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Upgrade Portal for ArcGIS

The Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 setup is designed to detect and upgrade an existing installation of Portal for ArcGIS.

Prepare to upgrade

Before upgrading, carefully review the following information.

Upgrade concepts

Keep the following in mind when upgrading:

  • Read the Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 system requirements to ensure your hardware meets current requirements.
  • Read What's new in the ArcGIS Enterprise 11.4 portal for information about changes in support and functionality.
  • The time it takes to complete the upgrade varies, depending on how much content your portal contains and how many accounts are registered, as well as how many components and customizations you deploy.
  • The version of all base ArcGIS Enterprise components must be the same.
  • You don't need to upgrade ArcGIS Pro at the same time as ArcGIS Enterprise.
  • If the ArcGIS Server site you've federated with the portal includes multiple machines, upgrade your GIS servers sequentially.
  • If your portal is currently in read-only mode, turn the mode off before running the upgrade.
  • If you cannot update your current web adaptor, you can alternatively install a 11.4 version of ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) alongside your previous version on the same machine. For example, you can retain your 10.5 version of ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) and install 11.4 on the same web server. You must keep the same web adaptor context when upgrading. To do this, uninstall the web adaptor currently configured with your portal, and then install the 11.4 web adaptor with the same name used previously. Note that two web adaptors with the same context cannot be installed on the same machine.

Note:

The Portal for ArcGIS setup asks for the account the Windows service will run as. When upgrading from versions 10.4 and later, you can upgrade existing content on a shared network directory provided the account running the Windows service has full access to these locations.

If the Windows service is currently running as a LocalSystem account with no password applied, you must first change the account to a local account with a password before proceeding with the upgrade.

Licensing

Keep the following in mind when licensing:

  • If you are upgrading to 11.4, you must obtain a new portal license file from My Esri and reauthorize your software.
    Note:

    The license file you input during the upgrade is used to license your portal's users and apps. Ensure the new license file is adequate for your current user and app configuration.

  • Before upgrading the portal, you must ensure all offline ArcGIS Pro licenses are checked in by your organization members. You can view License activity to see which members have checked out their ArcGIS Pro license for offline use. For information about how to check in an offline license, see Check in an offline license.
  • As of 11.4, the Editor, GIS Professional Standard, and GIS Professional Advanced user type names have changed to Contributor, Professional, and Professional Plus, respectively. You may notice this update when importing a new Portal for ArcGIS license file.
  • If a member's user type is no longer available after upgrading, you must assign them a different user type. For a list of user types available in 11.4, see User types.
  • After upgrading, some user types may include additional apps that were previously available only as add-on licenses. If an app is included with a member's assigned user type, you don't need to assign the member an add-on license for that app. See An introduction to licensing apps to learn more about apps and the user types that include them.
  • When one or more add-on licenses assigned to members are included with their user types after upgrading, you will see a notice on the Overview tab of the organization page stating that some members have licenses assigned twice. You can unassign duplicate add-on licenses from all applicable members to free up those licenses.
  • As of 11.4, ArcGIS License Manager is no longer required to enable named user licensing for ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Pro extensions, ArcGIS Drone2Map, and ArcGIS AllSource.

Version details

Keep the following version details in mind:

