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What is ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services?

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Note:

This help applies to the most recent release of ArcGIS. For help with ArcGIS 10.3 Server on Amazon Web Services, see the 10.3 documentation.

ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services allows you to deploy ArcGIS Server on the Amazon Web Services (AWS). ArcGIS Server runs on Amazon's hardware and is administered through web services.

Advantages of deploying your server on AWS include the following:

  • No installation required—You don't have to install ArcGIS software yourself. Instead, you can use a downloadable utility, ArcGIS Server Cloud Builder on Amazon Web Services, to create a GIS server site on AWS. Once you create your site, you can immediately connect to it and begin publishing services from ArcMap.

  • Scalable on demand—You can configure your site so that additional GIS servers are added in response to certain triggers, such as CPU usage. New servers can be created in a matter of minutes, allowing your site to gracefully respond to abrupt spikes in traffic. When you no longer need the instances, you can destroy them and incur no further charges for them.

  • No hardware infrastructure to maintain—Deploying ArcGIS Server on Amazon Web Services requires no special hardware; you just have to be able to connect to the Internet. After creating your site, you can gain fine-grained management of your server through the AWS Management Console, a web application provided by Amazon. You can log in to your server through Windows Remote Desktop Connection or SSL to fine-tune your data, services, and applications.

    Deploying your server in a cloud environment allows you to use as many or as few computing resources as necessary without committing to a long-term purchase of hardware or other IT infrastructure.

The ArcGIS Server Amazon Machine Images also have Portal for ArcGIS and ArcGIS Data Store installed. If you have an ArcGIS for Server standard or advanced license and Portal for ArcGIS named user licenses, you can use AWS manager to deploy a single machine site that runs a full web GIS: ArcGIS for Server, Portal for ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Data Store.

About this help

The help section you are reading focuses on how to deploy ArcGIS for Server on Amazon Web Services. It also includes special topics about maintaining and scaling your deployment on AWS.

If you need general information about ArcGIS Server, enterprise geodatabases, Portal for ArcGIS, or ArcGIS Data Store, visit those respective sections in the ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS, or ArcGIS Desktop Help. The ArcGIS Server help describes how to publish services, configure security users and roles, and create web applications. The Portal for ArcGIS administration guide describes how to implement a portal, and the Portal for ArcGIS help describes how to use a portal. The ArcGIS Desktop help describes how to build and manage geodatabases.

Links to other help are provided throughout this help system where appropriate.