost.domain.com:https_port/webadaptorname/webadaptor -g https://portal.domain.com:7443 -u initialadmin -p secret123
  7. Configure the portal with your organization's reverse proxy server or load balancer, so that users access the portal through the default ports. To do this, you need to provide some information to the portal about the reverse proxy or load balancer. For full instructions, see Use a reverse proxy server with Portal for ArcGIS.

When this workflow is complete, ArcGIS Web Adaptor is configured for use with your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. Users will only access the portal and the ArcGIS Portal Administrator Directory through the reverse proxy sever, with the URL format https://reverseproxy.domain.com/webadaptorname/home, rather than through port 7443.

Tip:

If you have configured your portal to use HTTPS for all communications, update the installed portal website and help shortcut URLs to use https rather than http.