  • Upgrading directly to Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 from version 10.7 or 10.7.1 is not supported. To upgrade Portal for ArcGIS 10.7 or 10.7.1, first upgrade it to an interim version (10.8.x - 11.3) and then upgrade that version to 11.4. Read the upgrade documentation for the interim version to confirm direct upgrades are supported for the Portal for ArcGIS version you start with.
  • Upgrading directly to Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 from versions 10.6.1 or earlier is not supported. To upgrade Portal for ArcGIS 10.6.1 or earlier, first upgrade it to an interim version (10.8.x - 10.9.x) and then upgrade that version to 11.4. Read the upgrade documentation for the interim version to confirm direct upgrades are supported for the Portal for ArcGIS version you start with.
  • If you are at version 10.8.x or later, running the Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 setup automatically upgrades your portal to 11.4. There is no need to obtain and install each previously released version in sequence or to uninstall your previous version of Portal for ArcGIS.
  • Organizations that have upgraded from a version of ArcGIS Enterprise earlier than 11.4 may still have the legacy home page settings available. However, as part of the upgrade process, your home page is automatically updated to the modern, mobile-friendly home page experience featuring item galleries, links, and custom colors and fonts. You can view the legacy home page as a reference to customize your modern home page.
  • When upgrading from a Portal for ArcGIS version prior to 10.7.1 to an interim version (10.8.x - 10.9.1), automatic account creation is disabled. To allow new users to create their own built-in accounts, you must set a default user type and role for new members and enable automatic account creation. These settings will be maintained in future upgrades.
  • When upgrading to Portal for ArcGIS 11.4 from a 10.8.1 or 10.9 deployment that has Map Viewer Beta installed, Map Viewer Beta will be automatically uninstalled during the upgrade. The new Map Viewer (formerly known as Map Viewer Beta) is included in 11.4 alongside Map Viewer Classic.
  • Starting at 10.8.1, the administrative contacts list is used to send automatic email notifications if email settings are configured for your organization. If no administrative contacts are set, the oldest administrator account in the organization or the Initial Administrator Account will receive the email notification.
  • If you are upgrading from 10.8 to 10.8.1 or later, and you have an information banner configured, you must enable the banner through your advanced site settings to have your information banner display on sites created with ArcGIS Enterprise Sites. After upgrading from 10.8 and enabling this setting, it will be retained for future upgrades.

Content

Keep the following in mind when working with content:

  • If you have registered items in your portal from a nonfederated ArcGIS Server site, you do not need to upgrade this ArcGIS Server site to 11.4 to use the site's services with your portal. Services from previous versions of ArcGIS Server can be consumed by Portal for ArcGIS 11.4.
  • If you created a custom basemap or configurable app group, and shared Esri basemaps or ArcGIS Configurable Apps to this group, you must share these items to the group again after upgrade.
  • If you use ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World content in maps or apps, confirm that the items you use are not in a mature support or deprecated status before you upgrade. At each release, some ArcGIS Living Atlas content is retired and no longer available. If you are using one of these items, it will no longer function once you upgrade. For a list of the ArcGIS Living Atlas content retired at this release, see ArcGIS Living Atlas content life cycles and updates.

Apps

Keep the following in mind when working with apps:

  • If you published applications based on ArcGIS Configurable Apps templates, check to see if the app template was retired. Retired configurable app templates will not function once you upgrade your portal to 11.0. You must re-create these apps using ArcGIS Instant Apps, ArcGIS StoryMaps, ArcGIS Experience Builder, ArcGIS Web AppBuilder, or ArcGIS Dashboards. Note that if your portal is several releases old, you must check the retired templates for each release in their respective What's new in Portal topics. For example, if you're upgrading from Portal for ArcGIS 10.7, check the list of retired templates for all releases between 10.7 and the current release.
  • If you have Esri apps configured with your portal, ensure you are at a version that's compatible with the 11.4 portal after upgrading.
  • If you configured ArcGIS Insights, you do not need to uninstall it prior to upgrading ArcGIS Enterprise. If you are upgrading both ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Insights, it is recommended that you complete the ArcGIS Enterprise upgrade first, including the post-upgrade steps, before upgrading ArcGIS Insights.
  • If you configured ArcGIS Navigator mobile map packages with your portal, you must reconfigure them after upgrading the portal to 11.4.

Highly available portals

If you configured a highly available portal, there are specific steps you must follow to complete the upgrade. These steps are outlined in Configure a highly available portal.

Note:

Starting at 10.6, highly available deployments use available ports 5701, 7005, 7099, 7654, 7120, and 7220 for intermachine communications. You must ensure that your firewall allows local communication on these ports and that they are not currently in use by another application.

Back up your content

Create a full backup of each type of ArcGIS Data Store configured with your portal's hosting server before upgrading.

