Installing ArcGIS Server 9.2 SP4 On Microsoft Windows Vista

I seem to receive many emails from people asking how to go about doing this. I did mention a while ago that I was going to post information on how to get ArcGIS Server 9.2 SP4 installed on Microsoft Windows Vista but I never got around to it. This was mainly around the IIS configuration side of things. So here it is today.

Due to the security and IIS changes in Windows Vista, certain parts of ArcGIS Server seem to break. There are however some easy fixes to get around the issues. I have been running ArcGIS Server 9.2 SP4 on my Windows Vista laptop now for quite a while and I haven’t noticed many problems with it.

NOTE: ESRI does not support ArcGIS Server 9.2 on Microsoft Windows Vista.

Products supported can be found here: http://support.esri.com/index.cfm…

If you carry out any of the steps below you do so at your own risk. I do not recommend that you install ArcGIS Server 9.2 on Microsoft Windows Vista.

So how does one do this? A few prerequisite steps are required before you start the installation.

1. Install Microsoft Windows Vista
2. Install IIS 7.0
3. Disable UAC (User Account Control)
4. Make sure you are logged in as an administrator

Once you have the prerequisite steps sorted, we need to configure IIS to defaultly use the Classic .NET AppPool. To do this, start the IIS Manager. Expand Web Sites and select the properties of the Default Web Site. Under Behavior change the Application Pool to use the Classic .NET AppPool. Restart IIS for this to take effect.

We now need to enabled write access on the Inetpub folder. In My Computer select the properties of the Inetpub folder add Everyone to have write or full access.

Now install ArcGIS Server 9.2 as you would do normally then install ArcGIS Server 9.2 SP4. After the installations are complete, run just the GIS Server Post Install.

After the post installation, check to see if an ArcGIS directory exists in Inetpub\Wwwroot. If this directory does not exist, browse to \Program Files\ArcGIS\DotNet\VirtualRootDir\. Copy the ArcGIS directory from there into Inetpub\Wwwroot.

We now need to create applications out of the kml, manager, services and wms folders. Start the IIS Manager and browse to the Default Web Site. You should see the ArcGIS directory as a folder. Expand this and you should see the other six folders. Right-click on the ArcGIS directory and select Add Application. In the window that comes up, under Alias enter the name of one of the folders and browse to the Physical Path in Inetpub\Wwwroot.

Your screen should look like mine below:

Now run the Web Applications Post Install. This should have the IIS side of things setup so try and load the ArcGIS Server Manager.

The Windows Vista firewall might cause issues when trying to log into the ArcGIS Service Manager, if you experience this, turn disable the Windows Vista firewall and see if this fixes the problem.

If you find your SOC processes are taking a while to start up or are hanging on start up, you can modify the Authentication Level settings of the ArcSOC and ArcSOM processes which might help.

I hope this is helpful to everyone out there. Sorry for not replying to so many emails asking how to go about setting this up. If you guys have feedback please let me know, I’m always keen to hear how you get on

My previous post on How To Install ArcGIS Server 9.2 On Microsoft Windows Vista can be found here: http://se7en.co.nz/cms/…