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Portal for ArcGIS 10.3.1 system requirements

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The latest system and hardware requirements that are required to run Portal for ArcGIS are listed below. A diagnostics tool runs during the setup to help you determine if your machine meets the minimum system requirements. For information about earlier versions, see Esri Support.

It's recommended that you review the deprecation notice to determine if your hardware and software components are still compatible with version 10.3.1.

Operating system requirements

The following 64-bit operating systems satisfy the minimum operating system requirements. Support is not provided for 32-bit operating systems; the setup will only proceed if the operating system is 64 bit. Portal for ArcGIS is only supported on Linux x86_64, on CPUs that adhere to the x86_64 architecture (64 bit), with supported Linux releases.

Machines with an underscore (_) in the name are not supported. The setup will not proceed if an underscore is detected in the machine name.

The software should not be installed on an OS (binary) that has been modified. Esri does not provide support for products installed on a developer's release of an operating system.

You cannot install the software as a root user. If you attempt to do this, the installation will not proceed and a diagnostics tool will display an error message indicating that you cannot install as root.

Operating systemMinimum OS versionMaximum OS version

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 (support begins at 10.3.1)

No Update

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6

Update 5

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5

Update 7 with libX11 patch

Update 10

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (support begins at 10.3.1)

No Service Pack

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Service Pack 1

Service Pack 2

For RHEL 5 Update 7 + libX11 patch information, see Red Hat Support. For RHEL 6 Update 4 + xorg-x11-server patch information, see Red Hat Support and KB Article 42226.

Note:

Esri Technical Support is available for CentOS, Scientific Linux, and Oracle Linux versions that provide full binary compatibility with an equivalent supported Red Hat version. As a prerequisite for logging a defect, any software issue on these operating systems will be attempted to be reproduced on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For Oracle Linux, support is predicated on the use of the Red Hat compatible kernel.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server requirements

The following package groups are required. If you want to install the software using the operating system graphical user interface (GUI), the X Window System package group is required. This is usually included by default with the operating system.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7

  • dos2unix
  • fontconfig
  • gettext
  • libpng12
  • libSM

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 and 6

  • dos2unix
  • fontconfig
  • gettext
  • libpng
  • libSM

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

The following package groups are required. If you want to install the software using the operating system graphical user interface (GUI), the X Window System package group is required. This is usually included by default with the operating system.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12

  • dos2unix
  • fontconfig
  • gettext-runtime
  • libpng12
  • libSM6

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

  • dos2unix
  • fontconfig
  • gettext-runtime
  • libpng12
  • xorg-x11-libSM

Hardware requirements

  • Processor: 4 cores for 100 concurrent users
  • Memory/RAM: 4 GB or more
  • Disk space: A base installation of Portal for ArcGIS requires a minimum of 2.5 GB of available disk space. All content created by your users will also be stored on disk. Carefully consider how data will be uploaded and created by your users and allocate disk space accordingly. If desired, you can change the location of where the portal stores its content after installing the software.

Disk space requirements

Portal for ArcGIS requires a minimum of 2.5 GB of available disk space.

Temp space requirements

By default, resources are extracted to the system /tmp directory. This directory must have read, write, and execute permissions enabled. If the required space is not available in the /tmp directory, the setup program will attempt to extract resources to the user's HOME directory. If the required space is not available in the user's HOME directory, the setup program will report an error indicating this problem. Optionally, you can specify an alternate temp location by setting the IATEMPDIR environment variable.

File system requirements

On Linux systems, the ext3 file system limits the number of item subfolders to less than 32,000; this means your portal is limited to having no more than 32,000 items. No new items can be added to Portal for ArcGIS when this limit is reached. It's recommended that you update or move the installation directory to an ext4 file system which does not have this limitation.

File handles limits

For the portal to run properly, the file handle limits for the installation user are required to be set to 65,535. An installation diagnostics tool will check to validate whether the limits are set properly in the /etc/security/limits.conf file. If the limits are set incorrectly, the diagnostics check will fail.

There are soft and hard limits for file handles on Linux. To determine the limits, use the following commands:

  • Soft limit: ulimit -Sn
  • Hard limit: ulimit -Hn

To increase the soft and hard limits, you'll need to edit the /etc/security/limits.conf file with superuser access. For example, add two lines in the file like this:

<Portal for ArcGIS installation user> soft nofile 65535
<Portal for ArcGIS installation user> hard nofile 65535

After making this change, you will need to log out and log back in with the particular user for the new values to take effect. To verify that the limits have been modified appropriately, you can use the ulimit -Sn and ulimit -Hn commands as described above.

