The web services you publish to ArcGIS Server can power enriched GIS products such as web maps and apps. ArcGIS Enterprise gives you a platform to create these GIS products from the services you and others publish. This is accomplished in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal using items, which present each service as a searchable and shareable entity.
Though the services that run in ArcGIS Server can be consumed directly by other clients, their most common destination is the ArcGIS Enterprise portal. This relationship is strengthened by the process of federation, which integrates the security and sharing models of the server with those of the portal.
If the ArcGIS Server site is federated with your portal, its services are shared to the portal automatically. You can also register services with the portal from an ArcGIS Server site that is not federated.
Understanding the relationships between web services and portal items can make it easier to work with the ArcGIS Enterprise portal. This topic explains these relationships and describes common ways to make a service available as an item on your portal. Appropriate rules for editing and deleting the service are provided for each approach.
Content sources and conditions
Content is most often created in ArcGIS Enterprise when a GIS resource is published from ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap. The common underlying action is for a GIS service to be published to ArcGIS Server that represents the resource as it appears in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap. However, publishing and sharing can take many different forms in ArcGIS Enterprise.
In ArcMap, this action occurs when you publish a map, a layer, a tool result, or some other resource. In ArcGIS Pro, it occurs when you share a web map or web layer to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. The process of sharing includes publishing GIS services to an ArcGIS Server site federated with the portal. Sharing preserves most aspects of the map or layer configuration from ArcGIS Pro, including its basemap and symbology.
Some services and layers are hosted in ArcGIS Enterprise. The term "hosted" refers to GIS resources whose data is managed by ArcGIS, such as in ArcGIS Data Store or on the ArcGIS Server site that serves as the hosting server for the portal.
When publishing or sharing a GIS resource, you specify whether the resulting service will reference registered data from the same data source as your desktop resource, or whether the server should copy all data to ArcGIS Enterprise. If you choose to copy the data, it is either stored in an ArcGIS Server folder or in a relational ArcGIS Data Store. Choosing the option to copy data does not necessarily mean the resulting services and layers are hosted. See Data and publishing in ArcGIS Enterprise to learn more.
GIS resource connections
The following table shows some common GIS resource types you work with in ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap, the services that are published from those resource types to an ArcGIS Server site, and the portal item that is created when the server site is federated with an ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
| Desktop GIS resource | ArcGIS Server service | ArcGIS Enterprise portal item |
|---|---|---|
Feature class or raster dataset | Map service (dynamic or cached) | Map image layer |
Feature class | Feature service | Feature layer |
Feature class | Vector tile service | Vector tile layer |
Mosaic or raster dataset | Image service (dynamic or cached) | Imagery layer |
Address locator | Geocode service | Geocoder |
Geoprocessing tool | Geoprocessing service | Web tool |
3D data | Cached scene service | Scene layer |
Hosted services published to the portal
The base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment includes a hosting server, which gives the ability to publish hosted services. When the portal has been configured with a hosting server, you can publish a service to the portal, either using the My Hosted Services option in ArcMap, the portal website, ArcGIS Maps for Office, ArcGIS Pro, or another client that works directly with the portal. Both a portal item and a service are created for you when you do this. All services are placed in an ArcGIS Server folder called Hosted, and data is copied from the data source. See Hosted layers in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal help for more information.
Service types listed in the Hosted folder differ from those in other server folders. This is to match the item types that are displayed in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal. The following table lists all supported hosted services and their updated item types:
| ArcGIS Server service type | Hosted folder/portal item type |
|---|---|
Cached map service | |
Cached map service with feature service | |
Feature service | |
Image service* | |
Scene service | |
WFS service | |
Vector tile service |
*The image service that underlies a hosted imagery layer runs on the portal's raster analysis server or image hosting server, not the portal's hosting server.
Deleting hosted services
When you delete an item from the portal that references a hosted service, the service and its underlying data are automatically deleted from the server site.
For example, you sign in to the portal as a publisher and upload a CSV file. You choose to publish the CSV to your portal as a feature layer. Automatically, a portal item is also created. To delete this service in the recommended way, you delete the portal item representing the service. When you do this, the service and its data are also deleted automatically.
In this scenario, you should not connect directly to the hosting server to delete the service. This would leave a portal item with no link to a service. You would be forced to clean up the portal item manually.
Services published from ArcGIS Pro
A variety of layers and items can be shared from ArcGIS Pro. Where you edit or delete a layer published from ArcGIS Pro depends on the type of layer and whether you copied data when publishing or referenced registered data. Tile layers, vector tile layers, and scene layers published from ArcGIS Pro to your portal reside in the Hosted folder on the portal's hosting server. The data for these layers is always copied. The layers must be deleted and managed from the portal, as described in the previous section.
