[GIS] How to publish map caches from ArcGIS Data and Maps for Server

arcgis-servercachemap-service

I haven't published ESRI-supplied data before, but I followed the instructions that came with the Data and Maps for ArcGIS Server 10. When I view the supplied MXD file for a map cache, it's just a black background. The help docs say it's supposed to be different from what you expect, so I followed the rest of the steps:

  1. Copy map cache folders to the arcgisserver\arcgiscache folder.
  2. Copy the map documents to a shared location accessible to your GIS server. (Also copy the data folder from the documents folder).
  3. Create a new map service using the MXD as the source document.

I followed the steps that come with the data but the service never displays any data. I suspect that the imprecise step of "Copy the map documents to a shared location accessible to your GIS server" requires something I haven't done. Has anyone published map services from the ArcGIS data discs before?

Best Answer

I went to ESRI support for this one, and the person who called me back (I wish I'd written down his name) was unusually helpful.

The answer strikes me as a bit strange. The instructions say

ESRI Data & Maps for ArcGIS Server contains map documents that you will publish on your GIS server as services. These are located in the source_documents folder of ESRI Data & Maps for ArcGIS Server. You need to copy all of the map documents that you intend on publishing to a shared location on your network. Your GIS server's SOC account should have Read permissions to this shared location.

I took this to mean the folder must be accessible to the server with read permissions for the ArcGISSOC user. But because we have one GIS server per environment, I just copied the map documents and data folders to a folder on the server. Turns out you still have to explicitly share that folder with Read access for the ArcGISSOC user even if it is on the same disk as the rest of the data.

So my assumption was wrong and I should have read the instructions literally, no matter how strange it seems. Unfortunately, using a share on a server is not allowed on our network so these data sets are useless to us. But I thought someone might need to know someday.

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