If you configured advanced portal options by modifying the properties in the config.js file, you also must create a back up of the file. After upgrading to 11.0, you can use the backed-up file as a reference to customize your portal's behavior through the ArcGIS Portal Directory (Sharing API).

Legacy:

Previously, you were required to back up the certificate keystore (portal.ks) containing certificates you imported into the portal. Starting at 10.4.1, this is no longer necessary and the portal keystore is automatically migrated during upgrade.

  • If you heavily customized the previous version of your portal, it is recommended that you install 11.4 on a separate machine and prototype your portal upgrade.
  • You must also back up extensions for ArcGIS Dashboards or ArcGIS Web AppBuilder. The upgrade will not preserve any extensions you have deployed for these clients. Once your upgrade is complete, you must redeploy your extensions.
  • Conversely, your content, services, site information, and security settings are all automatically backed up and preserved when upgrading. General settings you edited through the portal website, such as adding your organization's logo and name to the website, are also preserved when upgrading. You don't need to manually back up this information before upgrading.
  • To ensure you have enough disk space to support the automatic backup created during the upgrade, determine the amount of space allocated to the portal's content, index, db, and temp directories. Validate that the amount of free space available on disk is at least 2.5 times this amount. If not, allocate at least 2.5 times more space on disk. The portal upgrade needs this free space to successfully back up and upgrade your portal's content, site information, and security settings. The default location for these directories is C:\arcgisportal.
  • It is also recommended that you back up the arcgisportal content directory folder. If your upgrade encounters issues and you then need to revert to your previously installed version, you can apply this folder to restore your portal's content.

ArcGIS Enterprise upgrade order

The recommended order to upgrade the components in your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment is as follows:

  1. Upgrade Portal for ArcGIS.
  2. Upgrade ArcGIS Web Adaptor (for Portal for ArcGIS) for IIS or Java (Windows).
  3. Upgrade the ArcGIS Server site serving as the portal's hosting server.
  4. Upgrade ArcGIS Web Adaptor (for ArcGIS Server) for IIS or Java (Windows).
  5. Upgrade ArcGIS Data Store.
  6. If your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment includes them, upgrade federated servers.

    Most federated servers must match the version of the base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. For information on supported versions for federated servers, see Federate an ArcGIS Server with your portal.

    See the upgrade information for the type of federated servers you need to upgrade.

Perform an upgrade of your portal deployment

Caution:

Your portal deployment, any ArcGIS Server site you federated with your portal, ArcGIS Data Store, and ArcGIS Pro (if licensed through the portal), will be offline during the upgrade.

Note:

Before upgrading the portal, ensure that port 50432 is available (free) on each Portal for ArcGIS machine.

  1. Back up the following information:

    Tip:
    You can follow steps below to back up your site, or you can use the webgisdr utility to create a back up of your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment. To do so, follow steps to export ArcGIS Enterprise.

    • The config.js file if you configured advanced portal options by modifying the properties in the file. You can use the backed-up file as a reference to customize your portal's behavior through the ArcGIS Portal Directory (Sharing API) after upgrade. If you heavily customized the previous version of your portal, it is recommended that you install 11.4 on a separate machine and prototype your portal upgrade.
    • All data stores deployed through ArcGIS Data Store. See Upgrade ArcGIS Data Store for details on running the backup.
    • Any extensions you have deployed for Dashboards or Web AppBuilder. These are not preserved upon upgrading and must be redeployed after the upgrade is complete.
    • Back up your ArcGIS Server site so that when you need to revert your site to the earlier version, you can import and restore the site.
  2. Determine the amount of disk space allocated to the portal's content, index, db, and temp directories. Validate that the amount of free space available on disk is at least 2.5 times this amount. If not, allocate at least 2.5 times more space on disk.

    The portal upgrade needs this free space to successfully back up and upgrade your portal's content, site information, and security settings. The default location for these directories is C:\arcgisportal. If the content directory resides on a different machine, the same recommendation applies.

