The following are some common questions about ArcGIS Enterprise on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services questions
- What is the difference between ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services and ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services?
- Why don't I see all my ArcGIS Enterprise deployments on AWS in ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services?
- Can I add machines or ArcGIS components to the deployments I create with ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services?
- Why do I have to create a DNS mapping for the Elastic IP address and Elastic Load Balancers used in my deployments before I can complete deployment creation with the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app?
- After I sign in to the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app, I see an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket in my account with a name similar to esri-aws-<myaccountid>. What is the purpose of this bucket?
General deployment questions
- After I use ArcGIS Enterprise on Amazon Web Services deployment tools to launch an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance (or instances) containing ArcGIS Server, how can I be sure that ArcGIS Server was successfully configured?
- Is Microsoft Windows Firewall enabled on the Windows Esri Amazon Machine Image (AMI)?
General Amazon Web Services questions
ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services questions
What is the difference between ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services and ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services?
ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services was introduced as a stand-alone utility at ArcGIS 10.6. At ArcGIS 10.7.1, an interactive Cloud Builder app was introduced that is built on top of the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder Command Line Interface for Amazon Web Services. When you download ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services from My Esri, you get both the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app and the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder CLI for AWS utility.
Can I add machines or ArcGIS components to the deployments I create with ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services?
You cannot use ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services to add machines or components to a deployment at this time.
For example, if you create a single-machine ArcGIS Enterprise deployment and later decide you want it to be highly available, you cannot use ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services to make it highly available. Similarly, you cannot add federated ArcGIS Server sites or a spatiotemporal big data store to an ArcGIS Enterprise deployment you created with ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for AWS.
It is possible to use AWS CloudFormation templates or the AWS Management Console to create the additional ArcGIS Server sites that you federate with your ArcGIS Enterprise portal or create a spatiotemporal big data store you register with the portal's hosting server. However, ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for AWS will not recognize these additional components and you will not be able to upgrade them using the next release of ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for AWS.
Why do I have to create a DNS mapping for the Elastic IP address and Elastic Load Balancers used in my deployments before I can complete deployment creation with the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app?
Each ArcGIS Enterprise portal and ArcGIS Server site in the deployment requires a domain, referenced by an Elastic IP address or load balancer, and that domain must be mapped in your organization's domain name system (DNS). The domain name is defined in the SSL certificates you use in your deployment (or partially defined in the case of wild card certificates).
Defining the DNS mapping before you create a deployment with the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for AWS app allows the app to verify the correct domain name is provided and that it can be resolved. This, in turn, ensures that ArcGIS Server sites are properly federated with the portal.
After I sign in to the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app, I see an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket in my account with a name similar to esri-aws-<myaccountid>. What is the purpose of this bucket?
ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services creates an S3 bucket to store certain resources for your deployments. This deployment S3 bucket is created in the AWS us-east-1 region the first time you use the app or command line interface. One bucket is created per AWS account. The bucket's name is in the format esri-aws-<accountid> and is only accessible through your account.
The ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for AWS app manages this deployment S3 bucket. Do not delete, rename, or modify this S3 bucket or its contents, as doing so can result in your deployment being out of sync with and inaccessible from Cloud Builder.
General deployment questions
After I use ArcGIS Enterprise on Amazon Web Services deployment tools to launch an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance (or instances) containing ArcGIS Server, how can I be sure that ArcGIS Server was successfully configured?
You can check the health of the ArcGIS Server site by signing in to ArcGIS Server Manager for that site.
When you use a CloudFormation template from Esri or any tool that uses these templates to create the site, the URL for the site's ArcGIS Server Manager endpoint will be in the format https://<ArcGIS Server machine name>:6443/arcgis/manager.
When you use the ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services app to create deployments, links to ArcGIS Server Manager for each ArcGIS Server site in the deployment are accessible from the Deployments page of the app.
Be sure to allow sufficient time for the site to launch before checking the site's health.
Yes. Windows Firewall is enabled on the Esri Windows AMI, and all ports are open that are necessary for ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Data Store to run.
Windows Firewall complements the Amazon security groups. To allow inbound access on a port, you must allow the port on both Windows Firewall and the Amazon security group.
See Windows Firewall and the Esri AMIs for more information.
General Amazon Web Services questions
Yes. You can use ArcGIS Enterprise on Amazon Web Services deployment tools or the Amazon Web Services Management Console to launch ArcGIS Server instances in VPC.
Note:
When an EC2 instance is in a VPC endpoint, it can only read and write to Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets in the AWS region in which it's deployed. If you want to use the webgisdr utility to create backups of your ArcGIS Enterprise deployment, and you want to store the backup files in an S3 bucket that's in a region other than the EC2 instance region, delete the VPC endpoint associated with the EC2 instance.
See Amazon VPC and ArcGIS Enterprise for more information.
How do I determine software and infrastructure costs associated with using a specific Esri ArcGIS Enterprise AMI?
The ArcGIS software included with each Esri ArcGIS Enterprise AMI requires you to have licenses from Esri to deploy the software. In addition to the cost of ArcGIS software licenses, you can determine other software and infrastructure costs by viewing the AMI on AWS Marketplace. To access these pages, use the AMI links on Accept terms for an Esri Amazon Machine Image.
As ArcGIS Server is licensed by core, see the AWS documentation on virtual cores to determine how many virtual cores are present on each type of EC2 instance.
Though you can access databases running in the cloud or files stored in S3 buckets from ArcGIS software installed on premises, doing so is almost always slower than accessing the data from a client installed in the same region in the cloud.
For this reason, your data and clients should always be in the same location—either all on-premises or all in the cloud. If your data and clients are in the cloud, they should be in the same AWS region.
If you do not use ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Amazon Web Services or the Amazon Web Services CloudFormation templates provided by Esri to create deployments, if you want to install only specific ArcGIS software on an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance created from an image, or you want to use a supported operating system that is not included with the Esri AMIs, you can create your own custom AMI.
You can use Amazon Web Services CloudFormation templates provided by Esri to create a custom AMI, or you can use AWS tools to create an AMI.