Publishing a service definition to the server in Manager

Using ArcGIS Server Manager, you can publish a service definition file (.sd) as a service. The service definition uploads to the server as part of the publishing process. You don't have to copy it to the server beforehand.

To publish a service definition using Manager, follow these steps.

1. Open Manager and log in. If you need help with this step, see Logging in to Manager.
2. Click Services > Manage Services > Publish Service.
3. Click the Browse button to navigate to the service definition you want to publish, or type its path.

   You can only browse the file system of the machine that is running Manager. If you want to browse to a location on another machine, map the drive before browsing.

   Note:

   Manager only allows you to publish service definition (.sd) files to the server. If you want to publish another type of GIS resource, use ArcGIS for Desktop. See How to publish a service for full instructions.

4. Click Next.
5. Optionally, enter a new name for the service. The name cannot be more than 120 characters long and must contain only alphanumeric characters and underscores.
6. By default, the service definition is published to the server folder specified in the service definition configuration. If you want to change the folder where the service definition will be published, choose a folder from the drop-down list.

   Note:

   You cannot publish a service definition to the Hosted, System, or Utilities folders of ArcGIS Server. The System and Utilities folders are reserved for various preconfigured services. The Hosted folder contains hosted services published to Portal for ArcGIS. This folder only displays in Manager if your server is federated with Portal for ArcGIS and configured as the portal's hosting server.

7. Optionally, choose the GIS server cluster that hosts the published service definition. To learn more, see About GIS server clusters.
8. Optionally, choose to start the service immediately after publishing the service definition.

   If your service definition file was configured with a cache tiling scheme and you choose to start the service immediately, you also have the option to build the cache automatically on the server when the service publishes and starts. To do this, select the Build cache automatically when service starts option.

9. Click Next.
10. Optionally, choose to enable or disable capabilities for your service definition.
11. Click Publish to publish the service definition as a service.

    Note:

    If the service definition you are publishing includes source GIS datasets, the size of the data and your network bandwidth impacts the time it takes to publish. Service definitions over 2 GB in size cannot be published using the Internet Explorer or Firefox web browsers; therefore, use Google Chrome for service definitions over 2 GB.

Your service now runs on the server, and can be accessed by users and clients on your network. If your server administrator has allowed web access to the service, your service is also now available on the web.

If you built the cache for your service automatically, you can view the status of your cache in ArcGIS for Desktop or ArcGIS Server Manager. For more information, see Viewing cache completion status.