Publishing a geodata service involves referencing a file geodatabase or enterprise geodatabase that you want to publish as a service. To publish a file geodatabase as a geodata service, the ArcGIS Server account must have permissions to access the geodatabase. To publish an enterprise geodatabase as a geodata service, the ArcGIS Server account must have permissions to access the geodatabase and the connection file used to connect to the geodatabase.

Before publishing the geodata service, it is recommended that you copy the connection file to a common directory to which the ArcGIS Server account has been granted access. For more information, see Make data accessible to ArcGIS Server.

To publish a geodata service, see Share a geodata service.