"},{"ID":9782,"user_firstname":"Michelle","user_lastname":"Bush","nickname":"Michelle Bush","user_nicename":"mbush","display_name":"Michelle Bush","user_email":"mbush@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2019-07-19 22:32:47","user_description":"Product Marketing Manager focused on ArcGIS Monitor, ArcGIS Maritime, and ArcGIS Bathymetry at Esri. In my spare time, I'm working in my vegetable garden or out listening to live music.","user_avatar":"
"},{"ID":3601,"user_firstname":"Rob","user_lastname":"Elkins","nickname":"Rob Elkins","user_nicename":"rpe2","display_name":"Rob Elkins","user_email":"relkins@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:15:15","user_description":"Rob is Managing Director of Product Management at Esri, helping guide the strategy and evolution of ArcGIS. He works with product development, and customer communities to bring innovative GIS capabilities to organizations around the world.","user_avatar":"
"}],"short_description":"Why every ArcGIS administrator needs a 360\u00b0 observability strategy, and actionable guidance for how to create one. ","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Here is a brief outline of the topics covered in this blog. You can also jump between sections:<\/p>\n
(10-minute read)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Managing an enterprise GIS without an observability strategy means reacting to system issues that are sometimes unpredictable and can be difficult to find. With the right observability strategy, you are better equipped to understand your enterprise GIS and proactively find and resolve potential issues. Enterprise systems like ArcGIS are complex and multi-functional; to run at a high level of availability and service, they must be well understood and transparently observable for the engineering and IT staff who support them. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" This blog post\u00a0explains what\u00a0enterprise\u00a0<\/span>GIS observability<\/span> is and shows you how to use elements from across ArcGIS to build a 360 degree observability strategy that meets your organization\u2019s specific needs. It is designed to complement the Observability pillar of the ArcGIS Architecture Center<\/a>, which provides foundational definitions, best practices, and architectural guidance for observability across enterprise systems.<\/span><\/p>\n This blog post is for you if:<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Observability<\/a> provides ready access to consistent, detailed information about system operations, so that system changes or issues can be rapidly identified, assessed, and acted upon.<\/strong><\/p>\n Think of observability as a \u201ccar dashboard\u201d for your IT and GIS enterprise systems. Like any vehicle, while it\u2019s technically possible to operate it without the dashboard (the engine will still run and the steering wheel will still steer), it\u2019s not efficient. How can you know when you will run out of gas, how fast you\u2019re traveling, or if your engine is overheating, without detailed information about what\u2019s happening under the hood?<\/p>\n And like any driver, with metrics on how your car is running, you can make better decisions. You can predict when you\u2019ll need to stop for gas, or if your car does break down, you may be able to figure out why it happened and respond accordingly.<\/p>\n To effectively manage and operate any enterprise system, IT or GIS, you must have access to information about the operational status of the system, applications, and supporting services.<\/p>\n On top of that, when it comes to enterprise GIS environments, the expectations for and types of work supported continue to grow. With SaaS, self-hosted, and hybrid environments, growing user bases, and tighter service level agreements (SLAs), the impact of an outage is higher than ever as GIS transitions from essential to mission critical. Every GIS administrator and IT manager working with an enterprise GIS, regardless of its size, should have a plan for understanding this complexity. Thankfully, ArcGIS offers a variety of observability capabilities that can be accessed in different ways to ensure your system is running smoothly.<\/p>\n Note: The approaches described here are based on ArcGIS Enterprise deployed on Windows and Linux. If you are using ArcGIS Enterprise on Kubernetes, the recommendations in this blog post will not apply to you. Kubernetes-based observability introduces additional layers (e.g., container orchestration, ephemeral workloads) that often require specialized tooling and practices.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" A GIS observability strategy is a structured approach to understanding information about your enterprise system\u2019s behavior and health. It includes telemetry, visualizations, reporting, engagement, and notifications to enable administrators to respond to problematic events.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n GIS observability\u00a0strategies are made up of some combinations of these (and other) key system indicators, such as:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n These metrics establish a baseline for system performance, enable detection of deviations, and support correlation of system issues or outages with changes in hardware utilization.\u00a0 <\/span>Before building an observability strategy for an enterprise GIS designed and built with ArcGIS, it\u2019s helpful to look at all the methods that are available across ArcGIS (and third-party providers you may already be using). Elements from all these areas will contribute to your overall strategy.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" Many modern GIS deployments follow a hybrid pattern, meaning that they include both ArcGIS Enterprise (self-hosted) and ArcGIS Online (SaaS). In this case, users will see a variety of metrics from both sources, including logs, utilization reports, user reports, and visualizations. <\/span><\/p>\n For systems with a public-facing GIS, administrators should pay close attention to how end users outside your organization will access and utilize your data. High usage from the public can influence performance on ArcGIS Enterprise systems, and so <\/span>potentially viral workloads<\/span><\/a>\u00a0should be routed through ArcGIS\u00a0Online.