Configure utility services

Members of the default administrator role and those in custom roles with the appropriate privileges can configure the portal to use services to perform various tasks, including printing, geocoding, geometric calculations, spatial analysis, routing, and more. These are referred to as utility services. To learn more about these services, see Utility services.

The way you configure utility services for your portal depends on the service and where it originates.

Types of utility services

Use the following links for a description of the utility services you can use in your portal. After you decide which utility services you need to use, proceed to the instructions to configure utility services with your portal.

• Printing
• Geometry
• Directions and Routing
• GeoEnrichment
• Orthomapping Elevation
• Elevation
• Hydrology
• Geocoding
• Symbols

Printing

If you have a base deployment or a federated server for your portal, a print service is configured with the organization by default.

If you do not, you can add the following types of print services:

• An ArcGIS Server preconfigured print service—https://webadaptorhost.example.com/webadaptorname/rest/services/Utilities/PrintingTools/GPServer/Export%20Web%20Map%20Task
• A custom ArcGIS Server print service—https://webadaptorhost.example.com/webadaptorname/rest/services/folder/servicename/GPServer/TaskName

Asynchronous print services are not supported.

Geometry

You can add the following types of geometry services:

• A geometry service from a federated or hosting server
• A geometry service that requires credentials and is from a server that is not federated with your portal
• A geometry service that does not require credentials and is from a server that is not federated with your portal

The preconfigured geometry service included with all ArcGIS Server sites is stopped by default. You must explicitly start the service before you can access its URL, which is in the format https://webadaptorhost.example.com/webadaptorname/rest/services/Utilities/Geometry/GeometryServer.

A custom ArcGIS Server geometry service URL is in the format https://gisserver.example.com:6443/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeometryServer.

Configure a GeoEnrichment service

You can configure a GeoEnrichment utility service with the URL from one of the following:

• An ArcGIS Online service. To use this service, you must provide credentials for an ArcGIS Online organizational account that has credits associated with it. This will enable the use of apps and tools such as the ArcGIS Business Analyst widget in ArcGIS Experience Builder and the Enrich Layer tool in Map Viewer. To use this method, follow steps to Configure ArcGIS Online utility services.
• Your own ArcGIS GeoEnrichment Service. To use the Business Analyst web application and capabilities from your own GeoEnrichment service, you must first install ArcGIS Business Analyst Enterprise. For installation instructions, see the installation overview. Once installed, the GeoEnrichment service will be configured as a utility in the organization by default. To confirm whether it is already configured, follow these steps.

The process of installing ArcGIS Business Analyst Enterprise will configure the GeoEnrichment service as a utility in your organization. To confirm whether it is already configured, follow these steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in as a member of the default administrator role or a custom role with administrative privileges to manage utility services.
2. At the top of the site, click Organization and click the Settings tab.
3. Click Utility services.
4. Scroll to the GeoEnrichment section.
5. Verify that the URL of the GeoEnrichment service exists, for example, https://webadaptorhost.example.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeoEnrichmentServer.

Note:

The installable data included with ArcGIS Business Analyst Enterprise will support GeoEnrichment services in the United States only. An Esri Services engagement is needed for support with international data.

Hydrology

You can add the ArcGIS Online Hydrology service to your portal. To use this service, you must provide credentials for an ArcGIS Online organizational account.

Orthomapping Elevation

This service is used by the Ortho Maker web app, from initial image collection creation to block adjustment and final product creation. For Ortho Maker users, if your portal is not connected to the internet, or if you have higher-resolution data you want to use with the app, you can publish an orthomapping elevation service and add its service URL here. If you do not have your own orthomapping elevation service and your portal's users have access to the internet, add the ArcGIS Online Orthomapping Elevation service.

Elevation

The portal uses two elevation services: an elevation utility service for analysis and an elevation service used in Scene Viewer.

For analysis, you can add the ArcGIS Online World Elevation services to the portal. To use these services, you must provide credentials for an ArcGIS Online organizational account. Alternatively, you can configure a custom elevation utility service to use if the portal is not connected to the internet.

