Managing portal connections from ArcGIS for Desktop

ArcGIS for Desktop can connect to ArcGIS Online or Portal for ArcGIS. By default, it connects to the ArcGIS Online portal, but you can use the Manage Portal Connections tool in the ArcGIS Administrator to connect to your organization's Portal for ArcGIS site.

Use the Manage Portal Connections tool in the ArcGIS Administrator to perform the following tasks:

• Add an ArcGIS portal URL for ArcGIS for Desktop to use.

  The ArcGIS.com URL is present by default. You need to add an ArcGIS portal URL to connect to a Portal for ArcGIS website or to connect to an ArcGIS Online for organizations site that uses enterprise security methods such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Windows Active Directory, or SSL.

  The URL to connect to a Portal for ArcGIS website is in the form https://webadaptor.domain.com/arcgis. Note that you must provide the fully qualified server name in the portal URL.

  The URL to connect to an ArcGIS Online for organizations portal that uses enterprise security methods is in the format https://<organization short name>.maps.arcgis.com.

• Connect to an available portal from ArcGIS for Desktop.
• Remove a Portal for ArcGIS URL from the list of available portal connections.
• View a portal connection and edit the URL.

Adding portal connections

There are occasions when you will want to access your organization's portal from ArcGIS for Desktop rather than access the default ArcGIS Online portal (http://www.arcgis.com). Or you might have connected to your organization's portal, and want to switch back to ArcGIS Online. To do this, use Manage Portal Connections in the ArcGIS Administrator as described below:

1. Close all ArcGIS for Desktop applications.
2. Open ArcGIS Administrator from All Programs > ArcGIS > ArcGIS Administrator.
3. Click the ArcGIS node in the table of contents.
4. Click Advanced.

   The Advanced Configuration dialog box opens.

5. Under the ArcGIS Online section, click Manage Portal Connections.

   The Manage ArcGIS Portal Connections dialog box opens.

6. Click Add.
7. Type the URL of the portal and click OK to save.
8. To connect to the portal you just added, select the URL from the connection list and click Connect.

   Connecting to the portal URL essentially connects you to the portal website home page. You must sign in to the portal from ArcMap to access portal content and publish to the portal's hosted server.

Removing and editing portal connections

You can also remove or edit portal connections from the Manage ArcGIS Portal Connections dialog box.

• To remove a portal connection, select the URL from the connection list and click Delete.
• To edit the URL of a portal connection, select the URL from the connection list and click Edit. When you finish editing the portal conection information, click OK to save the changes.

Portal connection status

All ArcGIS for Desktop clients use the ArcGIS Connection utility to determine their portal connection status.

You can change the frequency with which ArcGIS checks for a connection by doing the following:

1. While ArcGIS for Desktop is open, right-click the globe icon in the system tray of your client machine.
2. Click Properties.
3. Choose when ArcGIS for Desktop should test automatically for a connection. The default is to check only at the start of a session, but you can specify to check at an interval or to never check at all.
4. If you want to test periodically, click the up or down arrows to increase or decrease the minimum frequency (in seconds) that ArcGIS will check for a portal connection.