With cloud infrastructure becoming the industry standard, many utilities are considering modernizing their ArcGIS Enterprise deployment patterns on the cloud platform. Doing so can provide GIS administrators with optimized solutions that reduce maintenance, costs, and downtime while leveraging cloud-native technologies that scale practically and efficiently and provide higher security. Certain aspects of the ArcGIS Enterprise platform, including Esri's ArcGIS Web Adaptor, are great candidates for such cloud innovations.
ArcGIS Web Adaptor is Esri’s proxy application for servicing utility map service requests. The application sits in the browser and operates as the middleman between the requests and the map user. Most utility mapping workflows leverage this application to process their work requests.
Many cloud platforms have a similar approach to deploying applications in the cloud. As a case study, this blog offers insight into the benefits of deploying the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application in an Azure Web App Service and other considerations for making your organization cloud ready. Don’t miss reading this if you think your organization could benefit from new and cutting-edge deployment patterns for ArcGIS Enterprise in the cloud.
Multi-Web Server Challenges
Traditionally, when installing and configuring the .NET version, or typical deployment pattern, of the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application, GIS administrators deploy directly to Internet Information Services (IIS) on a Windows Server operating system. Sometimes, one or two web servers are all that is required for a simple and small solution, while more significant, more complex solutions might include a considerable web farm comprised of a dozen or more web servers. The latter can be the case for on-premises environments and even cloud-hosted environments.
Unless your organization uses a “gold image” approach where a single virtual web server acts as a template for the other web servers, the time needed to support multiple web servers can be frustrating. This is especially true when it comes to applying routine operating system patches, rolling out Esri-released patches, and ensuring the configurations of each web server match. Even when using a gold image approach, your environment can still span a large footprint when multiple web servers are involved.
If you answer the questions below with a resounding “yes!” you should consider using the cloud to address these challenges and realize the benefits.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if I could significantly reduce my web server footprint but still be able to react to higher demand when usage increases?”
“How great would it be to eliminate web servers when deploying the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application?”
“Might I have more peace of mind knowing my ArcGIS Web Adaptor deployment is more locked down and secure than previously?”
The Serverless Solution
A key advantage of deploying the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application in the cloud is that the configuration is essentially “serverless.” Generally, there will be no operating system patching or associated reboots and downtimes in the traditional sense. A single virtual machine is required only for the initial installation and packaging and when a patch or upgrade is available from Esri for the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application.
Going serverless can provide several benefits to the utility, including savings on storage costs for migrating web applications, more straightforward system monitoring due to fewer nodes on the network, and improved time management with a much smaller footprint. Even in High Availability deployment scenarios, where one or more components of the overall system failover to keep the system up and running, the ArcGIS Web Adaptor footprint (i.e., number of Web Adaptor deployments) is still even smaller when going serverless in the cloud compared to on-premises deployment patterns.
Enhanced Deployment Management
Azure Web App Services provide additional functionality for managing deployments. Two functionalities worth discussing are Deployment Slots and Scale-Out and Scale-Ups.
Deployment Slots
Deployment Slots allow GIS administrators to reconfigure, patch, or upgrade ArcGIS Web Adaptor in a test environment before cutting over to the production environment. This provides an effective way to troubleshoot the application and perform the cutover with little to no downtime.
Figure 1 Deployment Slots Process Overview
Scale-Out and Scale-Up
The Scale-Out functionality provides a means to manually or automatically scale the Web App Service to multiple servers (possibly across regions for redundancy). The Scale-Up option accommodates higher work request volumes during peak times or unexpected emergencies by increasing the memory and CPUs, which is a huge benefit for managing production.
Figure 2 Scale-Up and Scale-Out Functionalities
Other configuration properties offered by Azure for the Web App Service resource include the following:
- Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
- Error Pages
- Extensions
- Alerts, Resource Health, Logs, Log Streams, Metrics, and Diagnostics
- Health Checks
- Tasks
- API Management and Definition
- Quotas
- Authentication, Identity, and Access Control (IAM)
- Backups
- WebJobs
- Service Connectors
- Cloning
- Microsoft Defender for Cloud
- Events
- Tags
- Templates
- Application Insights
Flexible Deployment Options
The ArcGIS Web Adaptor application can be deployed in one of two ways within an Azure Web App Service, both supported by uploading a ZIP file package containing the Web Adaptor binaries and configuration files. The best option for your utility depends on your deployment expectations. We recommend researching both options to help decide which is best suited for your organization.
In the first deployment option, Azure automatically unpacks the ZIP file package contents to a virtual directory within the Web App Service. This follows a more traditional deployment approach, where changes to the configuration are permitted if administrative access is enabled.
Alternatively, the second option places the application in a “read only” mode. Since the application runs directly off the uploaded package, the contents of the ZIP file package are kept intact. A notable benefit of this option is the ArcGIS Web Adaptor configuration cannot be modified, thus making it more secure from intrusion. Additionally, once the ZIP file packages are created for the environment (one for each ArcGIS Server site, one for Portal, etc.), repeatable deployments are fast and easy to any number of Azure regions.
Figure 3 Traditional vs. Read Only Deployment Options
To successfully deploy the ArcGIS Web Adaptor application to an Azure Web App Service in the cloud, there are several items you’ll want to have in place ahead of time as a best practice. These items include the following:
- Azure subscription and identified resource group with appropriate access privileges to create and manage resources
- Installation media for the latest version of Esri’s ArcGIS Web Adaptor application
- One virtual server machine with Windows Server configured with IIS as part of the Web Server role, along with local administrative privileges for performing software installation that writes to the system registry and protects folders
- Domain name system (DNS) zone privileges for your custom domain to create public or private records
- Custom secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate in PFX format containing the private key and full certificate chain
- Existing deployment of one or more licensed ArcGIS Enterprise products that leverage a Web Adaptor (i.e., ArcGIS Server, Portal for ArcGIS) and match the version of the Web Adaptor application being deployed
It is worth noting that using Azure Web App Services for the ArcGIS Web Adaptor is independent of but complementary to cloud deployments using Kubernetes. Even though Kubernetes is designed to leverage microservices for each ArcGIS Enterprise component, the Web Adaptor is deployed separately from the rest of the Kubernetes infrastructure, as with more typical implementations of ArcGIS Enterprise.
Modernizing in the Cloud
From a Return on Investment (ROI) perspective, deploying Azure Web App Services has clear, quantifiable benefits and significant value related to reduced costs, downtime, maintenance, and enhanced security and deployment flexibility.
The gap between Esri’s ArcGIS platform and cloud technologies is quickly closing. Don’t skip over this type of modernization for your Web Adaptors or other cloud-hosted web applications. Act now and set your organization up for a more secure future in the cloud.
If you would like to explore deployment in the cloud further or discuss how we can help solve your other cloud hosting needs, we invite you to contact UDC.