For Scene Viewer, if the portal is not connected to the internet or you have higher-resolution data you want to use for the Scene Viewer elevation service, you can set a custom elevation service in the organization settings.

Directions and routing

See Routing services to learn more about the types of routing services that can be configured with a portal. For instructions, see Configure routing services.

Geocoding

You can configure multiple geocode services with a portal. The following types of geocode services are supported:

• A geocode service from a federated or hosting server.
• A geocode service that requires credentials and is from an ArcGIS GIS Server site that is not federated with the portal.
• A geocode service that does not require credentials and is from an ArcGIS GIS Server site that is not federated with the portal.
• The ArcGIS World Geocoding Service. You must provide credentials for an ArcGIS Online account that has credits associated with it to use this service.
• A locator view, once you have configured the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service.

The ArcGIS World Geocoding Service is configured as a geocoding utility service by default. To geocode tables of addresses, configure one of the following as an additional geocoding utility service:

• An ArcGIS Server geocode service with the Batch Geocoding operation enabled.

  The URL for a geocode service from an ArcGIS Server is in the format https://webadaptorhost.example.com/webadaptorname/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeocodeServer.

• The ArcGIS World Geocoding Service from ArcGIS Online.

  To configure the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service as a geocoding utility service, go to the ArcGIS Online tab and check the Geocode check box under Configure Utility Services. Be aware that the ArcGIS Online credentials you provide must have privileges in ArcGIS Online to geocode, and that using this service consumes ArcGIS Online credits.

A locator is used to search for and locate addresses and places on a map. You can specify locators that members of your organization can access. You can add a locator by referencing the URL of your own locator or using an existing locator item in the organization.

Note:

If you specify one or more locator views along with the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service, users may encounter multiple matching suggestions when searching for locations. To ensure an optimal publishing and geosearch experience, configure batch geocoding and geosearch as appropriate when configuring locators for your organization.

Add a locator

To add a locator, complete the following steps:

1. Verify that you are signed in as a member of the default administrator role or a custom role with administrative privileges to manage utility services.
2. At the top of the site, click Organization and click the Settings tab.
3. Click Utility services.
4. In the Geocoding section, click Add locator and do one of the following:
   • Choose From URL and provide the URL to the locator—for example, https://webadaptorhost.example.com/webadaptorname/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer.
   • Choose From Existing Locator and choose the locator item. Only locators shared with your organization or with the public are available.
5. For Locator Name, provide the name that you want to appear in the drop-down menu of locators on the site (for example, in Map Viewer).

   Tip:

   Provide a descriptive name for the locator—for example, Restaurant Locator.

6. For Placeholder Text, provide a hint that will appear in the input box on the site.

   Tip:

   Make the hint as clear as possible—for example, Enter a restaurant name.

7. Optionally, check the appropriate boxes to allow geosearch and batch geocoding.
8. Configure the number of threads for batch geocoding, and click OK to save your changes.

   This number should be less than the number of instances available for the service. To adjust the number of instances for your published geocode service, sign in to ArcGIS Server Manager for the ArcGIS Server site where the geocode service is running.

   The option to configure the number of threads for batch geocoding is not available for the ArcGIS World Geocoding Service or for locator views.

   For more information about batch geocoding threads, see Best practices for portal batch geocoding.

9. Click Save.
10. Repeat the process to add more locators.
11. Manage the locators in the following ways:
    • To edit an existing locator, click the More options button next to the locator and click Edit. Make your updates, and click Save.
    • To delete an existing locator, click the More options button next to the locator and click Delete.
    • To reorder how the locators appear in the geosearch drop-down menu on the site, drag the locator up or down to the correct position.

Tip:

To reset locators to the default locator, delete the URL and click Save. When you refresh the page, the utility service reverts to the default URL. If you need to delete the locator item from the organization in the future, you must remove it from the geocoding utility service list before deleting the item.

Symbols

Add a symbols service from a federated or hosting server.

Legacy:

Before ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0, the hosting server's symbol service was automatically set as the organization's symbols utility service.

Configure utility services

How you configure utility services depends on where the service originates. Follow the instructions specific to the origin of the service that you will configure as a utility service for the portal.

