ArcGIS services organize spatial data into functional GIS resources to run on a web server. In this way, services allow many users to simultaneously access and explore data hosted on central server machines and to include this data in their GIS products on the web and on mobile devices. All data you use in ArcGIS Enterprise is made available by GIS services.
A GIS service is not a map or layer, and it often does not serve as the end product for users. Instead, client apps query the service to receive information they can use in maps and other GIS products. Many types of geospatial services are available, representing different types of content such as maps, scenes, geoprocessing tools, geodatabases, and imagery. Each service type performs a unique set of workflows.
Service data sources
Because data is essential to GIS services, consider how and where the data in your services is stored. Many types of data and data stores work with ArcGIS Enterprise. It's important to understand the distinction between data that is referenced by ArcGIS Enterprise and data that is hosted by ArcGIS Enterprise.
You can register your data stores with ArcGIS Enterprise so that your services can reference the data in them without copying the data from the source. ArcGIS Enterprise can also host data, meaning the data is copied to ArcGIS Enterprise and is maintained by the system. Services that use ArcGIS-managed data are broadly called hosted services.
When you publish a service from ArcGIS Pro by sharing a web map or other item to your portal, you either use registered data in a user-managed store or copy the data into a store managed by ArcGIS Enterprise. In a user-managed data store, the database administrator is responsible for maintaining the data and organizing it for effective use.
Publishing services
You can publish services to ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes in two ways: sharing from ArcGIS Pro or uploading certain items to publish hosted feature layers, hosted tile layers, or hosted vector tile layers in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
You can publish a set of images as an image service with an ArcGIS Image Services on Kubernetes license or publish a single image or raster as web imagery layers to ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes. See Share a web imagery layer for instructions on publishing an imagery layer that references data.
ArcGIS Enterprise can host many types of GIS services, as well as several service extensions and capabilities. The type of data you make available to others and what you want people to do with that data determine the type of service you publish.
Service types published from ArcGIS Pro
You can share several types of GIS resources from ArcGIS Pro to your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. Each item type is powered by a GIS service running in your organization. The following table shows the types of GIS resources you can share from ArcGIS Pro to the current version of ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes, the type of GIS service that each resource publishes, and the resulting portal item.
| Desktop GIS resource | GIS 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 |
Image or raster dataset | Image service | Imagery layer |
Locator | Geocode service | Locator |
Model or script tool | Geoprocessing service | Web tool |
Note:
When sharing imagery or raster data as image services from ArcGIS Pro, you must register the location of the data by creating a data store item in your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. To learn how to create a data store item, see Items in ArcGIS Enterprise.
Services published as hosted layers
You can also create hosted layers by uploading certain items to the ArcGIS Enterprise portal rather than sharing from ArcGIS Pro. Each hosted layer is powered by a GIS service and its underlying data is stored in a data store managed by ArcGIS.
| GIS service | Hosted layer |
|---|---|
Cached map service | |
Cached map service with feature service | |
Feature service | |
Image service | |
Image service | Elevation layer |
Scene service | |
WFS service | |
Vector tile service |