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Configure utility services

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Tip:

Watch a video on configuring custom geocode services with Portal for ArcGIS. Or watch a video on using the ArcGIS Online World Geocode Service with Portal for ArcGIS.

As an Administrator of your organization, you can configure the portal to use different services to perform the following tasks: printing, geocoding, geometric calculations for spatial analysis, and routing. These are referred to as utility services. To learn more about these services, see About utility services.

The way that you configure utility services for your portal depends on where the service originates:

  • If the service is from a federated server, you'll need to start the service, share the service, and configure it as a utility service.

  • If the service is from a federated server that has been configured as a hosting server, you'll need to share the print service to use it in the portal. When you specify a hosting server for your portal, the hosting server's print service is automatically started and configured with the portal. However, if you've previously configured a print service with your portal, the URL is not updated when specifying a hosting server. You'll need to start the service, share the service, and then configure it as a utility service.

    Legacy:

    In 10.3, if you specified a hosting server for your portal, the service was automatically configured with the portal, but you were required to start the service and share it. Beginning at 10.3.1, you only need to share the service.

  • If the service is not from a federated server and requires credentials, you'll need to add the service as an item in your portal, specify credentials to the service, share the service, and then configure it as a utility service. Examples of services you would add in this way are services from secured ArcGIS Server sites and services from your ArcGIS Online organization.

  • If the service is not from a federated server and does not require credentials, you can configure it as a utility service by adding the URL directly in the Utility Services dialog box.

If the service is from a federated server

  1. On the server that you have federated with your portal, start the services that you would like to configure as utility services. You can do this by logging in to ArcGIS Server Manager with a portal member account with administrator privileges. Manager is typically available through a URL such as https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/manager. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print and geometry services are stopped by default.
  2. Sign in to the portal website as an Administrator of your organization and click My Content.
  3. Click the name of the service that you want to configure as a utility service.
  4. Click the Share button and specify how the item will be shared with the portal. You'll need to share the service with any member or group that needs access to printing, geocoding, geometry, or routing functionality.

    You might share different services with different groups. For example, if you want anyone who connects to the portal to see thumbnails and print maps, share the print service with Everyone. If you want to allow your portal members to geocode locations, but you don't want anonymous users to do this, share the geocode service with the Organization. If your route service uses an ArcGIS Online organizational account service that will use credits when used, you might share the route service with only one group that contains those members who need to perform routing.

  5. Click OK to apply the Share settings.
  6. Copy the ArcGIS Web API REST Connection URL.
  7. Click the My Organization link on the top menu. Your organization page opens.
  8. Click Edit Settings > Utility Services.
  9. Paste the URL of the service you want to use into the appropriate utility service field. If you're configuring a print or route service, you'll need to append the following tasks to the URL:
    • For the print service, append the Export Web Map task to the URL, for example, /Export%20Web%20Map%20Task for the PrintingTools service or /Export%20Web%20Map for a custom print service. The URL will look similar to the following:
      • ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/PrintingTools/GPServer/Export%20Web%20Map%20Task
      • A custom ArcGIS Server print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GPServer/TaskName
      Note:

      Asynchronous print services are not supported.

    • For the route service, append the Route task to the URL, for example, /Route. The URL will look similar to https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/NAServer/Route.
  10. Click Save.
  11. Repeat these steps as necessary to configure other services as your utility services.

If the service is from a federated server that has been configured as a hosting server

  1. On the server that you have federated with your portal, start the services that you would like to configure as utility services. You can do this by logging in to ArcGIS Server Manager with a portal member account with administrator privileges. Manager is typically available through a URL such as https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/manager. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print and geometry services are stopped by default.
  2. Sign in to the portal website as an Administrator of your organization and click My Content.
  3. Click the name of the service that you want to configure as a utility service.
  4. Click the Share button and specify how the item will be shared with the portal. You'll need to share the service with any member or group that needs access to printing, geocoding, geometry, or routing functionality.

    You might share different services with different groups. For example, if you want anyone who connects to the portal to see thumbnails and print maps, share the print service with Everyone. If you want to allow your portal members to geocode locations, but you don't want anonymous users to do this, share the geocode service with the Organization. If your route service uses an ArcGIS Online organizational account service that will use credits when used, you might share the route service with only one group that contains those members who need to perform routing.

  5. Click OK to apply the Share settings.
    Note:

    When you specify a hosting server for your portal, the hosting server's print service is automatically configured with the portal. You'll only need to start and share the print service to use it in the portal. However, if you've previously configured a print service with your portal, the URL is not updated when specifying a hosting server. If desired, you'll need to update the URL as described in the remaining steps below.