    Note:

    When the upgrade completes, the backed-up information is retained on disk. For example, a new folder called upgrade-backup is created and contains version specific folders with backed up contents. It's recommended that you move this information to another location to save disk space.

  3. Start the Portal for ArcGIS setup program, Setup.exe, and read the welcome screen and terms. Click Next when you're ready to proceed.

    You can also upgrade Portal for ArcGIS silently by using the following command line parameter: <path to Portal for ArcGIS setup download>\setup.exe /qb USER_NAME=admin PASSWORD=itsasecret ACCEPTEULA=yes

  4. Read the license agreement and accept it, or exit if you do not agree with the terms.

    The features that will be installed display.

  5. Click Install to begin the upgrade. Do not interrupt the installation process.
  6. Click Finish to close the installation wizard.

    The portal website opens in a browser window.

  7. Clear your browser's cache (including cookies).

    Information left over in the cache from the previous version of the website may cause the upgraded website to display incorrectly, and you may not be able to sign in. It's recommended that you clear the cache (including cookies) on all browsers that will view the upgraded portal website.

  8. On the Import License File page, browse to your portal license file (.json), which you obtained from My Esri and contains your portal's user and app license information. Click Continue Portal Upgrade.

    This triggers the upgrade and creates a backup of your portal's content, site information, and security settings. This step will take a few minutes to complete.

    Note:

    The license file you input during the upgrade is used to license your portal's users and apps. Ensure the new license file is adequate for your current user and app configuration.

    If you are upgrading within the same release version, you will not be prompted to import a new license file. You can import a new license file at any time once the upgrade is complete.

  9. Note:
    You can use the upgradeportal command line utility to complete the upgrade and post-upgrade operations silently. In the command line, navigate to your <Portal install directory>/tools/upgradeportal folder and run the following: upgradeportal.bat -lf <path to portal json file> -s. For assistance, run the command with -h or --help. You can also use the upgrade operation in the ArcGIS Portal Administrator API to upgrade Portal for ArcGIS. For more information on the upgrade operation, see the Upgrade documentation in the ArcGIS Portal Admin API help.
  10. Sign in to the machine hosting the ArcGIS Web Adaptor you're using with your portal, and uninstall ArcGIS Web Adaptor. For full instructions, see the uninstallation topic for IIS or Java (Windows). Be sure to note the name of the web adaptor before you uninstall it.
  11. Install the web adaptor that will be used with your portal. For full instructions, see the installation topic for IIS or Java (Windows). Ensure that you use the web adaptor name that you used in the previous version.
  12. Configure ArcGIS Web Adaptor with your portal. For full instructions, see the configuring topic for IIS or Java (Windows).
    Note:

    If present, the DNS alias should be used to access the web adapter when re-registering with the portal if there is no WebContextURL set in System Properties.

  13. Verify that you can sign in to the portal website through the ArcGIS Web Adaptor URL as an administrator of your organization.

    The URL is formatted https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname/home.

    Note:

    • If you receive a notice that post-upgrade steps are required, you must click OK on the message dialog box to complete the required post-upgrade steps. These include upgrading re-indexing content (manual re-indexing is required after every upgrade if the content is in an Amazon S3 bucket or Azure Blob Storage) and updating the association between portal machines in a highly available portal.
    • If you receive a notice regarding licenses when you sign in to the portal after an upgrade, you may not have imported a license file that meets your current licensing configuration, or your users may be assigned a temporary user type. See Considerations after upgrading Portal for ArcGIS for more details.

  14. If you federated an ArcGIS Server site with your portal, upgrade each site to 11.4. Upgrade your ArcGIS Server sites sequentially (back-to-back).

    There is no need to uninstall and reinstall. You must run the setup on each ArcGIS Server machine in each site. For full instructions, see Upgrade a previous version of ArcGIS Server.

    If you have multiple server sites federated with your portal, upgrade the portal's hosting server first, followed by additional server sites in the deployment.

  15. When the server upgrade completes, verify you can access the local URL of the ArcGIS REST Services Directory.

    The local URL is formatted https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/rest/services.

