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ArcGIS updates on Amazon Web Services

Esri releases new ArcGIS Server Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and an updated ArcGIS Server Cloud Builder on Amazon Web Services application shortly after each new ArcGIS release. You should use the latest AMIs when you build new deployments. If you use Cloud Builder to build your GIS server sites, use the latest version of Cloud Builder when building new sites. See Cloud Builder upgrades to learn when and how to upgrade Cloud Builder.

To update existing sites, log in to your EC2 instances and apply updates directly. Before you apply the updates, be sure you have a backup of your site. How you maintain a backup depends on how you launched your site.

  • If you built a GIS server site using Cloud Builder, you can use Cloud Builder's site templates to launch a copy of your site and apply updates to the copy. This leaves your existing site as your backup in case you encounter issues that require you to revert to your old site. Once you have applied updates on the copy, redirect traffic to your upgraded site. If you have a multiple-machine GIS server site, create a template of your upgraded site and use the template to launch a new site with the desired number of machines. Once you finish testing the new site, delete the old one.
  • If you built your site manually or using AWS CloudFormation templates, use the AWS Management Console to create an AMI from your existing site. This AMI is your backup as it allows you to redeploy your instance if you encounter issues that require you to revert to your old site. Apply updates to your existing site and test. Once you determine that you no longer need the older version of your site, delete the AMI.

The help topics in this section provide additional instructions for upgrading the following types of deployments:

If you don't want to apply the update on an existing instance, you can either maintain your site at its current version, or you can launch a new site using the latest ArcGIS Server on AWS AMIs and redeploy your services and applications on it.