ArcGIS 10.4.1 for Server 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.
It's recommended that you review the deprecation notice to determine if your hardware and software components are still compatible with version 10.4.1. To review which earlier ArcGIS product versions are compatible with ArcGIS 10.4.1 for Server, see Compatibility of ArcGIS for Server with earlier versions.
What's new in ArcGIS 10.4 for Server
For a summary of changes in the software at 10.4, see the following sections.
ArcGIS Server read-only mode
At 10.4, you can control changes to your site with read-only site mode. This mode disables publishing new services and blocks most administrative operations. Scaling your site by adding or removing machines is still possible, and the functionality of existing services continues to be available.
When you switch to read-only mode, site configuration files are copied to a local repository on each machine in the site. The site can then read from the local repository in the event of a failure connecting to the configuration store and can operate in a degraded capacity that allows access to the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory, ArcGIS Server Manager, and ArcGIS Services directory, and keeps most services running as expected. At earlier releases, this was not the case, and the site would be down if such connection issues were to occur.
For more information, see About ArcGIS Server site mode.
You can recover a site that's in read-only mode if its connection to the shared configuration store is lost. See Recover a site for details.
Update passwords for registered and managed databases
For security reasons, most organizations require staff to reset passwords on a regular basis. If you use database authentication for the enterprise geodatabases and databases you register with your GIS servers, you can now import a new database connection file containing the current password. This allows your feature services published to the managed database, and your existing map, feature, and image services published from registered databases to continue working.
Connections for new services published from ArcGIS 10.4 for Server can automatically be updated. If you upgrade ArcGIS Server and want the ability to update passwords in the connections used by existing services, the ArcGIS Server installation owner must run ExternalizeConnectionStrings after upgrading the ArcGIS Server site.
Changes to geoprocessing service publication and service extension deployment
Beginning at 10.4, only administrators can publish geoprocessing services and deploy service extensions (both server object extensions, SOEs, and server object interceptors, SOIs). For more information, including how to disable this setting, see Change geoprocessing service and service extension publishing privileges.
Default single cluster mode
At 10.4, ArcGIS for Server defaults to single cluster mode for new installations. This mode does not include load balancing between machines in the cluster. This reduces network traffic between machines in the site, reduces load on your network, and helps improve monitoring of GIS servers in your site.
When upgrading to 10.4, the mode will be enabled for sites with a single cluster that are not currently using single cluster mode. Single cluster sites already using single cluster mode and sites with multiple clusters at earlier releases will have their settings preserved when upgrading.
Note:
In sites using single cluster mode, an external load balancer or ArcGIS Web Adaptor must be configured to forward requests to the GIS servers in the site. If no external gateway exists, requests will only be handled by the GIS server designated in the request.
Default HTTP and HTTPS communication protocol
At 10.4, ArcGIS for Server is configured to support both HTTP and HTTPS by default. ArcGIS Server sites upgraded to 10.4 from earlier versions will preserve their settings. For example, a GIS server that uses HTTP only at 10.3 will continue to use HTTP only when upgraded to 10.4.
Security fixes and enhancements
ArcGIS 10.4 for Server includes several fixes and enhancements that improve the security of the software. It's recommended that you upgrade to 10.4 to help protect your ArcGIS Server infrastructure.
Scan ArcGIS Server for security best practices
ArcGIS 10.4 for Server comes with a Python script tool that scans for some common security issues. The tool checks for problems based on the best practices for configuring a secure environment for ArcGIS Server. See Scan ArcGIS Server for security best practices for details.
ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
At 10.4, you can install ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12. For details, see system requirements.
Chain together multiple server object interceptors (SOIs) for a service
If you're a server object interceptor (SOI) developer, you can now chain together multiple SOIs for a map or image service. This allows you to accomplish one or more tasks with multiple SOIs. In previous releases, you could only enable one SOI for a service.
When you chain together multiple SOIs for a service, you need to specify the order in which the SOIs will be executed. For full instructions, see Enable extensions.
Service enhancements
The following functionality is new for feature and map services:
You can enable a new extract capability when you publish a feature service from ArcMap to ArcGIS for Server. When enabled, extract allows you to export data from the feature service to a file geodatabase or SQLite database using custom clients.
You can specify the time zone used for date fields in layers included in map services and feature services when you publish from ArcMap 10.4 to ArcGIS 10.4 for Server. If you have existing map or feature services that contain date fields you want to view in a time zone other than UTC, you can change Date Field Settings in the service's Parameters in ArcGIS Server Manager to set a time zone and whether to apply daylight savings time.
Additionally, date fields used for tracking edits made through feature services can use database time if you set the time zone before publishing. Previously, the publisher blocked inclusion of date fields for tracking edits if the fields did not use the UTC time zone. UTC is still the recommended time zone, but if you know all your edits will happen in the same time zone, and if your data needs to work with other systems that use the same time zone and can't convert to and from UTC, you can use database time instead.
You can include tables and feature classes that are not registered with the geodatabase when publishing a feature service from a map that contains data from an enterprise geodatabase. Previously, you could not publish unregistered tables and feature classes from an enterprise geodatabase.
GeoJSON output format is now supported on map and feature service layer query operations.
Changes for ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services
ArcGIS 10.4 includes changes for ArcGIS for Server Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and new CloudFormation templates. See What's new for ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services for details.
Patch notification for extensions
The patch notification utility now includes information about patches and updates for ArcGIS Server extensions.
Geodatabases and databases
The Create Database User tool now creates log file tables for the new user when you run the tool against a geodatabase in Oracle or PostgreSQL that's configured to use shared log file tables (the default for these geodatabases). With the log file tables already created, the database administrator can remove privileges to create tables from the user, if needed, without negatively affecting the user's ability to create large selection sets, edit data, or reconcile versioned data.
Beginning with ArcGIS 10.4, geodatabases in SQL Server require the SQL Server database options READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT and ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION be set to ON. When you upgrade your geodatabase in SQL Server, the Upgrade Geodatabase tool sets these in the database. When you create a geodatabase in SQL Server using the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool, these options are set on in the database. If you use the Enable Enterprise Geodatabase tool to create a geodatabase, you must either set these options on in the database before you run the tool, or grant the geodatabase administrator permissions to ALTER the database, which allows the Enable Enterprise Geodatabase to change these settings.
To use ArcGIS 10.4 with SQL Server databases or 10.3.1 or earlier release geodatabases, you must manually set READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT to ON in the database.
Enterprise geodatabases are licensed through an ArcGIS for Server authorization file. The geodatabase stores this authorization information to allow access to the geodatabase. If your organization licenses ArcGIS for Server for a set time period, your geodatabase administrator can run the new Update Enterprise Geodatabase License tool with a current ArcGIS for Server authorization file to update license information in the geodatabase before the existing license expires. This allows clients to continue working with the geodatabase without interruptions caused by expired licenses.
ArcGIS now supports connections to Dameng databases. Using ArcMap, you can publish data from your Dameng database to map and feature services.
Beginning with ArcGIS 10.4, you must set an additional option (Return Output Parameters As ResultSet) when you configure the ODBC driver to connect to Teradata.
If you use SAP HANA 1.0 SPS10, you can now use ArcGIS to load data that contains z and m values and you can view existing data that contains z and m values.