ArcGIS Web Adaptor is an application that runs in your existing website and forwards requests to your ArcGIS Server machines. It polls your site at a regular interval to identify which machines have been added or removed. It then forwards traffic to only the currently participating machines. The web adaptor forwards requests to the machine hosting Portal for ArcGIS. It is compatible with IIS and Java EE servers such as WebSphere and WebLogic.
When you prepare to expose your ArcGIS Server site to an external audience, you should install the web adaptor or implement comparable request forwarding and security technology.
Benefits of ArcGIS Web Adaptor
ArcGIS Web Adaptor provides the following benefits:
Integrate ArcGIS Server with your organization's existing web server. By including a web server in your site, you can host web applications that use your GIS services.
Provide a single endpoint that distributes incoming requests to the servers in your site.
Make your ArcGIS Server site available through your organization's standard website and port. Use the Web Adaptor if you don't want users to see the default port, 6080, or the default site name, arcgis.
Block the ArcGIS Server Administrator Directory and ArcGIS Server Manager from the view of external users.
Prevent ArcGIS Pro users from establishing administrative or publisher connections to ArcGIS Server.
Use your organization's identity store and security policies at the web-tier level. You can also use public key infrastructure (PKI)-based client certificate authentication if the web server has built-in or extensible support. This allows you to provide a single sign-on or other custom authentication experience when logging in to use services, web applications, and ArcGIS Server.
ArcGIS Web Adaptor deployment scenarios
ArcGIS Web Adaptor is platform independent of ArcGIS Server; therefore, the web adaptor you deploy does not have to match the operating system platform of your ArcGIS Server site. For example, if you have a site composed of Linux machines, you can deploy ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) or ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) to work with ArcGIS Server. Conversely, if your portal is running on Windows, you can deploy ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) on Linux to work with ArcGIS Server.
The Web Adaptor can be used in various server site configurations. For example, in a site with a single server machine, you can install the Web Adaptor on the same machine as the server machine, or offload it to a dedicated web server. In a multiple-machine deployment, you can have one entry point into your site by installing the Web Adaptor on a single web server, or you can establish redundancy at the web server tier by installing the Web Adaptor on multiple web servers.
For a detailed description of the different ways you can integrate the Web Adaptor into your existing site architecture, see Deployment scenarios.
Accessing URLs with ArcGIS Web Adaptor installed
After installing and configuring ArcGIS Web Adaptor, the URLs that you use to access your services will change. The examples below are URLs that would change after installing ArcGIS Web Adaptor.
Services Directory (REST web services)
Without the Web Adaptor: https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/rest/services.
With the Web Adaptor: https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname/rest/services. For example, if the machine hosting your Web Adaptor is named wa with the domain myorg.net and your Web Adaptor is named arcgis, you'll access the Services Directory using the URL https://wa.myorg.net/arcgis/rest/services.
SOAP web services
Without the Web Adaptor: https://gisserver.domain.com:6443/arcgis/services.
With the Web Adaptor: https://webadaptorhost.domain.com/webadaptorname/services. For example, if the machine hosting your Web Adaptor is named wa with the domain myorg.net and your Web Adaptor is named arcgis, you'll access SOAP web services using the URL https://wa.myorg.net/arcgis/services.
ArcGIS Web Adaptor setup
ArcGIS Web Adaptor has its own setup and installation guide that is separate from the installation for ArcGIS Server. You must install ArcGIS Web Adaptor on a machine running a web server. This can be a machine already running an ArcGIS Server site or a separate machine.
The following setups are available for ArcGIS Web Adaptor and, depending on your web server and operating system, you will choose one of them:
- The ArcGIS Web Adaptor (IIS) setup allows ArcGIS Server to integrate with your IIS web server running on Windows.
- The ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) setup allows ArcGIS Server to integrate with Java EE servers such as WebSphere and WebLogic. The setup is available for Windows and Linux. For more information, see Install ArcGIS Web Adaptor (Java Platform) on Linux.