Firewall settings

Portal for ArcGIS communicates on ports 7080, 7443, 7005, 7099, 7199, and 7654. You'll need to open these ports on your firewall before installing the software. For more information, see Ports used by Portal for ArcGIS.

Domain name service (DNS) and fully qualified domain name (FQDN) requirements

Your organization's domain name service (DNS) needs to include an entry of the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the machine hosting Portal for ArcGIS. Similarly, if you'll be using ArcGIS Server with your portal, it's recommended that you include FQDN entries for each site you intend to federate with Portal for ArcGIS.

If desired, you can configure your DNS to use a friendly name for the portal (for example, friendly.domain.com instead of portal.domain.com). When doing this, assign the name to the portal machine before you install the software. Then, use the friendly name when setting up the portal. For example, setup activities that require use of the friendly name include:

Caution:

If you configure a friendly DNS name after setting up your portal, existing items in the portal may become unusable, as they will include the non-friendly name. You'll need to manually recreate each item in order to use them again.

SSL certificates

Portal for ArcGIS comes preconfigured with a self-signed SSL certificate, which allows the portal to be initially tested and to help you quickly verify that your installation was successful. However, in almost all cases, an organization should request an SSL certificate from a trusted certificate authority (CA) and configure the portal to use it. The certificate can be signed by a corporate (internal) or commercial CA.

You should configure each applicable ArcGIS component in your organization with a certificate from a corporate or commercial CA. Common examples include ArcGIS Web Adaptor and ArcGIS Server. For example, ArcGIS Server also comes with a preconfigured self-signed certificate. If you'll be federating an ArcGIS Server site with your portal, it's very important to you request a CA-signed certificate and configure the server and Web Adaptor to use it.

For more information, see Security best practices.

ArcGIS Web Adaptor

ArcGIS Web Adaptor is a required component of Portal for ArcGIS which allows you to integrate your portal with your existing web server and your organization's security mechanisms. You cannot deploy Portal for ArcGIS in your organization without the Web Adaptor.

You can only use the Web Adaptor with port 80 or 443. Using different ports is not supported. See About the ArcGIS Web Adaptor for details.

Supported web browsers

For the best performance in the portal website, use the latest browser versions listed below. The scene viewer has its own browser and hardware requirements. Some of the common clients of Portal for ArcGIS have differing requirements. See their documentation for details.

  • IE 9 and higher. Versions 7 and 8 have limited support (as noted below).
  • Microsoft Edge
  • Firefox
  • Chrome
  • Safari
  • iOS Safari
  • Android Browser
  • Chrome for Android

Browser limitations

Some web browsers have functional limitations, as noted below:

  • You cannot drag and drop files onto the map in IE 7 and 8.
  • When opening maps with lots of features, you may see a long-running script error message in IE 7 and 8.
  • When leaving the map viewer window without saving, you may lose your work in IE 7 and 8.
  • You cannot create presentations in IE 7 and 8.
  • You cannot open operation views in Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS in IE 7 and 8.
  • You cannot add CSV items (in My Content) as web layers in the map. This limitation applies to IE 7, 8, 9, and Safari.
  • You cannot create apps with Web AppBuilder for ArcGIS in IE 7 and 8.
  • You cannot get directions in IE 7.
  • You cannot use the scene viewer. This limitation applies to IE 7, 8, 9, and 10.
  • You cannot view streaming feature layers in the map viewer. This limitation applies to IE 7, 8, and 9.
  • If the browser is running in compatibility mode, the graphics on the Manage Licenses page do not load correctly. This limitation applies to IE 7, 8, 9, and 10.
  • The X-Frame Options ALLOW-FROM header is not supported in Chrome and Safari. When viewing the portal website, you may encounter an error in Chrome and Safari stating that the header is invalid and will be ignored. You can safely dismiss this warning.

Note:
If your organization is unable to turn off Internet Explorer Compatibility View, please see this tech article for a workaround: http://support.esri.com/en/technical-article/000013119.

External access

If you'll be using Esri-provided services, such as basemaps and data from ArcGIS Online, the machine hosting Portal for ArcGIS will need access to the Internet. If your portal will not have access to the Internet, you'll need to perform some additional configuration steps to ensure your portal is pointing to local resources. For instructions, see Configuring a disconnected deployment.

Supported virtualization environments

All components of ArcGIS for Server are fully supported on virtual environments as long as they run on supported platforms. When running third-party applications with ArcGIS for Server, such as relational databases, the application must also be supported in a virtual environment. Check the third-party vendor for its virtualization support.

The following virtualization environments are known to perform well with ArcGIS for Server:

  • VMware vSphere 5 including 5.0, 5.1, and 5.5
  • VMware vSphere 6
  • Microsoft Hyper-V

For additional information, see Virtualization and ArcGIS Server.