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Built-in telemetry provides this insight by capturing information about user activity, content usage, and access patterns. As a foundational component of observability, telemetry helps support governance efforts, helps identify unusual activity, and helps reduce the risk of improper access or data loss.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Elements of an observability strategy in ArcGIS\u00a0Online include:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ArcGIS Enterprise<\/span><\/a> observability tools go beyond user and content reporting by adding hardware and resource monitoring. Because ArcGIS Enterprise is deployed on self-hosted infrastructure, either on-premises or in the cloud, <\/span>GIS administrators and IT managers\u00a0<\/span>have greater control over resource\u00a0allocation,\u00a0along with responsibility for monitoring system resources,\u00a0<\/span>network latency, and overall load<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n ArcGIS Enterprise provides\u00a0observability\u00a0into a single deployment, including the base software and any\u00a0<\/span>federated servers<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>The\u00a0<\/span>ArcGIS Enterprise metrics API<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0released in\u00a0ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1\u00a0on Windows and Linux, provides enhanced observability by capturing information about your system and the machines on which your ArcGIS Enterprise components are running.\u00a0The metrics API allows administrators to\u00a0identify\u00a0usage and activity patterns, detect and resolve system problems, and\u00a0tune your deployment based on usage to right-size infrastructure resources.\u00a0Grafana\u00a0templates are available to visualize system health, service usage, and user engagement across\u00a0the\u00a0ArcGIS Enterprise\u00a0portal, ArcGIS Server, and web services.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2975728,"id":2975728,"title":"","filename":"image-16.png","filesize":390922,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-enterprise\/administration\/best-practices-for-building-an-enterprise-gis-observability-strategy\/image-16-7","alt":"screenshot of arcgis enterprise metrics api with dashboard and performance metrics","author":"9782","description":"","caption":"The ArcGIS Enterprise metrics API, released in ArcGIS Enterprise 12.1 on Windows and Linux in May 2026, provides enhanced observability by capturing information about your system and the machines on which your ArcGIS Enterprise components are running. The Grafana dashboard above provides visibility into usage trends. ","name":"image-16-7","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2975716,"date":"2026-07-08 17:38:30","modified":"2026-07-28 18:53:06","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1560,"height":690,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":340,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","large-width":1560,"large-height":690,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-1536x679.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":679,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","2048x2048-width":1560,"2048x2048-height":690,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16-826x365.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":365,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-16.png","wide_image-width":1560,"wide_image-height":690}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-enterprise\/announcements\/whats-new-in-arcgis-enterprise-12-1"},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":" ArcGIS Monitor provides\u00a0visibility into:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In addition to visibility into system components, ArcGIS Monitor offers the ability to set alerts and generate email notifications, so that you are contacted directly if and when a service or server goes down. You can locate it immediately and assign more resources accordingly (or notify other stakeholders). Going back to our car analogy, this enables not just the ability to pop the hood and look inside, but provides a warning light to communicate a mechanical failure. In other words, you are able to proa<\/em><\/span>ctively <\/em>manage\u00a0the system.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
What is observability?<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n
What is a GIS observability strategy?<\/span><\/b><\/h2>\n
\n
Methods for observability within ArcGIS<\/b>
\n<\/span><\/h2>\n
\nArcG<\/span><\/b>IS Online and\u00a0ArcGIS\u00a0Enterprise\u00a0<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>
\nBecause ArcGIS Online is delivered as a SaaS offering, Esri manages the underlying infrastructure and much of the platform’s operational performance. However, organizations still need visibility into how the system is being used. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\nArcGIS Monitor and holistic enterprise <\/span><\/b>GIS observability<\/span><\/b>
\n<\/span>
\nArcGIS Monitor<\/span><\/a> augments the methods that are available in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Enterprise, and provides another layer of comprehensive observability by collecting metrics on the health, performance, and usage of the entire enterprise GIS. For organizations that have multiple ArcGIS Enterprise deployments such as development, staging, and production environments, or are running multiple release versions of ArcGIS Enterprise, ArcGIS Monitor provides a single console where you can view key performance indicators (KPIs) across deployments. This holistic view helps you manage and optimize the entire ArcGIS platform and its underlying infrastructure. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n