Reviewing service workspaces
Many of the service types you publish to ArcGIS Server read and access various GIS datasets. Depending on how you've published these services, the way your service references its source datasets will vary. For example, if you published a map service to ArcGIS Server and the publisher's machine and the server are working with the same database, the service will be referencing the same source data as the map document on the publisher's machine. Conversely, if the publisher's machine and ArcGIS Server are working out of different databases, the service's source data will be referencing a different copy of the data than the map document on the publisher's machine.
Often, it's difficult to remember which datasets your services are referencing. One way to help you remember is to review the workspaces used by your service. Service workspaces are simply a record of the datasets currently referenced by your service. They include metadata regarding the file paths to your data, which can guide you to the location of the data referenced by your services.
You can use ArcCatalog or the Catalog window in ArcGIS for Desktop to monitor your service workspaces. To do so, follow these steps:
- In the Catalog tree, expand the GIS Servers node.
- Double-click Add ArcGIS Server and establish a publisher or an administrator connection type to the server. If you already have one of these connections set up, you can skip this step. For instructions on how to connect, see About connecting to ArcGIS Server in ArcGIS for Desktop.
- Within your connection to ArcGIS Server, right-click the service for which you want to review service workspaces and choose Service Workspaces.
- Depending on how you published your service and its associated data, you'll need to select one of the following tabs:
- The Referenced tab displays datasets referenced by the service in which the publisher's machine and the server's path to the data are identical. For a list of common scenarios in which this would occur, see About registering your data with the server.
- The Replaced tab displays datasets referenced by the service in which the publisher's machine and the server's path to the data are different. For a list of common scenarios in which this would occur, see About registering your data with the server.
- The Copied tab displays datasets referenced by the service that were automatically copied to the server during publishing. For a list of common scenarios in which this would occur, see Copying data to the server automatically when publishing.
- Review the service workspace properties and metadata. It may be helpful to record the data paths for later use.
- Close the Service Workspaces dialog box.