  16. Sign in to the machine hosting the ArcGIS Web Adaptor you're using with your server, and uninstall ArcGIS Web Adaptor. For full instructions, see the uninstallation topic for IIS or Java (Windows). Be sure to note the name of the web adaptor before you uninstall it.
  17. Install the web adaptor that will be used with your server. For full instructions, see the installation topic for IIS or Java (Windows). Ensure that you use the web adaptor name that you used in the previous version.
  18. Configure ArcGIS Web Adaptor with your server. For full instructions, see the configuring topic for IIS or Java (Windows). If you had previously enabled administrative access to your ArcGIS Server through web adaptor, ensure that you enable it again.

    This is especially important if you used the web adaptor URL for the administrative URL when federating your portal and ArcGIS Server site.

  19. Verify that you can access the ArcGIS REST Services Directory through the ArcGIS Web Adaptor URL.

    The URL is formatted https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname/rest/services.

  20. If your portal's hosting server is using ArcGIS Data Store, create a backup of the data store, upgrade ArcGIS Data Store, and reconfigure the data store to work with ArcGIS Server. See Upgrade ArcGIS Data Store for specific instructions.
  21. Optionally, if you configured ArcGIS Pro or Drone2Map licenses with your organization, upgrade ArcGIS License Server Administrator.

    When upgrading ArcGIS License Server Administrator, members with ArcGIS Pro licenses will be unable to access ArcGIS Pro. If members are currently signed in to ArcGIS Pro, they will see a message stating that the program will be closed in 24 hours. Members can complete or save their work within this time period. You must import the same license file (.json) that you imported into your portal into the ArcGIS License Server Administrator.

  22. Restore any customization you previously configured for your portal. When restoring your portal customizations in 11.4, do not replace the files you modified in the previous version in 11.4.

    This adversely affects your 11.4 deployment. You must open each file at 11.4 and manually re-add your custom behavior from the previous version.

    Tip:

    It is recommended that you use the portalScan.py script to check for security best practices with your upgraded ArcGIS Enterprise portal.

  23. Install the Web Styles setup if you want to use a complete set of 3D symbology from Scene Viewer. For additional information, see Scene Viewer requirements.

Considerations after upgrading

After upgrading, carefully review the following information and solutions to common issues.

After upgrading, the portal website does not display correctly or prevents signing in

Clear your browser's cache (including cookies). These errors are typically due to leftover information from the previous version of the website being cached in the browser. If you still can't sign in, make sure you are using the initial administrator account or an account that has administrative privileges to your portal. If the cards on the Organization Overview tab are not loading, import your portal license file (.json). You can import the license file through the Portal Administrator Directory using the URL https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/portaladmin/license/importLicense. Ensure that this is the correct license file for your portal. When importing a new license file, any user types or app licenses in your portal are overwritten by the new license file.

After upgrading, items, groups, and users in a portal are not visible

After installing the software and specifying the initial administrator account, a reindex of your portal is initialized. Initially, you may not see all of your items, groups, and users because the reindex is not complete. Depending on the number of users and volume of content in your portal, it will take some time for the reindex to complete. For example, a small organization (hundreds of users and content items) running Portal for ArcGIS on a machine with 8 cores may take 15 minutes to reindex. Conversely, a large organization (tens of thousands of users and content items) running Portal for ArcGIS on a machine with 8 cores may take over 3 hours to reindex.

You can check the status of the reindex by following the steps below. When the store and index counts are equal, the reindex and upgrade are complete.

  1. Open the Portal Administrator API and sign in with the initial administrator account.

    The URL is formatted as https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/portaladmin.

  2. Click System > Indexer > Index Status.
  3. Refresh the page to obtain the latest status.

After upgrading to 11.4, ArcGIS Living Atlas content is no longer accessible in a portal

If a ArcGIS Living Atlas layer is not accessible in your portal after you upgrade, it's possible that the item is retired at this release. Check ArcGIS Living Atlas content life cycles and updates for an updated list of retired items.