  6. Copy the ArcGIS Web API REST Connection URL.
  7. Click the My Organization link on the top menu. Your organization page opens.
  8. Click Edit Settings > Utility Services.
  9. Paste the URL of the service you want to use into the appropriate utility service field. If you're configuring a print or route service, you'll need to append the following tasks to the URL:
    • For the print service, append the Export Web Map task to the URL, for example, /Export%20Web%20Map%20Task for the PrintingTools service or /Export%20Web%20Map for a custom print service. The URL will look similar to the following:
      • ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/PrintingTools/GPServer/Export%20Web%20Map%20Task
      • A custom ArcGIS Server print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GPServer/TaskName
      Note:

      Asynchronous print services are not supported.

    • For the route service, append the Route task to the URL, for example, /Route. The URL will look similar to https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/NAServer/Route.
  10. Click Save.
  11. Repeat these steps as necessary to configure other services as your utility services.

If the service is not from a federated server and requires credentials

  1. Sign in to the portal website as an Administrator of your organization and click My Content.
  2. Click the Add Item button.
  3. On the Add Item dialog box, click The item is drop-down menu and select On the web.
  4. Select the ArcGIS Server web service option and specify the URL to the service:
  5. TypeConfiguration notes and URL examples

    Print service

    You must specify the Export Web Map task REST URL of the print service. Asynchronous print services are not supported. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service is stopped by default. You must explicitly start the service before you can access its URL.

    ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/PrintingTools/GPServer/Export%20Web%20Map%20Task

    A custom ArcGIS Server print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GPServer/TaskName

    Geocode service

    Specify the REST URL of the geocode service, for example, https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeocodeServer.

    To use the ArcGIS Online World Geocoder, specify the following URL: http://geocode.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/GeocodeServer. Be aware that the credentials you provide to connect to this service must have privileges on ArcGIS Online to geocode, and that using this service spends ArcGIS Online credits.

    Geometry service

    Specify the REST URL of the geometry service. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured geometry service is stopped by default. You must explicitly start the service before you can access its URL.

    ArcGIS Server's preconfigured geometry service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/Geometry/GeometryServer

    A custom ArcGIS Server geometry service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeometryServer

    Route service

    You must specify the Route Task REST URL of the network analysis service, for example, https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/NAServer/Route.

  6. Specify the credentials to your service and select Store credentials with service item. Do not prompt for authentication.
  7. Enter a title and tags for your service and click Add Item.
  8. Click Share and specify how the item will be shared with the portal. You'll need to share the service with any member or group that needs access to printing, geocoding, geometry, or routing functionality. Click OK.
  9. Copy the ArcGIS Web API REST Connection URL.
  10. Click the My Organization link on the top menu. Your organization page opens.
  11. Click Edit Settings > Utility Services.
  12. Paste the URL of the service you want to use into the appropriate utility service field.
    • For a custom print service, append the task name to the URL; for example, add /Export%20Web%20Map%20Task.
      Note:

      Asynchronous print services are not supported.

    • For the route service, append the route layer name to the URL; for example, add /Route_World.
  13. Click Save.
  14. Repeat these steps as necessary to configure other services as your utility services.

If the service is not from a federated server and does not require credentials

Note:

If your utility service will be accessed over HTTPS and uses a certificate that is either self-signed or issued by an internal Certificate Authority, you must configure the portal to trust that certificate. For instructions on how to do this, see Configuring the portal to trust certificates from your certifying authority.

  1. Sign in to the portal website as an Administrator of your organization and click Edit Settings > Utility Services.
  2. Paste the URL of the service you want to use into the appropriate utility service field:
  3. TypeConfiguration notes and URL examples

    Print service

    You must specify the Export Web Map task REST URL of the print service. Asynchronous print services are not supported. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service is stopped by default. You must explicitly start the service before you can access its URL.

    ArcGIS Server's preconfigured print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/PrintingTools/GPServer/Export%20Web%20Map%20Task

    A custom ArcGIS Server print service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GPServer/TaskName

    Geocode service

    Specify the REST URL of the geocode service, for example, https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeocodeServer.

    Geometry service

    Specify the REST URL of the geometry service. ArcGIS Server's preconfigured geometry service is stopped by default. You must explicitly start the service before you can access its URL.

    ArcGIS Server's preconfigured geometry service: https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/Utilities/Geometry/GeometryServer

    A custom ArcGIS Server geometry service: https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/GeometryServer

    Route service

    You must specify the Route Task REST URL of the network analysis service, for example, https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis/rest/services/folder/servicename/NAServer/Route.

  4. Click Save.
  5. Repeat these steps as necessary to configure other services as your utility services.
Tip:

To reset the utility services back to their default URLs, delete the URL for each utility service you have configured and click Save. When you return to the Utility Services page, the URLs will be reset to their defaults.