You can publish map image layers from ArcGIS Pro to one of your federated servers. These layers reference registered data. See Layers published to your portal's federated servers for details. An associated map service is published to the folder on the portal's federated server that was specified when publishing. When you publish a map image layer that references registered data, be sure to go to the Content tab of the Share As Web Layer pane and choose one of the Federated Servers. This is the ArcGIS Server site where the map service will run. To delete a map image layer, select and delete the item in portal. The associated map service will be deleted as well. The data in your registered data source remains.
When you publish a map image layer from ArcGIS Pro, you can also enable feature access or WMS on the layer. If you do so, a WMS or feature layer item associated with the map image layer will be created in the portal, and these capabilities will be enabled on the map service on the federated server. You can delete the WMS or feature layer items in the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer in the portal, however, the associated WMS or feature layer items must be deleted first. If you attempt to delete the map image layer without first deleting the associated WMS or feature layer items, you will receive a warning that these associated items must be deleted first. By deleting the items in the portal, the associated services will be deleted as well.
You can also publish imagery layers from ArcGIS Pro. An associated image service is published to the folder on the portal's federated server that was specified when publishing. To delete an imagery layer, you must delete the service in Manager. The associated imagery layer will then be removed from the portal. When you publish an imagery layer, you can also enable WMS and WCS on the layer. If you enable WMS, a WMS item associated with the imagery layer will be created in the portal, and the WMS capability will be enabled on the image service on the federated server. You can delete the WMS item in the portal without deleting the imagery layer. Deleting the image service on the federated service, however, removes the associated imagery and WMS layer items. If you enable WCS, no associated WCS item will be created in the portal, though the capability will be enabled on the associated image service.
A feature layer in the portal can be a hosted feature layer (data is copied) or a feature layer associated with a map image layer published from ArcGIS Pro (references registered data).
When you publish a feature layer associated with a map image layer that references registered data, be sure to go to the General tab of the Share As Web Layer pane and choose one of the Federated Servers. When you publish, a map service with feature access enabled will run on this ArcGIS Server site, and both a feature layer and map image layer item are created in your portal. You can delete the feature layer in the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer in the portal, however, the associated feature layer item must be deleted first. By deleting the items in the portal, the associated services will be deleted as well. The data in your registered data source remains.
Note:
Because a feature layer item in the portal is a map service with feature access enabled on the ArcGIS Server site, you must share the feature layer and its associated map image layer to the same set of users (groups, the portal, or the public). If you only share the feature layer, it cannot be used by others.
It is also important to note that copies of map image, WMS, or feature items in the portal are not deleted when the original item is deleted. By deleting the original item, the associated service is deleted. This leaves item copies orphaned and inoperable. You must delete the item copies separately.
When you publish a feature layer to the portal and copy data, a feature service is created in the Hosted folder on the portal's hosting server and data is copied to the relational data store registered with the hosting server. A map image layer item is not created on the portal when a hosted feature service is published. Use the portal to manage and delete hosted feature layers. When you delete the hosted feature layer, the copied data is also deleted.
To determine whether a feature service is hosted or not, go to the Item Details page for the layer. If the feature layer was published directly to the portal and has no associated map image layer, the item will be described as (hosted) when viewed by the layer owner or portal administrator. Feature layers published from ArcGIS Pro that do not have this (hosted) note are associated with a map image layer. You can delete feature layers published from ArcGIS Pro in the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer in the portal, however, the associated feature layer item must be deleted first. Items described as (hosted) can be deleted through portal, and the associated service will also be deleted.
Example publishing scenarios from ArcGIS Pro to the ArcGIS Enterprise portal
The following publishing scenarios describe the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types with their companion ArcGIS Server services and capabilities.
Publishing from ArcGIS Pro to a federated GIS Server
When you publish a map image layer from ArcGIS Pro, you can also enable feature access or WMS on the layer. If you do so, a WMS or feature layer item associated with the map image layer will be created in the portal, and these capabilities will be enabled on the map service on the GIS Server. The following describes the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario:
- ArcGIS Enterprise portal item: A published map image layer enabled with feature access and WMS layer types
- ArcGIS Server service: The published companion service with feature access and WMS capabilities enabled
Disabling capabilities in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcMap
When a WMS or feature access capability is disabled in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcMap, the corresponding (WMS or feature access) layer type is deleted as an item in the portal. The following describes the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario:
- A map image layer is published from ArcGIS Pro to the portal with both WMS and feature access enabled
- A companion service is created on the corresponding GIS Server
- When disabling the WMS in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcMap, the corresponding WMS layer type is deleted
Deleting associated items in the portal
You can delete WMS or feature layer items in ArcGIS Pro or in the portal, and the corresponding WMS capability on the map service is deleted. Note that associated WMS or feature layer items must be deleted before a map image layer can be deleted. The following describes the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario:
- A map image layer is published from ArcGIS Pro to the portal with both WMS and feature access enabled
- A companion service is created on the corresponding GIS Server
- When deleting the WMS or feature layer item in the portal, the corresponding WMS capability on the map service is also deleted.
