Raster and image data can be shared as an image service using ArcGIS Server. An image service provides access to raster data through a web service. By default, an image service is always published with image service capabilities, and you can optionally choose WMS and WCS capabilities. You can then connect to these services as you would to any other published ArcGIS Server service.
Image servers can be federated with ArcGIS Enterprise deployments to enable imagery publishing and to perform distributed raster analysis based on the assigned server role. A federated ArcGIS Image Server can be added to your portal as any of the following:
- Federated server
- Image hosting
- Raster analysis
Federated server
An ArcGIS Image Server can be added as a federated server to your portal (independent from the hosting server). A federated image server can be beneficial when you need to perform distributed raster processing and analysis, and publish and share raster services. To federate your ArcGIS Image Server with the portal, see Federate an ArcGIS Server site with your portal.
Image hosting role
ArcGIS Image Server with an image hosting role indicates that the image server is dedicated to hosting the image services. To configure the image server with the image hosting role, it must have a registered raster data store. The raster data store is not part of the ArcGIS Data Store setup but rather a registered file share or cloud store. For details, see Register a raster store.
The raster store registered on the image hosting ArcGIS Image Server stores the imagery data uploaded by the clients or generated by raster analysis tasks. The file share type of the raster store is required for the image hosting image server to be fully functional. Optionally, you can register an additional cloud store raster store. When the ArcGIS Image Server has both file share and cloud share types of raster stores, the uploaded images will be stored in the cloud store, and the file share raster store will be used to store mosaic datasets created when a collection of images are published as a single image layer. To learn more about image services, see Key concepts for image services and Create imagery layers.
Raster analysis role
ArcGIS Image Server with a raster analysis role indicates that the image server is dedicated to perform raster analysis tasks. It provides distributed processing for large images and image collections and works with your existing GIS and imagery data shared in your ArcGIS Enterprise. You can use built-in raster analysis tools or raster functions to create persisted imagery layers. For more information about performing raster analysis, see Perform raster analysis.
To set up the image server in your ArcGIS Enterprise as a raster analysis image server, the server must have a registered raster store. The raster store can be either file share type of raster store or a cloud store type of raster store. Unlike the image hosting image server, the file share type raster store is not required. The raster data output generated from raster analysis tasks is stored in the raster store.
Combine or divide the raster analysis and image hosting server roles
In ArcGIS Enterprise, only one federated image server can be configured as a raster analysis image server or an image hosting image server. You can combine both server roles in a single image server or divide them between image servers.
To combine the raster analysis and image hosting server roles in a single image server, you must assign the raster analysis server role. The raster analysis image server then automatically becomes the image hosting image server as well.
Note:
When you combine the raster analysis and image hosting server roles in a single image server, do not assign the image hosting server role.
It is recommended that you divide the two server roles between two image servers, so that the raster analysis image server can be dedicated to processing analytic requests, and the image hosting image server can be used to process all other requests to the shared image services. In this configuration, the same raster store is required to be registered with both the raster analysis and image hosting image servers. The raster analysis image server will automatically share the analysis raster data result as an image service on the image hosting image server.
If you want only image hosting capability in your ArcGIS Enterprise, assign only the image hosting role to your federated image server. With only the image hosting image server available in your ArcGIS Enterprise, you can share imagery data, but you cannot perform distributed raster analysis.