The web services you publish to ArcGIS Server can power GIS products such as web maps and apps. ArcGIS Enterprise gives you a platform to create these GIS products from the services you and others publish. In the ArcGIS Enterprise portal, web services are presented as items. You can search for and share these items in the portal.
Though the services that run in ArcGIS Server can be consumed directly by other clients, you can also register services with a portal. If the ArcGIS Server site is federated with the portal, items are created in the portal when you publish the web service. Federation integrates the security and sharing models of the ArcGIS Server site with those of the portal.
Understanding the relationships between web services and portal items can make it easier to work with ArcGIS Enterprise. This page explains these relationships and describes common ways to make a service available as an item. Appropriate rules for editing and deleting the service are provided for each approach.
Content sources and conditions
Content is most often created in ArcGIS Enterprise when a GIS resource is published from ArcGIS Pro. The common underlying action is for a GIS service to be published to ArcGIS Server that represents the resource as it appears in ArcGIS Pro. However, publishing and sharing can take many different forms in ArcGIS Enterprise.
In ArcGIS Pro, this occurs when you share a web map or web layer to ArcGIS Enterprise. The process of sharing includes publishing GIS services to an ArcGIS Server site federated with the portal. Sharing preserves most aspects of the map or layer configuration from ArcGIS Pro, including its basemap and symbology, respectively.
Some services and layers are hosted in ArcGIS Enterprise. The term hosted refers to GIS resources whose data is managed by ArcGIS.
When publishing or sharing a GIS resource, you specify whether the resulting service will reference registered data from the same data source as your desktop resource, or whether the server should copy all data to ArcGIS Enterprise. If you choose to copy the data, it is stored in either an ArcGIS Server folder or a relational ArcGIS Data Store. Choosing the option to copy data does not necessarily mean the resulting services and layers are hosted. See Data and publishing in ArcGIS Enterprise to learn more.
GIS resource connections
The following table shows some common GIS resource types you work with in ArcGIS Pro, the services that are published from those resource types to an ArcGIS Server site, and the portal item that is created when the server site is federated with an ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
| Desktop GIS resource | ArcGIS Server service | ArcGIS Enterprise portal item |
|---|---|---|
Feature class or raster dataset | Map service (dynamic or cached) | Map image layer |
Feature class or table | Feature service | Feature layer |
Feature class | Vector tile service | Vector tile layer |
Mosaic or raster dataset | Image service (dynamic or cached) | Imagery layer |
Locator | Geocode service | Locator |
Geoprocessing tool | Geoprocessing service | Web tool |
Hosted services published to ArcGIS Enterprise
The base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment includes a hosting server, which provides the ability to publish hosted services. It allows you to publish a service to the organization, using the portal, ArcGIS for Office, ArcGIS Pro, or another client that works directly with ArcGIS Enterprise. Both a portal item and a service are created for you when you do this. All services are placed in an ArcGIS Server folder named Hosted, and data is copied from the data source. See Hosted layers for more information.
The following table lists supported hosted services and their item types:
| ArcGIS Server service type | Portal item type |
|---|---|
Cached map service | |
Cached map service with feature service | |
Feature service | |
Image service* | |
Scene service | |
WFS service | |
Vector tile service | |
Knowledge graph service** | Knowledge Graph |
*The image service that a hosted imagery layer references runs on the portal's raster analysis server or image hosting server, not the portal's hosting server.
**The knowledge graph service that a hosted knowledge graph references runs on the portal's knowledge server, not the portal's hosting server.
Deleting hosted services
When you delete an item from the portal that references a hosted service, the service and its underlying data are automatically deleted.
For example, you sign in to your organization as a publisher and upload a CSV file. You choose to publish the CSV file as a feature layer. Automatically, a feature layer item is created in My Content. To delete this service, you delete the feature layer item representing the service. When you do this, the service and its data are also deleted automatically.
In this scenario, do not connect directly to the hosting server to delete the service. This would leave the feature layer item with no link to a service. You would be forced to clean up the item manually.
Services published from ArcGIS Pro
A variety of layers and items can be shared from ArcGIS Pro. Where you edit or delete a layer published from ArcGIS Pro depends on the type of layer and whether you copied data when publishing or referenced registered data. Tile layers, vector tile layers, and scene layers published from ArcGIS Pro to an ArcGIS Enterprise portal reside in the Hosted folder on the hosting server. The cache data for these layers is always copied. The layers must be deleted and managed from the portal, as described in the previous section.
