ArcGIS 10.4.1 is a maintenance and quality improvement release. For a list of issues that are fixed in 10.4.1, see the 10.4.1 Issues Addressed List.
The following sections describe changes and new functionality in ArcGIS 10.4 Server on Amazon Web Services (AWS):
ArcGIS Server Amazon Machine Images publicly available
The ArcGIS Server Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) are now available on the AWS Marketplace; you no longer need to contact Esri Customer Support to have private images shared to you. Before using the AMIs for the first time, though, you must accept terms described on the AWS Marketplace.
New CloudFormation templates for highly available sites
Esri now provides Amazon CloudFormation templates that help you deploy the three deployments described in the following three sections. For additional information, see AWS CloudFormation and ArcGIS Server.
Highly available web GIS deployment
Use the arcgis-webgis-ha-windows.template or arcgis-webgis-ha-linux.template to deploy a highly available web GIS. These templates deploy each part of a web GIS—Portal for ArcGIS, ArcGIS for Server, ArcGIS Data Store, and ArcGIS Web Adaptor—and configure them for high availability. The templates create a file server instance configured with AWS Auto Recovery that contains the web GIS configuration information, including portal content, the configuration store and directories for ArcGIS for Server, and backup files for the relational data store. If the file server instance fails or is destroyed, it is automatically recovered to the state before the failure occurred. Note that this instance can only be recovered to the same availability zone. If the whole availability zone is unavailable, your web GIS deployment cannot recover unless you have set up a disaster recovery deployment in a different AWS region.
Highly available web GIS deployment with secondary deployment in a different AWS region
If you require geographical redundancy so your deployment can keep serving requests even when a whole AWS region or zone is down, you can use the arcgis-webgis-ha-windows.template or arcgis-webgis-ha-linux.template to set up two identical web GIS deployments in two AWS regions. Use the new webgisdr tool installed with Portal for ArcGIS 10.4 to synchronize your two deployments periodically. If your primary AWS region or zone is down, you can quickly switch your domain to the second web GIS deployment and your site will continue to function.
GIS server site with highly available configuration store
The existing Esri Amazon CloudFormation template for a highly available GIS server (arcgis-siloed-server-VPC.template) configures an ArcGIS Server that used a siloed architecture. The siloed architecture allows you to have highly available web services, but it is difficult to manage and is essentially read-only. For example, if you publish a new service, you must redeploy all your instances with a new AMI. At 10.4, Esri offers new templates, arcgis-server-windows-haconfigstore.template and arcgis-server-linux-haconfigstore.template, which configure a highly available GIS server site that stores the ArcGIS Server configuration store in a highly available AWS service (DynamoDB). Additionally, the ArcGIS Server directories are placed on a file server instance configured with AWS Auto Recovery. This architecture allows you to publish additional services and configure security on your instances. If the DynamoDB availability zone is down, the GIS server site will be downgraded to a read-only mode. Your site can still respond to requests but it cannot accept changes; for example, you cannot publish new services. In this mode, you can manually recover the site by starting a new instance to use for the file server in a different availability zone.
ArcGIS GeoEvent Extension for Server available on Windows AMIs
The Esri ArcGIS 10.4 for Server with SQL Server and Esri ArcGIS 10.4 for Server with SQL Express AMIs now include ArcGIS GeoEvent Extension for Server. If you authorize your instance with an ArcGIS for Server license that includes ArcGIS GeoEvent Extension for Server, you can configure and use GeoEvent Extension.