The size of the path used for this layer during the publishing process exceeds the operating system limit. This path includes the path to the staging folder, the name of the server connection, and the path to the data's source data. This can also include paths within functional rasters.
The <value> parameter refers to whether the path in question is the staging path or the input directory path on the ArcGIS server.
Solutions
If your path exceeds the limit, you can do the following to reduce the number of characters used for this path.
- Register data sources with the ArcGIS server if you publish to an ArcGIS server to which you can register data sources. If you are publishing to ArcGIS Online, you will not be able to register data sources.
Learn more about registering your data with ArcGIS Server using ArcGIS Desktop
- Change the location of the staging folder to a location
closer to the root directory, C:\temp, for example.
Learn more about changing the default service definition staging folder in ArcGIS Desktop
- Change the server connection name so that it uses fewer characters. To rename the service connection, right-click the service connection in the Catalog window and choose Rename from the menu.
Learn more about connecting to ArcGIS Server in ArcGIS Desktop
- Shorten the service name.
- Change the physical path of the ArcGIS server's system directory so that it uses fewer characters. You will need administrative access to the server to do this.
Learn more about editing a server directory in ArcGIS Desktop
More information
When you publish a service using ArcGIS Desktop, a service definition file is created and temporarily stored in a staging folder locally on disk. The default staging location is a temporary folder in your Windows user profile. For example, on Windows 7 this location is C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\ESRI\Desktop10.1\Staging. The staging directory contains separate folders for each server connection. If you have saved a service definition of a draft using a specific connection to a GIS server, you will find the service definition or draft under the server connection folder.
The Windows file system has limits to the number of characters that a path can accommodate. ArcGIS warns you when the combination of the path to the staging folder and the server connection exceeds the size supported by the operating system. The same is true for the input directories on the ArcGIS server. If the directory structure for service resources on the server exceeds operating system limits, the service cannot publish successfully.
In addition, the service definition is stored on the ArcGIS server and decompressed during publishing. The default storage location on the server is \arcgisserver\directories\arcgissystem\arcgisinput\<service name>.<service type>\extracted.
Functions are used with image and raster data to process the data. This processing is not permanently applied to the data; instead, it is applied on the fly as the imagery and rasters are accessed. Functions can also be chained together to provide more image processing capabilities. For example, you can chain many arithmetic functions together to process the data using an equation.