Deleting associated services in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcMap
Deleting the map service on the GIS Server removes the associated map image, WMS, and feature layer items. The following describes the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario:
- A map image layer is published from ArcGIS Pro to the portal with both WMS and feature access enabled
- A companion service is created on the corresponding GIS Server
- When deleting the associated map service in ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcMap, the corresponding map image, WMS and feature layer items are deleted.
Services published to a federated ArcGIS Server site
You can publish a service to an ArcGIS Server site that you have federated with your portal. You publish using ArcGIS Server Manager, an ArcGIS Server connection in the Catalog tree of ArcMap, or ArcGIS Pro (as described in Services published from ArcGIS Pro). A portal item is created automatically at the time you publish the service. You can delete the service by deleting the corresponding portal items. The data stays in your registered data source.
Example
You use Add ArcGIS Server in ArcMap to create a publisher ArcGIS Server connection. You connect as a publisher and publish an image service to an ArcGIS Image Server site that is federated with your portal. The image service automatically becomes an image layer item on your portal.
When you are ready to delete this service, you log in to your portal and delete it. The corresponding service is also deleted.
From data store items in the portal
When you add a data store item to the portal, you can publish layers from it in the portal. From database data store items, you can bulk publish feature layers and map image layers for each feature class and table accessible through the data store item. For file share and cloud data store items, you can create imagery layers. In both cases, the data stays in the data source referenced by the data store item.
In ArcGIS Server Manager, you can alter settings on the services you publish from the portal data store item; however, you cannot alter the data store item in ArcGIS Server Manager. Similarly, the data store item and each of the layers published from it must be deleted from the portal, not from the federated server.
Example
You add a data store item using a database connection file. As the owner of the data store item, you publish all the feature classes and tables accessible to the user specified in the database connection file. This includes the feature classes and tables you own as well as any feature classes and tables for which other database users have granted you access. This creates one map service with feature access enabled for each feature class and table. The services run on the federated ArcGIS GIS Server site you specify when you create the layers. For each map service, one feature layer item and one map image layer item are created in the portal.
If you no longer need any of the bulk published layers or the data store item, delete all the layers in the portal, remove all federated servers from the data store item, and then you can delete the data store item.
If you want to delete individual layers, you must delete the feature layer and its associated map image layer from the My Content tab in the portal; you cannot delete only the feature layer. Doing so will leave the map image layer in a state that will not allow it to be synchronized with the database. Also note that, even if you delete both the feature layer and map image layer from My Contents, they will be re-created the next time you synchronize, unless you no longer have access to the data in the database.
Using the My Content tab of the Content page in the portal website to add the service as an item
You can add a service as a portal item from Content > My Content in the portal website. This is how you share links to web services that are not running on a federated server.
If you added the item in My Content, you should edit and delete the item using the portal website. Even if you delete the item, the corresponding service continues to run unless you log in to its server and delete it. This is expected behavior because you may be using portal items to share links to third-party services that you have no intention or ability to permanently delete.
Example
You find a useful web service from your neighboring department’s ArcGIS Server site and you want to add a portal item that links to it. You sign in to the portal website and go to Content > My Content to add the service from the web as a portal item.
When you are ready to delete this item, use the portal website to delete it. Deleting the item does not delete the service. This is the expected behavior because the service and the portal item have no built-in relationship in this scenario.
Best practices for editing and deleting items
The examples above illustrate best practices for editing and deleting items depending on how these items were published. This ensures that services and items maintain their appropriate linkage.
If you do not delete the items or services in the recommended way, you may be left with orphaned items or services that you must delete manually.
Note that a portal item can only be edited or deleted by one of the following:
- The publisher who added the item
- A portal administrator
This is different than the pattern used by ArcGIS Server, wherein all publishers can edit and delete all items.
Although administrators can edit items, this should be avoided. Editing items as an administrator can cause peripheral resources to accrue under the administrator’s account. Administrator accounts should primarily be used to change the ownership of items or delete items that are no longer needed.