March, 2019

ArcGIS Enterprise
Quick Start
Guide
Essential tasks and best practices for setting up ArcGIS
Enterprise
Task checklist

TASK COMPLETE

1. Get to know ArcGIS Enterprise

2. Use ArcGIS Enterprise Builder
3. Set up your home page
4. Add members
5. Create groups
6. Create content
7. Create a site
8. Learn more
9. Additional resources
10. FAQ

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 2

 1. Get to know ArcGIS Enterprise
ArcGIS Enterprise provides secure mapping and analysis to your organization—
behind your firewall or in the cloud. ArcGIS Enterprise also supports fully
disconnected workflows for those organizations lacking Internet connectivity.

The most foundational implementation of ArcGIS Enterprise is called a base

deployment, which can be installed and configured on a single machine or across
multiple machines.

This guide will walk through steps to install and customize a base deployment for the
purpose of delivering and centralizing mapping and visualization, data
management, and collaboration workflows in your organization.

You may also extend the functionality and capacity of your base ArcGIS
Enterprise deployment by adding additional servers. Adding more server machines,
either on your premises or in the cloud, will help you make the most of the ArcGIS
Server licensing roles and capabilities available through ArcGIS Enterprise. For an
overview into the breadth of functionality available in ArcGIS Enterprise, review the
latest functionality matrix.

Before getting started with ArcGIS Enterprise, determine which deployment pattern
will best suit your organization’s needs. In many cases, the base deployment will be
just right. For other desired workflows and needs, you will need to extend your base
deployment by adding additional servers. Each deployment pattern is unique and
delivers capabilities to perform a wide range of workflows:

• Mapping, visualization, and analytics

• Distributed analytics for big data
• Distributed analytics for imagery
• Powerful data science and automation workflows
• Real-time mapping and analytics

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 3

2. Use ArcGIS Enterprise Builder
You will begin by using ArcGIS Enterprise Builder to install, authorize, and configure
foundational software components for a base deployment.

ArcGIS Enterprise Builder is a simple installation and configuration wizard that sets up
a base ArcGIS Enterprise deployment on a single machine on-premises. The Builder
works in two parts:

1. Installs and authorizes each software component on your machine

2. Configures installed software components as a base deployment

Once the Builder is finished, you can start using ArcGIS Enterprise in your
organization to create maps, conduct analysis, and share content through a variety of
apps.

For more details on what is included with ArcGIS Enterprise, see the documentation.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 4

3. Set up your home page
Once you install and configure your site, you may begin customizing your ArcGIS
Enterprise portal by adding a logo and specialized content to your home page. You
can also configure additional security requirements to limit logins or assign users to
custom roles and privileges.

Customize the appearance

When setting up ArcGIS Enterprise for the first time, you will want to create a familiar
look and feel for your portal. Some considerations for doing so are as follows:

• Make your home page professional looking, aesthetically pleasing, and well
organized. Use a custom banner and logo, include featured content, and
provide information about the purpose of your site.

• Showcase your best maps and apps as featured content on your home page.

• Your organization’s name is what appears in the banner on the home page.
You should choose a distinct and accurate name that represents your
organization and the purpose of your portal.

• Determine a login experience for your users to access the portal. For more
details, see the section below on adding members.

For a hands-on lesson on setting up your portal, try the Set up an ArcGIS Portal Learn
lesson.

Tip
During setup, consider designating a few portal administrators as points of contact
for your organization. These administrators can be notified when members request
password resets, additional privileges to their accounts, and so on. For more
information about roles and privileges, review the documentation.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved.

5
4. Add members
ArcGIS Enterprise uses an identity-based security model. Any content, such as layers,
services, maps, and apps, is secured through groups within the Enterprise portal.
These groups are created in the portal; you can add users manually to these groups,
or you can link them to enterprise groups from your organization’s identity store, such
as an Active Directory-based, LDAP-based, or SAML-based identity provider.

Best practices
Below are some best practices for adding and inviting members to your organization:

• Configure enterprise logins: If your organization uses a single sign-on system,

enable enterprise logins. This lets members sign in to an Enterprise portal with
the same credentials they use in their enterprise system. For details on
configuring portal authentication, see the documentation.