If subscriber or premium content items cannot be opened post-upgrade, verify that the ArcGIS Online account you used when you configured the portal to access this content is still valid. If it is not, you must complete additional steps to update this account and the ArcGIS Living Atlas content.

After upgrading, automatic account creation is failing with a software authorization error

If you are upgrading from a version prior to 10.7 to an interim version (10.7.x - 10.9.x), automatic account creation is disabled. After completing the upgrade, you must assign a default user type and role for new members and enable automatic account creation in the ArcGIS Portal Administrator Directory. Starting at 10.8, the default user type and role for new members can be set in the organization settings in the portal or using the setUserDefaultSettings operation in the portal self resource in the ArcGIS Portal Directory.

Licenses assigned exceed the number of licenses available

The "The number of licenses assigned exceed the number of licenses available. Members assigned these licenses may not be able to access the portal. Go to the Licenses tab for more details." notice displays for administrators when they sign in to the portal and the portal's licensing is in overdraft. The number of users assigned a user type or add on license exceeds the number of licenses available.

The administrator can navigate to the Licenses tab to view the licenses in overdraft. Licenses in overdraft have a greater number assigned than the number available. Depending on your organization's needs, you can reassign licenses or obtain a new portal license file with the correct allocation of licenses.

Members have licenses assigned twice

The "Some members have licenses assigned twice. These members have access to the same license through their user type and an add-on license." notice displays for administrators when one or more add-on licenses assigned to members are included with their user types after upgrading the portal. The administrator can unassign duplicate add-on licenses from all applicable members.

Error creating an initial administrator account

If you receive this error when creating the initial administrator account, information in the portal logs can help you resolve the issue. Often, this error may occur if network connectivity was temporarily lost when creating the account. To access the logs, browse to the logs directory and open the most recent log file (for example, C:\arcgisportal\logs\<machine name>\portal\portal-20141201.095803-8596-0.0.log). If necessary, you can share this information with Esri Support.

If you are reverting to your previous deployment, before you revert to the earlier version, copy all log files to aid in troubleshooting your support incident. (To access the logs, browse to the logs directory (for example, C:\arcgisportal\logs\).

Manually update utility services after upgrading

If you use the OfflinePackaging, RasterUtilities, or GeocodingTools utility services, you must manually update them after you upgrade:

  1. Once your upgrade is complete, sign in to ArcGIS Server Manager as the user who owns the utility services.
  2. On the Manage Services section of the Services tab, click the Utilities folder.
  3. Click the Sharing Properties Shared button.
  4. On the dialog box that appears, click Save.

    This updates the service in your ArcGIS Enterprise portal.

  5. Sign in to the portal as an administrator. On the Content tab, locate the service you've updated. Click Share. Update the sharing settings if needed, and click OK.

    This updates the service with each group it's shared to.

  6. Repeat these steps for each applicable service.

Configure with ArcGIS World Geocoding Service

If you upgraded from version 10.2.x, you must re-create the proxy item in your portal to ArcGIS World Geocoding Service. Then, configure the item as a geocoder for the portal. As of 10.3.1, you do not need to update the proxy item to ArcGIS World Geocoding Service.

Configure ArcGIS Enterprise portal with Routing services after upgrading

If you configure routing services by publishing routing services using your network dataset, it is recommended that you reconfigure your routing services after server upgrade to use the latest capabilities. For geoprocessing based routing services, new service parameters and new service capabilities will only be available when you republish routing services after upgrading your server.

To republish routing services using your network dataset, follow the steps below:

  1. Sign in as a default administrator or custom role with the correct privileges to manage portal settings.
  2. At the top of the site, click Organization and click the Settings.
  3. Click Utility services on the left side of the page.
  4. Click Directions and Routing on the right side of the pag
  5. Click Update routing services button and choose A network dataset that I'd like to publish.
  6. Follow the steps in Configure routing services to configure routing services using your network dataset.

Once it runs successfully, you can use ArcGIS Server Manager to delete the folder containing routing services published previously.