Administrators and publishers in an ArcGIS Enterprise organization can register user-managed data stores with federated ArcGIS Server sites. This allows portal members to publish ArcGIS Server web services that run on the federated servers. When you publish, no data is copied; the web services reference the data in the registered data store.
Register these user-managed data stores by adding a data store item to the portal. When you add a data store item, you register a data source with one or more federated ArcGIS GIS Server or ArcGIS Image Server sites. Each federated server can have multiple data store items registered to it.
You can add a data store item in the portal or when you register a data store to a federated ArcGIS Server site in ArcGIS Pro.
These data store items allow you to control use of the data store contents by sharing the data store item. How you share the data store item determines who can use it when publishing in ArcGIS Pro. As the owner of the data store item, you can also publish map image and feature layers from the item in bulk.
Types of data store items
When you add a data store item to a portal, you choose a data source that contains data to publish, and you choose the federated servers that can access the data. Once added, there are specific types of layers you can publish from this data store item in the portal.
The following table describes the type of data stores you can add as items, what you can publish from each, and what type of web layer is created as a result of publishing:
| Data store item type | What you can register | What you can publish from the data store item in the portal | Layer item types |
|---|---|---|---|
Folders | File shares | From ArcGIS Pro 2.8 or later, you can publish map services from files in the registered folder. | Map image layer |
Databases | Database connection files (.sde) that access supported versions of the following database management systems: Databases can contain an enterprise geodatabase, but they don't have to. | Map services that reference registered data with feature access enabled | When you publish in bulk from a database data store item, one feature layer and one map image layer* is created for each feature class and table to which the registered database user has access. Note:If you do not want anyone to edit data using these feature layers, be sure the database connection you use when you add the data store connects as a user that has been granted only select privileges on the feature classes and tables in the database. |
Cloud storage | Any of the following cloud storage locations:
| Using ArcGIS API for Python, you can publish map or scene services that reference caches that you preloaded to a registered cloud storage location. | Tile layer or scene layer |
*To bulk publish map image and feature layers, the data store must be registered with a federated ArcGIS GIS Server site.
Adding a data store item in the portal registers the data source with the federated servers that you specify. If you access the same source location (folder or database using the same credentials) from ArcGIS Pro and publish to one of these servers, you don't need to register the data store again.
Data access
Adding data store items to your portal makes it easier to share GIS data across your organization. You need to balance ease of access with the need to keep data secure. When you use data store items, access is controlled at multiple levels. See Controlling access to data published from data store items for details.
Methods for adding data store items
There are three workflows for adding a data store item to your portal. The one you use depends on whether you need to register a new data store, want to create a data store item for an existing data store, or your existing data store is registered with multiple federated servers.
I want to register a data store
To register a data store with ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes, add a data store item in the portal. You can also register a data store and add a data store item from ArcGIS Pro under the following conditions:
- You're registering a database or file share.
- You're using ArcGIS Pro 2.8 or later.
Get started using data store items
See the following to learn how to use and manage data store items: