An ArcGIS Server site is composed of one or more GIS server machines that have the GIS Server component installed. Web service requests for maps, address coordinates, geoprocessing jobs, and so on, are each assigned to an available machine within the site. That machine then does the work of drawing the map, finding the address coordinate, running the geoprocessing tool, and so on, and returns the result to the client. Essentially, GIS server machines are the work centers of your site.
If you want to delete a GIS server from your site, you can do so in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcGIS for Desktop.
Considerations before deleting a GIS server from a site
Before you delete a GIS server from a site, consider the following:
If a Web Adaptor is registered with a site, it may take some time for the Web Adaptor to recognize that a GIS server has been deleted. By default, the Web Adaptor checks every minute to see if machines have been added or deleted from the site. For example, depending on when you delete a machine, the Web Adaptor will not recognize the deleted machine until the next time it checks the site. During this time interval, requests will still be forwarded to the deleted machine. This may cause requests to fail and events to be written to the server logs.
To alleviate this potential issue, you can force the Web Adaptor to recognize the deleted machine by reconfiguring the Web Adaptor. See Configuring the Web Adaptor after installation for full instructions.
If a cluster is exclusively configured for the machine you want to delete, any services running on the cluster will be stopped after the machine is deleted. To alleviate this issue, you can register the cluster with another machine or edit your services to use another cluster that is available. Conversely, if the cluster on your GIS server has other machines registered to it, the services will keep running on the remaining available machines after you delete the GIS server from the site. For more information, see About GIS server clusters.
If you delete the GIS server that is currently hosting ArcGIS Server Manager, you'll be logged out of Manager and returned to a page where have the option to create a new site or join an existing site. In order to log back in to Manager, you'll need to enter the Manager URL to one of the other machines in your site. For more information, see Logging in to Manager.
If you only have one GIS server in the site and you delete it, the site is also deleted and you are returned to a page where you'll be asked whether you want to create a new site or join an existing site. Keep in mind that your existing services and settings are preserved in the configuration store. If you want to recreate the site on another machine, reference the existing configuration store when creating the site. See About the configuration store for details.
How to delete a GIS server from a site
You can delete a GIS server from a site using ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcGIS for Desktop. Follow the steps in the related topics below.