Add a cloud storage location for an ArcGIS Server site on Microsoft Azure

You can register a cloud store to GIS Server and ArcGIS Image Server sites you created using ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure.

An Azure Blob Storage container is used for the cloud store.

Follow the steps below to register a cloud store with an ArcGIS Server site:

1. Start ArcGIS Enterprise Cloud Builder for Microsoft Azure.
2. Sign in to Microsoft Azure.

   If the site with which you want to register the database is in the Microsoft Azure Government cloud, check U.S. Government Cloud.

3. Choose an Entra ID tenant, click Next, choose the subscription that contains the ArcGIS Server site with which you will register a cloud store, and click Next.
4. Ensure V2 Sites is selected.
5. In the Deployments list, click the Register a database, object store, or cloud store button next to the ArcGIS Server site.
6. Ensure that the Register cloud store option is selected at the top of the window.
7. In the Site Administrator section, type the username and password for the primary site administrator account for the hosting ArcGIS Server site.
8. Optionally, add a user-assigned managed identity for authentication purposes when accessing the object store.
   1. Click the Add button in the Assign User Assigned Managed Identity section.
   2. Choose the subscription that contains the identity.
   3. Choose the user-assigned managed identity from the Identity drop-down list and click Add.
9. Click Next to proceed to the Cloud Data Store Options settings.
10. Click the Register a cloud data store from Azure Blob Storage button.
11. Provide the path to a folder in an Azure Blob Storage container.
    1. Click the More options button in the Object Store section to choose or create a storage account and choose or create a storage location.
    2. Choose the account from the Storage account drop-down list, or click the Create button next to the Storage account list and create a storage account.
    3. Choose the authentication type to access the storage location.

       • AccessKey—When you choose this option, Cloud Builder will obtain the access key for the account.
       • UserAssignedIdentity—If you choose this option, you must choose one of the identities from the Identity drop-down list. If an identity does not exist, go back to step 8 to add one.
       • SASToken—Provide a shared access signature (SAS) token that you generate from the container level in the Azure portal.

         See the Microsoft Azure help for information about shared access signature authentication.

       • ServicePrincipal—If you configured a service principal for the account specified in step b above, provide the tenant ID, client ID, and client secret for the service principal. See the Microsoft Azure help for an explanation of service principals.

       The user-assigned managed identity or service principal account must be assigned to the storage account and must be assigned the Azure Storage Blob Data Owner role.

       Note:

       If you created a storage account in the previous step (b) or created the user-assigned identity in step 8, you must sign in to the Azure portal to assign these settings before you proceed with adding the cloud store.

    4. Choose a folder from the list or add one by clicking the Create a container button in the folder section.
    5. Click OK to close the Select Blob Container window.
12. If this cloud store will be used for map caches or image caches, check the box next to Register as a cache directory.
13. If this cloud store will be used to store the output from raster analysis, check the box next to Register as a raster store.
14. Click Add to return to the Cloud Data Store Options window.
15. Click Next to proceed to the Deployment Options settings.
16. Choose or create a storage account for your deployment. To create a storage account, do the following:
    1. Provide a name for the storage account.

       Names must be unique. Click Check availability to confirm that the storage account name is unique.

    2. Choose the Azure region where your storage will reside.
    3. Choose an existing resource group for the storage account or click the Create button to create one.
    4. Choose the type of redundancy for your storage account: Geo-Redundant, Locally Redundant, or Read-Access Geo-Redundant.

       See Azure Storage redundancy in the Microsoft Azure documentation for a description of each option.

    5. Specify the kind of Azure storage account to use: Storage (a legacy account type), StorageV2 (a basic account type), or BlobStorage (only supports Azure Blob storage).
    6. Once the storage account is created, click Close.
17. Click Next to view a summary of your settings.
18. Review the settings in the Summary pane. If anything needs to be changed, click Back to go to the page where you need to change the information.

    Tip:

    Click Save summary to save your site configuration information to a text file so you can refer to it for information such as usernames or machine names.

19. Click Save automation artifacts to export an archive file (.zip file) containing information and files you can use in automation scripts to re-create this deployment.
    1. Browse to a location on the local disk where the archive file will be created and type a name for the file.
    2. Choose the type of automation format you will use.
    3. Click Generate to create the file.
20. When all settings are correct and you have saved the files you need, click Finish to register the cloud store with the ArcGIS Server site.