You can publish map image layers from ArcGIS Pro to one of your federated servers. These layers reference registered data. See Layers published to federated servers for details. An associated map service is published to the folder on the portal's federated server that was specified when publishing. When you publish a map image layer that references registered data, be sure to choose a federated server. This is the ArcGIS Server site where the map service will run. To delete a map image layer, select and delete the item in the portal. The associated map service is deleted as well. The data in your registered data source remains.
When you publish a map image layer from ArcGIS Pro, you can also publish a feature layer or enable WMS on the layer. If you do, a WMS or feature layer item associated with the map image layer is created in your organization, and these capabilities are enabled in the map service on the federated server. You can delete the WMS or feature layer items in the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer item, however, you must first delete the associated WMS or feature layer items. If you attempt to delete the map image layer without first deleting the associated WMS or feature layer items, you receive a warning that these associated items must be deleted first. By deleting the items in the portal, the associated services are deleted as well.
You can also publish imagery layers from ArcGIS Pro. An associated image service is published to the folder on the portal's federated server that was specified when publishing. To delete an imagery layer, you must sign in to ArcGIS Server Manager for the federated ArcGIS Image Server site and delete the image service. The associated imagery layer is then removed from your organization. When you publish an imagery layer, you can also enable WMS and WCS on the layer. If you enable WMS, a WMS item associated with the imagery layer is created in your organization, and the WMS capability is enabled on the image service on the federated server. You can delete the WMS item in the portal without deleting the imagery layer. Deleting the image service on the federated service, however, removes the associated imagery and WMS layer items. If you enable WCS, no associated WCS item is created, though the capability will be enabled on the associated image service.
A feature layer can be a hosted feature layer (data is copied) or a feature layer associated with a map image layer (references registered data or a data store item).
When you use ArcGIS Pro to publish a feature layer associated with a map image layer that references registered data, be sure to choose a federated server. This creates a map service with feature access enabled on the ArcGIS Server site you choose when publishing, and both a feature layer and map image layer item are created in your organization. You can delete the feature layer in the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer item, however, the associated feature layer item must be deleted first. By deleting the items in the portal, the associated service is deleted as well. The data in your registered data source remains.
Note:
Because a feature layer item is a map service with feature access enabled on the ArcGIS Server site, you must share the feature layer and its associated map image layer to the same set of users (groups, the organization, or the public). If you only share the feature layer, it cannot be used by others.
It is also important to note that copies of map image, WMS, or feature items are not deleted when the original item is deleted. By deleting the original item, the associated service is deleted. This leaves item copies inoperable. You must delete the item copies separately.
When you publish a feature layer to ArcGIS Enterprise and copy data, a feature service is created in the Hosted folder on the hosting server and data is copied to the relational data store registered with the hosting server. A map image layer item is not created when you publish a hosted feature service. Use the portal to manage and delete hosted feature layers. When you delete the hosted feature layer, the copied data is also deleted.
To determine whether a feature service is hosted, go to the Item Details page for the layer. If the feature layer has no associated map image layer, the item is described as (hosted) in the portal when viewed by the layer owner or organization administrator and described as hosted when viewed in ArcGIS Pro. Feature layers published from ArcGIS Pro that do not have this (hosted) note are associated with a map image layer. You can delete feature layers published from ArcGIS Pro from the portal without deleting the map image layer. To delete the map image layer item, however, the associated feature layer item must be deleted first. Items described as (hosted) can be deleted through the portal, and the associated service is also deleted.
Example publishing scenarios from ArcGIS Pro to ArcGIS Enterprise
The following publishing scenarios describe the behavior among published items and corresponding layer types with their companion ArcGIS Server services and capabilities.
Publishing from ArcGIS Pro to a federated GIS Server
When you publish a map image layer from ArcGIS Pro, you can also enable feature access or WMS on the layer. If you do, a WMS or feature layer item associated with the map image layer is created in your organization, and these capabilities are enabled in the map service on the GIS Server site. The behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario is as follows:
- ArcGIS Enterprise item—A published map image layer, a feature layer, and a WMS layer
- ArcGIS Server service—The published map service with feature access and WMS capabilities enabled
Disabling capabilities in ArcGIS Server Manager
When a WMS or feature access capability is disabled in ArcGIS Server Manager, the corresponding (WMS or feature access) layer type is deleted as an item in the portal. The behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario is as follows:
- A map image layer is published from ArcGIS Pro to the portal with both WMS and feature access enabled.
