Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair

Esri announces the Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool. The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool must be run on all 11.1, 10.9.1 and 10.8.1 machines with Portal for ArcGIS installed. The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is specifically for deployments on Windows.

The tool will validate your deployment and determine if the defective Portal for ArcGIS Enterprise Sites Security Patch is installed. If the defective patch is detected, you will be directed to use the tool to repair the deployment. The repair will remove the defective patch and all other Portal for ArcGIS patches on the deployment. After completing the repair, Portal for ArcGIS patches will need to be reapplied either through the ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notification tool or by downloading patches available from Esri.   

Esri recommends scheduling the repair, as well as the reinstallation of patches, during a planned maintenance timeframe. This is because the Enterprise portal will be inaccessible while the repair and patch reinstallation take place, which can be for several hours. The time needed for repair depends on the number of patches installed as well as hardware and machine resources. Note that repair time will be significantly longer for ArcGIS Enterprise 10.8.1 deployments than other versions. The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool reports a progress status as each patch is removed. If the tool must be terminated during the repair, it is possible to re-run the tool and resume the repair, but only after the machine has been restarted. The tool creates a log file and details on how to use the log are found in the Additional details section.

All Portal for ArcGIS patches released as of December 2023 will have a prerequisite requiring that the Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is run successfully. Only following the successful validation of a deployment will it be possible to install new Portal for ArcGIS patches. Therefore, you will need to run the Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool prior to installing any Portal for ArcGIS patches released as of December 2023.

The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is available for download from the table below or from the ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notification Tool that is installed with your deployment.

March 21, 2024: Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is now available for version 10.8.1. Refer to this Technical Support page for information about these bugs and Esri's planned response.

March 21, 2024: A new setup is now available for the Portal for ArcGIS 10.9.1 Validation and Repair tool. This new version of the tool includes resolutions for a possible upgrade failure and issues running the tool with no available disk space. This version also enhances tool resiliency when it is terminated during a repair and provides more informative logging. There is no need to run this new tool if you already used the previous version of the tool to successfully validate your Enterprise portal.

The new setup replaces the previous Portal for ArcGIS 10.9.1 Validation and Repair tool. When shown as available in the ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notification tool, it is listed as Portal for ArcGIS 10.9.1 Validation and Repair (without the B suffix) with a release date of March 21, 2024; once installed, it is listed as Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair B. Note that the B version of the tool will run overtop of the previous version; there is no need to uninstall the previous version prior to running the new setup.

February 12, 2024: Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is now available for version 10.9.1. Refer to this Technical Support page for information about these bugs and Esri's planned response.

December 12, 2023: Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool is currently only available for version 11.1 Refer to this Technical Support page for information about these bugs and Esri's planned response.

• BUG-000163367 - Portal for ArcGIS 11.1 Enterprise Sites Security Patch installs successfully, but results in further unexpected issues with Portal for ArcGIS.
• BUG-000161711 - After installing the Portal for ArcGIS 10.8.1 Enterprise Sites Security Patch, no further Portal for ArcGIS patches can be installed and the Portal for ArcGIS software cannot be upgraded to a later release.
• BUG-000160895 - After installing the Portal for ArcGIS 10.9.1 Enterprise Sites Security Patch, no further Portal for ArcGIS patches can be installed and the Portal for ArcGIS software cannot be upgraded to a later release.

The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool must be run on all Portal for ArcGIS installations related to the Portal for ArcGIS site. 

The ArcGIS product listed in the table must be installed on your system before you can run this tool. Each tool setup is specific to the ArcGIS product in the list. To determine which products are installed on your system, please see the How to identify which ArcGIS products are installed section. 

Step 1.  Download the appropriate file to a location other than your ArcGIS installation location.

Step 2.  Double-click ArcGIS-PFA-<Version>-ValidationRepair.exe to start the setup process.

Step 3.  Once the tool has successfully validated your portal, you may now install additional patches released as of December 2023.

Step 1.  To access the Patch Notification Tool, search for "Check for ArcGIS Enterprise Updates" and launch the tool.

Step 2.  The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool will be listed as an Available Update.

Step 3.  The Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool must be downloaded and executed individually. It will not execute when using the 'Install All Patches' option. Attempting to use the 'Install All Patches' option to run the Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool will result in all patches released as of December 2023 failing to install, and each will display 'ERROR' in the Status column.

Once it is downloaded and executed individually and has successfully validated a portal, the Portal for ArcGIS Validation and Repair tool appears in the Installed Patches section of the ArcGIS Enterprise Patch Notification Tool.

Step 4.  You may now proceed with installing additional patches released starting in December 2023, either individually or using the ‘Install All Patches’ option.

The tool creates a log file in your Temp directory each time it is run. The latest log file is named with the full tool name, including the version number. For example, the latest log file on a version 11.1 portal is named PortalforArcGIS111ValidationandRepair.log.
To locate the Temp folder, type the following line at a command prompt: cd %temp%

The following command line syntax is supported.

ArcGIS-PFA-<Version>-ValidationRepair.exe  [/?] [/help] [/silent] [/validate] [/repair] [/removeall]

/? or /help   
Display the command line help.

/silent            
Run the tool silently and display results in a log file. This can be combined with any of the below options.

/validate        
Run the tool in Validate mode. Validate mode will check for and list all defective patches or hotfixes installed on your portal machine.

/repair           
Run the tool in Repair mode. Repair mode will check for and remove any defective patches or hotfixes installed on your portal machine.

/removeall    
Run the tool in Remove All mode. Remove All mode will remove all patches and hotfixes installed on your portal machine.

To determine which ArcGIS products are installed, choose the appropriate version of the PatchFinder utility for your environment and run it from your local machine. PatchFinder will list all products, hot fixes, and patches installed on your local machine.

PatchFinder for Windows