Tutorial: Publishing an image service
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This tutorial walks you through publishing a collection of images as an ArcGIS Server image service using the ArcGIS Image Server extension. In ArcMap, you will use ArcGIS Image Server tools to create a compiled image service definition and will publish it using ArcGIS Server. Upon finishing the steps, you'll be able to view the image service in ArcMap.

Why should you publish your image service through ArcGIS Server? ArcGIS Server allows you to make your image services available over the Internet by supporting HTTP connections.

This tutorial uses the tutorial data that comes with the ArcGIS Image Server extension. By default, it's installed in C:\ImageServerTutorial . If you did not install it there, please make the appropriate path changes throughout this tutorial so it works properly for you.

Note: If ArcGIS Server is on a machine separate from this tutorial data, you will have to share the tutorial data folder and give the SOC account permissions. This may involve creating a local version of the SOC account as explained in Preparing resources for publishing.

To complete this tutorial, you need to have the following:

Creating the image service definition

In this part of the exercise, you'll create an image service definition containing GeoTIFF raster dataset files using the New Image Service Wizard.

Start ArcMap

You create new image service definitions using tools within ArcMap.

  1. Click the Start button on the Windows taskbar, point to Programs, point to ArcGIS, then click ArcMap. The ArcMap window appears.
  2. Click A new empty map, then click OK.

Add the Image Service Definition Editor toolbar

You need to add the Image Service Definition Editor toolbar to your ArcMap window to create and edit image service definitions.

  1. Click View on the main menu, point to Toolbars, then click Image Service Definition Editor. You can place or dock this toolbar anywhere in or around your window.

Create a new image service definition using the New Image Service Wizard

The New Image Service Wizard walks you through all the steps necessary to create a compiled image service definition for most raster types.

  1. Click the Image Service drop-down menu on the Image Service Definition Editor toolbar and click New Image Service. This opens the New Image Service Wizard. Click Next to start working through the wizard.

  2. Click the New image service location browse button.
  3. Navigate to the location where you want to save your image service definition. In this tutorial, you will be creating the image service definition in C:\ImageServerTutorial\Exercises.
  4. Type the File name "AmbergService" and click Save.
  5. Click the Spatial reference system browse button. This opens the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box.
  6. Click Select.
  7. Double-click the Projected Coordinate Systems folder, double-click the National Grids folder, click Germany Zone 4.prj, then click Add.

  8. Click OK to close the Spatial Reference Properties dialog box. The service type you will be creating is a color image service, since there are three bands in the GeoTIFF files that you will be adding. If there were only one band, you would be creating a panchromatic image service.

  9. Click Next and click the Raster type browse button. This opens the Select Raster Type dialog box.
  10. Double-click the Georeferenced Imagery folder on the Select Raster Type dialog box.
  11. Scroll through the list and click TIFF Tagged Image File Format from the Name list. Then click OK.
  12. Click the Input browse button.

  13. Navigate to C:\ImageServerTutorial\Data, click the Amberg_tif folder, then click OK.

  14. Click Next. Do not make any changes on this page. The raster data has already been enhanced; therefore, you do not need to apply a stretch or gamma to the data.

  15. Click Next. Do not make any changes on this page. Service overviews are created to optimize the image service by allowing the service to display quickly at all scales. Compiling the image service definition creates a compiled file (AmbergService.ISCDef) that is used to publish the image service.

  16. Click Next to display a page where you can add metadata for the service. It is important to add metadata information about the image service. This information can be viewed by clients of the published image service.
  17. Type "A German City" in the Title text box.
  18. Type "Amberg City, Germany" in the Geographic region text box.
  19. Click the Pixel unit drop-down arrow and click True Color.
  20. Click the Pixel source drop-down arrow and click Aerial Photography.
  21. Type your name in the Publisher text box.

  22. Type "Hot Dog Enterprises" in the Contact organization text box.

  23. Click Next and review the information about the image service you will be creating.

  24. Click Finish. The Image Service Editor window opens. You can watch the progress of the image service definition being created.

    If you were creating the image service definition using the Advanced options, you would perform each of the steps displayed in this status separately.

    When the creation of the new image service definition is complete, you will see the message "Process Completed" in the Image Service Editor window.

  25. Click Close to close the window.

The image service custom group layer, AmbergService.ISDef, is added to the ArcMap table of contents. It contains the Footprint, Boundary, and Preview layers. The Footprint layer contains the footprints of each raster dataset in the image service definition, including the GeoTIFF files that were added and the service overviews that were created. The Boundary layer contains a polygon representing the extent of every dataset in the image service definition. The Preview layer can be used to preview the image service and the information about the image service that clients can access.

Preview the image service

In these next steps, you'll remain in ArcMap and preview the image service you created:

  1. Check the Preview layer in the table of contents to display the layer. The preview is generated with the same processes used to generate the image that is sent to the client; therefore, you can always be certain of the image the client will view.
  2. Click the Zoom In tool on the Tools toolbar.
  3. Zoom in to an area in the display view. You can use a variety of tools on the Tools toolbar to explore and move around the image in the Preview layer.
  4. Exit ArcMap. You do not need to save your ArcMap session.