- A companion service is created on the corresponding GIS Server.
- When disabling the WMS in ArcGIS Server Manager, the corresponding WMS layer type is deleted.
Deleting associated items in the portal
You can delete WMS or feature layer items in ArcGIS Pro or in the portal, and the corresponding WMS capability in the map service is deleted. Note that associated WMS or feature layer items must be deleted before a map image layer can be deleted. The behavior among published items and corresponding layer types for this scenario is as follows:
- A map image layer is published from ArcGIS Pro to the portal with both WMS and feature access enabled.
- A companion service is created on the corresponding GIS Server.
- When deleting the WMS or feature layer item in the portal, the corresponding WMS capability in the map service is also deleted.
Deleting associated services in ArcGIS Server Manager
Deleting the map service on the GIS Server removes the associated map image, WMS, and feature layer items if they exist.
Services published to a federated ArcGIS Server site
You can publish a service to an ArcGIS Server site that you have federated with your portal. Publish using ArcGIS Server Manager or ArcGIS Pro (as described in Services published from ArcGIS Pro). An item is created automatically when you publish. You can delete the service by deleting the corresponding item. The data stays in your registered data source.
From data store items in the portal
When you add a data store item to your organization, you can publish layers from it in the portal. From database data store items, you can bulk publish feature layers and map image layers for each feature class and table accessible through the data store item. For file share and cloud data store items, you can create imagery layers. In both cases, the data stays in the data source referenced by the data store item.
In ArcGIS Server Manager, you can alter settings on the services you publish from the portal data store item; however, you cannot alter the data store item in ArcGIS Server Manager. Similarly, the data store item and each of the layers published from it must be deleted from the portal, not from the federated server.
Example
You add a data store item using a database connection file. As the owner of the data store item, you publish all the feature classes and tables accessible to the user specified in the database connection file. This includes the feature classes and tables you own as well as any feature classes and tables for which other database users have granted you access. This creates one map service with feature access enabled for each feature class and table. The services run on the federated ArcGIS GIS Server site you specify when you create the layers. For each map service, one feature layer item and one map image layer item are created in your organization.
If you no longer need any of the bulk published layers or the data store item, delete all the layers in the portal, remove all federated servers from the data store item, and then you can delete the data store item.
If you want to delete individual layers, you must delete the feature layer and its associated map image layer from the My Content tab in the portal; you cannot delete only the feature layer. Doing so will leave the map image layer in a state that will not allow it to be synchronized with the database. Also note that, even if you delete both the feature layer and map image layer from My Contents, they will be re-created the next time you synchronize unless you no longer have access to the data in the database.
Using the My Content tab of the Content page in the portal to add the service as an item
If you are a member of a role that has privileges to create content, you can add a service as an item from the My Content page in the portal. This is how you share links to web services that are not running on a federated server.
If you added the item in My Content, edit and delete the item using the portal. Even if you delete the item, the corresponding service continues to run unless you sign in to its server and delete it. This is expected behavior because you may be using items to share links to third-party services that you have no intention or ability to permanently delete.
Example
You find a useful web service from your neighboring department’s ArcGIS Server site and you want to add a portal item that links to it. You sign in to the portal and go to Content > My Content to add the service using its URL.
When you are ready to delete this item, use the portal to delete it. Deleting the item does not delete the service. This is the expected behavior because the service and the item have no built-in relationship in this scenario.
Best practices for editing and deleting items
The examples above illustrate best practices for editing and deleting items depending on how you published the items. This ensures that services and items maintain their appropriate linkage.
If you do not delete the items or services using a recommended method, you may be left with items that don't function.
Note that an item can only be edited or deleted by one of the following:
- The publisher who added the item
- An organization administrator
This is different from the pattern used by ArcGIS Server, in which all publishers can edit and delete all items.
Although administrators can edit items, this should be avoided. Editing items as an administrator can cause peripheral resources to accrue under the administrator’s account. Administrator accounts should primarily be used to change the ownership of items or delete items that are no longer needed.