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Preparing ArcGIS Enterprise Web App for Kubernetes

Esri provides ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes as a cloud-native version of the platform, optimized for containerized environments.

This is a brief but accurate description of the steps required to prepare ArcGIS Enterprise Web GIS application for Kubernetes deployment.




Prerequisites


  1. Esri Subscription with access to ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes.

  2. A supported Kubernetes cluster:

    • Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

    • Amazon EKS

    • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)

    • Red Hat OpenShift (or a certified self-managed K8s cluster)

  3. kubectl installed and configured.

  4. Docker CLI.

  5. Cloud CLI (e.g., AWS CLI, Azure CLI) configured.

  6. TLS certificates (optional in dev, required in prod).

  7. Persistent storage provisioner on the cluster (e.g., EBS, Azure Disks).


🧰 Step 1: Download ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes Installer


Go to My Esri and download the ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes installer (a .tar.gz or .zip package).

Extract the archive:

tar -xzvf arcgis-enterprise-k8s-11.2.tar.gz
cd arcgis-enterprise-k8s-11.2

🏗️ Step 2: Prepare the Kubernetes Cluster


Verify access to the cluster:

kubectl get nodes

Create a namespace for ArcGIS Enterprise:

kubectl create namespace arcgis

Add context (optional):

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=arcgis

📦 Step 3: Load ArcGIS Enterprise Images into Container Registry


You need to upload Docker images to the container registry (e.g., Amazon ECR, Azure Container Registry, or GCR).

Here’s a sample for Amazon ECR:

aws ecr create-repository --repository-name arcgis-enterprise
aws ecr get-login-password | docker login --username AWS --password-stdin <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com
docker load -i arcgis-enterprise-images.tar
docker tag arcgis/enterprise:<tag> <aws_account_id>.dkr.ecr.region.amazonaws.com/arcgis-enterprise:<tag>

Repeat this process for each container image provided in the installer.


⚙️ Step 4: Configure the Deployment


Use the sample values.yaml file provided in the installer directory. This defines:

  • System architecture (pods, memory)

  • Image registry URLs

  • TLS settings

  • External DNS or LoadBalancer

  • Persistent Volume settings

Sample values.yaml snippet:


global:
  imageRegistry:
    server: "<your-registry-url>"
  tls:
    secretName: arcgis-tls-secret
  license:
    file: arcgis-enterprise.ecp
  storageClass: standard
  domain: "arcgis.example.com"

🚀 Step 5: Deploy ArcGIS Enterprise

Run the deployment command from the CLI provided in the installer:

./arcgis-enterprise install \
  --file values.yaml \
  --namespace arcgis

This command will:

  • Validate the configuration.

  • Install required services as K8s pods.

  • Deploy ArcGIS components: Portal, Server, Data Store, etc.


🧪 Step 6: Verify Deployment

Check pods:

kubectl get pods -n arcgis

Check services and external endpoints:

kubectl get svc -n arcgis

Access the Enterprise Manager UI in a browser at:

https://<your-domain-or-external-ip>

🛠 Optional: Create TLS Secret


If using TLS (recommended), create a secret:

kubectl create secret tls arcgis-tls-secret \
  --cert=cert.pem \
  --key=key.pem \
  -n arcgis

🧹 Clean-Up (Optional)

To uninstall:

./arcgis-enterprise uninstall --namespace arcgis
kubectl delete namespace arcgis

The ultimate goal is to transform the Web GIS platform to make it a high-performing system, evaluating the current environments, development and delivery based on an in-depth analysis, and design of the target state as well as the required migration and fallback plans. At the same time, it is recommended to have a strategy on best practices to be applied for platform virtualization


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