You have created an image service definition and previewed how it will appear when it is published. You're now ready to publish the compiled image service definition using ArcGIS Server.

Publishing the ArcGIS Server image service

You will be configuring the ArcGIS Image Server server and service provider and configuring ArcGIS Server to link to the ArcGIS Image Server server.

To publish the image service definitions created using the ArcGIS Image Server extension, you need to configure the server and service provider components of the extension. The server is registered with the SOM. It acts as the request broker for ArcGIS Image Server connections. It provides load balancing and failover support of connection requests between different service providers.

The service provider is the central processing unit (CPU) that processes the components of the image service definition and distributes the data to the client. Service providers perform on-the-fly processing defined in the image service definition. ArcGIS Image Server scales to support heavier loads by using additional service providers that run in parallel. Each service provider can provide multiple image services. The service provider's architecture is multithreaded, with each request running in its own thread, so multiple requests are processed simultaneously on multicore machines.

In this part of the tutorial, you will publish the compiled image service definition you created. You will also access this image service in a client and examine its properties.

Start the Image Server Manager

The Image Server Manager is used to configure and manage the server and service providers. This application has tools that allow an administrator to configure, view the status of, start, and stop the server and service providers as well as export or review log files.

  1. Click Start on the Windows taskbar, click All Programs, point to ArcGIS, point to Image Server, then click Server Manager. The Image Server Manager application opens.
  2. Click File and click Add Server.

  3. Type "127.0.0.1" in the Host machine text box.

    There are only three options for naming the Host Machine: It can be the machine's name (for example, the browse name on the network), the machine's IP address, or the default 127.0.0.1.

    3982 is the default port number for an ArcGIS Image Server server.

  4. Click OK.
  5. Click Yes to create and start the server. If necessary, click the green arrow button to start the server.
  6. The server is started and the information about the server appears in the Server Information list.

Create and start a service provider

The Image Server Manager is used to configure and manage service providers. When you define the computer, port number, and other configuration parameters for a new service provider, this information is saved in a <service provider name>.ISPConfig file stored in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ESRI\Image Server\Server.

  1. Expand the 127.0.0.1:3982 server node in the left pane of the Image Server Manager window.
  2. Click Service Providers.
  3. Click New. This opens the Create A Service Provider dialog box.

  4. Type "Tutorial Machine" in the Service provider name text box.

  5. Accept the rest of the defaults on the dialog box by clicking OK. The Image Server Manager message window opens with a message that the service provider host name of 127.0.0.1 is being changed to your machine's name.
  6. Click OK.

  7. Click Tutorial Machine under the Service Provider column to select the row.

  8. Click Start on the Image Server Manager window. The state will change to ON.
  9. Close the Server Manager. The server and service provider will continue to run when the Server Manager application is closed.

Configure ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Image Server

Here you will be making an administrative connection to an ArcGIS Server and you will be registering the Image Server component you set up earlier with the Server Object Manager.

  1. Expand GIS Servers in the Catalog tree in ArcCatalog.
  2. Double-click Add GIS Server. The Add ArcGIS Server wizard opens.
  3. Click Manage GIS Servers.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Type the Server URL. This information would have been defined in the ArcGIS Server postinstall process. In the sample URL, replace "myserver" with the name of your server machine.
  6. Type the Host Name. Your new server connection will appear at the bottom of the GIS Servers list in the Catalog tree.
  7. Right-click the server connection you made in ArcCatalog and click Server Properties.
  8. Click the Host tab.
  9. Click Register Image Server.
  10. Type "127.0.0.1" in the Server Name text box.
  11. Click OK. The SOM is now aware of the location of the ArcGIS Image Server server and will use this when serving compiled image service definitions.
  12. Click OK to close the Server Properties dialog box.

Publish an ArcGIS Server image service

You're now ready to publish your compiled image service definition using ArcGIS Server. Follow these steps to create the ArcGIS Server image service.

  1. Navigate to C:\ImageServerTutorial\Exercises\AmbergService.ISCDef in the Catalog tree.
  2. Right-click AmbergService.ISCDef and click Publish to ArcGIS Server. This opens the Publish to ArcGIS Server wizard.
  3. Make sure the ArcGIS Server is the same server name as the connection you made earlier.
  4. The Service Name will be the name you specified when creating the image service definition.
  5. Click Next.
  6. The Imaging capability will be checked. In the future, you could choose to check WCS for the OGC Web Coverage Service capability or the WMS for the OGC Web Map Service capability.
  7. Click Next.
  8. Click Finish. The AmbergService will be added as an image service connection to the server connection in the Catalog tree.
  9. Click the Preview tab to preview the image service.

Add the image service to ArcMap

Now that you've published your ArcGIS Server image service, it can be viewed by client applications across the Internet or Intranet. ArcMap is one of those clients. To view the image service in ArcMap, follow these steps:

  1. Start ArcMap.
  2. Click the Add Data button on the Standard toolbar.
  3. Click the Look in drop-down arrow and click GIS Servers.
  4. Double-click your ArcGIS Server connection.
  5. Hold the Ctrl key and click AmbergService, then click Add.
  6. Check the layers on and off, and use the tools of the Tools toolbar to examine the image services.