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An overview of scaling and moving a geodatabase

An overview of scaling and moving a geodatabase

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As discussed in the Types of geodatabases topic in the section "An overview of the geodatabase" in the help, there are different geodatabase options you can use depending on how many users you have, how much data you have, and what you need to do with your data.

Fortunately, as your needs change, you can scale your geodatabase to accommodate them. You might start with a file, personal, or ArcSDE geodatabase for SQL Server Express licensed through ArcGIS Desktop or ArcGIS Engine if there are only a few people using the data. As more people need access to the data and the amount of data you need to store and edit grows, you can move to an ArcSDE geodatabase for SQL Server Express licensed under ArcGIS Server Workgroup. When you outgrow Workgroup or if you need flexibility to configure things such as client connections and data storage, you can upgrade to an ArcSDE geodatabase licensed under ArcGIS Server Enterprise.

In most cases, once you have licensed and installed the necessary software, scaling a geodatabase involves copying the contents of one geodatabase and pasting it into another. There are some additional options if you want to move an entire ArcSDE geodatabase from one server to another. These options vary by ArcSDE type and database management system (DBMS). The following topics discuss ways to scale or move your geodatabase:

Migrating from one type of single-user geodatabase to another

Migrating to an ArcSDE geodatabase licensed through ArcGIS Server Workgroup

Migrating to an ArcSDE geodatabase licensed through ArcGIS Server Enterprise

Detaching and attaching a geodatabase on a database server

Exporting and importing ArcSDE geodatabases

NOTE: Scaling your geodatabase to accommodate increased demands for data is only one factor in a scalable GIS environment. To maintain performance, you also may need to scale your hardware and network resources.

See Also

  • Migrating from one type of single-user geodatabase to another
  • Migrating to an ArcSDE geodatabase licensed through ArcGIS Server Workgroup
  • Migrating to an ArcSDE geodatabase licensed through ArcGIS Server Enterprise