• If the service is provided by ArcGIS Online and requires credentials from an ArcGIS Online account, use the ArcGIS Online tab on the Settings page of the portal to select the service to be configured, and store the account credentials. See Configure ArcGIS Online utility services for instructions.
• If the service is from a federated server, start the service, share the service, and configure it as a utility service.
• If the service is not from a federated server and requires credentials, add the service as an item to the organization, specify credentials to the service, share the service, and configure it as a utility service. Services from secured ArcGIS Server sites are added in this way.
• If the service is not from a federated server and does not require credentials, add the URL directly to the Utility services tab of the Settings page.

Note:

If the portal accesses any of the utility services over HTTPS, but the ArcGIS Server site on which the utility service runs uses a certificate that is either self-signed or issued by an internal Certificate Authority, you must configure the portal to trust that certificate. For instructions, see Configure the portal to trust certificates from your certifying authority.

Configure a service from a federated server

To configure a service from a federated server, complete the following steps:

1. On the ArcGIS Server site that you have federated with the portal, start the services that you want to configure as utility services.

   To do this, sign in to ArcGIS Server Manager for the ArcGIS Server site. Use a portal member account with administrator privileges. Server Manager is typically available through a URL such as https://gisserver.example.com:6443/arcgis/manager.

   The ArcGIS Server preconfigured print and geometry services are stopped by default.

2. Sign in to the portal as a member of the default administrator role or a custom role with administrative privileges to manage utility services.
3. Locate the service that you need to configure as a utility service and share it.

   How you share a service depends on who needs to use the functionality the service provides. For example, if you want anyone who connects to the portal to access thumbnails and print maps, share the print service with Everyone. If you want to allow organization members to geocode locations, but you don't want anonymous users to do this, share the geocode service with the portal organization. If you want to restrict the use of analysis tools that require GeoEnrichment to the members of specific groups, share the ArcGIS GeoEnrichment Service with those groups only.

4. Open the item page of the service item and copy the URL at the bottom of the Overview tab.
5. Open the Organization page of the portal and click the Settings tab.
6. Click Utility services.
7. Go to the appropriate utility service section and click the edit button.
8. Add the URL and, if necessary, append the task name to the service if it is a print service or route service.

   See the sections on specific utility services above for details.

9. Click Save.

Configure a service that is not from a federated server and requires credentials

1. Verify that you are signed in as a member of the default administrator role or a custom role with administrative privileges to manage utility services.
2. Follow the steps to add an item from a URL.

   You must enable the Store credentials with service item option.

   Because this is a secure service, you must provide credentials to access it. Provide a valid username and password to access the service.

3. Once the item is created for the service, share it with those who need to access it.

   How you share a service depends on who needs to use the functionality the service provides. For example, if you want anyone who connects to the portal to access thumbnails and print maps, share the print service with Everyone. If you want organization members to geocode locations, but you don't want anonymous users to do this, share the geocode service with the organization. If you want to restrict the use of analysis tools that require data enrichment to the members of specific groups, share the ArcGIS GeoEnrichment Service with those groups only.

4. Copy the URL at the bottom of the Overview tab on the item page.
5. Open the Organization page of the portal and click the Settings tab.
6. Click Utility services.
7. Go to the appropriate utility service section and click the edit button.
8. Add the URL and, if necessary, append the task name to the service if it is a print service or route service.

   See the sections on specific utility services above for details.

9. Click Save.

Configure a service that is not from a federated server and does not require credentials

1. Verify that you are signed in as a member of the default administrator role or a custom role with administrative privileges to manage utility services.
2. At the top of the site, click Organization and click the Settings tab.
3. Click Utility services.
4. Go to the appropriate utility service section and click the edit button.
5. Add the URL and, if necessary, append the task name to the service if it is a print service or route service.

   See the sections on specific utility services above for details.

6. Click Save.
7. Repeat these steps as necessary to configure other services as the organization's utility services.

Tip:

To reset the utility services back to their default URLs, delete the URL for each utility service you configured and click Save. When you return to the Utility Services page, the URLs are reset to their defaults.