Register a folder on a Windows file share with ArcGIS Enterprise Linux

Summary

Often there are situations in which folders must be registered with ArcGIS Enterprise. For example, when publishing from a file geodatabase, or sharing a file geodatabase as a geodata service. See the article: Publishing a geodata service (Linux)

The procedure below describes the steps to register a shared Windows folder on a Linux machine, and assumes the following environment:

• ArcGIS Enterprise – Linux is installed on the server
• The share folder is a Windows file share
• A local account on the ArcGIS Enterprise Linux machine

Procedure

Prerequisites

• The shared folder must be mounted to the Linux machine with any user that has permissions to the folder. This user does not need to be the same user that is running the ArcGIS Server.
• The Windows folder must be shared as a network folder. It can be shared with Everyone, but it should be shared with a domain user that can be used to mount the directory (folder) on the Linux machine.
• Use the following link for reference regarding sharing files over a network in Windows: File sharing over a network in Windows 10
• For a more detailed workflow, see: How to set up network file sharing on Windows 10.

Warning:   
This solution involves modifying the Windows Operating System privacy settings, which is not supported by Esri. Modifying the operating system privacy settings may affect the security and privacy of the applications on the machine.

• Once the folder was shared appropriately on the network, SMB sharing protocol must be enabled on the machine form which the folder was shared. Otherwise, when trying to mount the folder, a message is returned saying that the folder is unreachable.
• Use the following reference regarding the workflow to enable SMB sharing protocol: [Network] SMB1 Sharing Protocol on Windows 10

Note:
This prerequisite workflow requires a machine reboot and once completed, the shared folder is ready to be mounted, as described in the steps below.

1. On the Linux machine, ensure that cifs-utils is installed using the following command:

yum install cifs-utils -y

2. Make a directory for the Windows file share to mount to, using the command mkdir /folder/location, and ensure appropriate permissions are granted using the chmod 770 /folder/location command.

mount.cifs //<my machine>/<shared folder> /<mount directory>/<my machine> -o username=<Windows Domain Username>,password=<Windows Domain Password>)

mount.cifs //zach/windowsFolder/mnt/samplefolder -o username=Zach9999@domain,password=password

When the folder was mounted to register the folder with ArcGIS Server in Server Manager,the Publisher folder path set to:

 \\<Windows Machine>\<Folder> (Windows UNC path)

and the Server folder path takes the form: /.../... (Linux mount). The Publisher Folder Hostname was set to the IP address of the machine hosting the folder.