• Assign user types and roles: Consider the privileges each member needs to
get their work done. You assign privileges through a default or custom role.
There are five default roles: Viewer, Data Editor, User, Publisher, and
Administrator. You can also create custom roles based on the specific privileges
you want that role to have. Every ArcGIS Enterprise deployment must have at
least one administrator. To learn more, see the documentation for user types,
roles, and privileges.

• Automatically add members to groups: Specify the groups you want members
to join. Members may be added automatically without needing to request
membership.

• Assign app licenses: ArcGIS includes a wide range of apps that help your
portal’s members do their work. Many come automatically with your license and
others can be purchased separately. For purchased apps, you can assign
licenses to specific members.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 6

5. Create groups
Groups are a way to organize items you want to share with members of your ArcGIS
Enterprise portal.

For an individual to access content secured in a group, they must be a member of

your organization and have an assigned user type within your ArcGIS Enterprise
portal. When you create a new user within your portal, you assign them a role. This
role defines a specific set of privileges for the user. For example, you can define the
type of information a user can search, edit, or create. To learn more about the type of
privileges you can grant members of your organization, see User types, roles, and
privileges. You can also allow anonymous access to content that has been shared
with everyone in your ArcGIS Enterprise portal. This means that people will be able to
access your content without having to sign in to ArcGIS Enterprise. Alternatively, you
may disable anonymous access to secure items and groups for only those members
who have been granted access.

You can also use groups to feature content on your organization’s home page and
gallery and build custom galleries to showcase your basemaps and apps.

Tip
You may want to share content from your ArcGIS Enterprise portal to another ArcGIS
Enterprise deployment or even to ArcGIS Online. Using distributed collaboration, you
can securely connect with other deployments and ArcGIS Online to share and sync
content as you work on projects and initiatives. Distributed collaboration uses groups
to share layers, maps, and apps across deployments.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 7

6. Create content
ArcGIS Enterprise includes everything you need to create and share maps, scenes,
apps, and layers. You can add existing content, such as spreadsheets and ArcGIS
Server services, and create new content, such as maps, apps, and hosted web layers.

Consider how your content will be used and optimize it for the best experience. For
example, refine layers with appropriate transparency, scale ranges, and labels;
configure pop-ups in your maps; and create multiple views of your feature layers with
different access and editing properties.

Create complete item details (thumbnail, description, tags, and so on) so the item is
easy to find and use. Designate items as authoritative. Set up content categories for
your organization and groups so the content is easy to discover.

Tips
Below are some best practices for adding and inviting members to your organization:

• Quickly create a new map by combining a basemap with your data and
applying smart defaults to style the map.

• Access a wide variety of templates and widgets to create focused web apps.

• Use templates to create new layers that you can use in your maps and apps to
collect and edit feature data.

• When you save or add items to a portal, they are stored as an item and
assigned an item type. For example, when you save a map, it appears in your
content as a web map.

• Each item includes a detailed page with information, actions, options, and
settings. Use the page to learn more about and interact with the item.

• Use content categories to organize group content or other content across your
organization.

• Once you add content, you can share it with specific groups or your entire
organization, or use distributed collaboration to share beyond your
organization.

• Want to get started? Check out the Mapping and Analytics Learn lesson on
fighting child poverty with demographic analysis.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 8

 7. Create a site
ArcGIS Enterprise Sites provides the ability to design and build tailored web pages to
highlight your organization’s GIS content. With Sites, users of all levels of GIS
experience (or no GIS experience) can access and work securely with geospatial data
in the portal.

You can create as many independent, tailored web pages as you want, and security
and access to your site and content are controlled by the ArcGIS Enterprise portal.
You can easily set up a site using the template available or drag-and-drop widgets.
You can also customize using HTML and CSS if that is preferred.

Users will be able to interact with data through an inviting interface tailored for them,
making data discoverability easy. For example, you can set up a site for each city
department so that they can easily locate maps and applications customized for
them.

To get started with ArcGIS Enterprise Sites, see the Training Seminar and
documentation.

