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Understanding analysis in Portal for ArcGIS

You can enable several types of analysis in your portal. These types of analysis can be categorized based on the data used in the analysis. If the members of your organization will perform analysis on data that contains features or tabular data, they will perform feature analysis. If the data is in raster format, they will perform raster analysis. The types of analysis you can enable also depends on the ArcGIS components you have installed. See each toolset's description below for details.

Analysis tools can be used in the portal map viewer, ArcGIS Pro, the ArcGIS Python API, and the ArcGIS REST API. In the portal map viewer, you can access the tools by clicking the Analysis button and choosing the type of analysis you want to perform. With the ArcGIS Python API, you can access the tools through the tools module. To learn more, see the tools module documentation and the sample notebooks.To use the tools via the ArcGIS REST API, you will access the tasks from the corresponding ArcGIS Server service that powers the toolset. See the ArcGIS REST API documentation for details.

Feature analysis

Feature analysis can be performed through the portal with two different toolsets: the standard spatial analysis tools and the GeoAnalytics Tools provided with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. These tools can be accessed through the portal map viewer under Standard Tools for the spatial analysis tools and GeoAnalytics Tools for the GeoAnalytics Tools tools. See below for a description of the standard spatial analysis and big data analysis toolsets. See also Standard and GeoAnalytics Tools feature analysis comparison for an in-depth discussion of the differences between the types of analysis and the tools included in the toolsets.

Spatial analysis tools

These tools can be used to perform common analytical functions such as finding hotspots, locating streets and addresses, finding a place, routing, or accessing a geodatabase. By enabling analysis, you empower members of your organization to answer questions and make important decisions using more than visual analysis. The spatial analysis tools can be enabled by following the steps in Configure the portal to perform analysis. This topic also includes an overview of each tool in the toolset.

As of ArcGIS 10.4, you can configure the spatial analysis tools with a portal using a hosting server configuration that includes ArcGIS Data Store. Spatial analysis is enabled in this configuration by default. Portal members who belong to the Publisher or Administrator role can perform analysis. Members who belong to a custom role with the spatial analysis and publishing privileges enabled can also perform analysis. Certain tools also require additional utility services to be configured and further privileges to be enabled. See the tool descriptions for details.

GeoAnalytics Tools

As of ArcGIS 10.5, you can enable feature analysis using distributed computing with the tools provided by ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. These tools can analyze patterns and aggregate data in the context of both space and time. ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server enables distributed analysis across multiple ArcGIS Server machines. By harnessing the compute power of multiple machines, your analysis can be performed more quickly and with larger quantities of data than could previously be computed on a single machine. The GeoAnalytics Tools tools can be enabled by following the steps in Configure the portal with ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server. To enable GeoAnalytics Tools, you must license an ArcGIS Server site as your ArcGIS GeoAnalytics Server.

Raster analysis

As of ArcGIS 10.5, you can enable large raster data analysis using distributed computing with the tools provided by ArcGIS Image Server. These tools use the existing raster function analysis capability to allow you to build your own custom raster processing or analytic workflow using ArcGIS Pro as a client, and generate the analytic result at full resolution. A subset of the raster analysis tools is also available in the map viewer. The raster analysis tools can be enabled by following the steps in Configure the portal to perform raster analysis. This topic also includes an overview of the tools in the toolset.