8. Learn more
As an administrator, you are responsible for setting up ArcGIS Enterprise to meet
your organization’s needs. It is equally important to regularly maintain members,
items, and groups to keep your organization uncluttered and up to date. The
resources in this section can help you with these maintenance tasks. They can also
help you learn more about ArcGIS Enterprise in general.

Monitor activity
You have access to usage reports to help you monitor content and members. Item
reports illustrate how users are creating, using, and sharing geographic content.
Member reports reveal how users are contributing to the organization. Group reports
provide a sense of active collaborations across and within organizations.

User types
User types are a flexible way to license capabilities and apps in ArcGIS Enterprise.
User types allow organizations to allocate identity, privileges, and apps to better align
with the needs of members.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 9

9. Additional resources
• ArcGIS Enterprise documentation is the best resource for learning how to
get started with installation, architecture, and using the software. Or find out
what’s new in the latest release.

• The Learn ArcGIS gallery includes a collection of lessons, articles, story

maps, and videos that help you learn about ArcGIS. It also includes learning
paths of Enterprise-related resources about specific topics such as mapping
and visualization, and administration.

• You can leverage your own utility services or those from ArcGIS Online to
power specific functionality in your Enterprise portal. Utility services expose
the ability to print maps, locate addresses, calculate areas, find directions,
and perform analysis. The portal comes with some default services, but you
can use your own services.

• The GIS community, including Esri, shares thousands of ready-to-use

authoritative datasets in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World. The Living
Atlas covers everything from historical census data to environmental
conditions derived from live sensor networks and earth observations. You
can use items curated by Esri directly in your ArcGIS Enterprise portal by
setting up Living Atlas access.

• ArcGIS API for Python can help you automate and maintain administrative
tasks. For example, use the API to clone a portal, from a staging to a
production environment. You can also use it to update URLs for service or
app items and manage your GIS servers.

• Esri Training provides a variety of learning resources for administering,

using, and extending ArcGIS Enterprise. Use our training catalog to browse
Enterprise offerings across common workflows and industries.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 10

10. FAQ
Below are answers to frequently asked questions:

What is ArcGIS Enterprise?

ArcGIS Enterprise puts collaboration and flexibility at the center of your organization's
GIS. It pairs industry-leading mapping and analytics capabilities with a dedicated
Web GIS infrastructure to organize and share your work on any device, anywhere, at
any time.

How do I get the latest in ArcGIS Enterprise?

If you have already installed a base deployment using the ArcGIS Enterprise Builder,
you can upgrade it in place using the latest version. For other deployments, review
the documentation, which includes the most up-to-date detailed steps to install or
upgrade your deployment.

How do I purchase ArcGIS Enterprise?

There are several ways to purchase ArcGIS Enterprise. See our pricing page for more
information.

What does my license include?

ArcGIS Enterprise is licensed per user and by system capacity. User types are a mix of
capabilities and included apps that are included with your initial purchase of ArcGIS
Enterprise software. The five general-purpose user types are Viewer, Editor, Field
Worker, Creator, and GIS Professional.

How can I extend ArcGIS Enterprise?

ArcGIS Server can be licensed in a variety of roles depending on the capabilities you
want to enable for your deployment. Server licensing roles define the capabilities of
each ArcGIS Enterprise server machine or site. For a full description of options, see
the ArcGIS Enterprise functionality matrix.

ArcGIS GIS Server brings GIS resources such as map services, feature services, and
geoprocessing services to users as layers in your portal. This role is the foundation for
your Web GIS, where ArcGIS GIS Server acts as the portal's hosting server. You can
license ArcGIS GIS Server as Advanced, Standard, or Basic. All editions of ArcGIS
Enterprise include an ArcGIS Server licensed in a GIS Server role. ArcGIS GIS Server
also offers additional extensions. See ArcGIS GIS Server capabilities and extensions
for details.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 11

Where can I get more information?
Check out the ArcGIS Enterprise product page, explore GeoNet discussions,
download the latest functionality matrix, or contact Esri.

Copyright © 2019 Esri. All rights reserved. 12