Deploying using existing common storage location?

[PapachoSneak]

We are running several different deployment scenarios using the 10.8.1 Templates. We have a requirement to deploy to an existing fileshare in our client's environment. The Templates create new storage and use that when we run them (a FileShare VM when running for mulit-tier, and a local fileshare when running for single-tier). We ideally need to intervene during the part of the deployment where the fileshare is defined and built, and instead point it to the existing file share. Hoping you guys can provide some guidance on the best way to accomplish this before we invest too much time trying to forcibly re-wire any of the deployment scripts. Is there anything built into the Templates to support this directly?

[PapachoSneak]

Any chance we can get some guidance on this? We did notice that when we ran an initial deployment for a single-tier server where it created the file share on the single VM, when we added a second machine to the site, it knew to use the existing file share on the first VM rather than create a file share VM to host it (as it would if we had run the initial deployment on multi-tier). So it seems like there must be a way to tell the scripts to use a different existing file share? Any help here would be really appreciated.

[bailsman]

Hi PapachoSneak. (Just another user here, not affiliated with Esri).

What we've done is use terraform to deploy the servers and then use the underlying DSC scripts powering cloud builder from https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-powershell-dsc/

It gives you a few more options for customization.

[shailesh91]

Hi @PapachoSneak, the scripts generated by cloud builder are inherently tied to using a file share (either on the same machine (single tier) or on a different machine (multitier)) created using cloud builder. There is currently no way to swap out the file share and may require some work to support it. We control the file share location so that we can share certain artifacts between the machines in the deployments if needed.

As @bailsman suggested, to get that extra bit of customization using https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-powershell-dsc/ might be more suitable, though doesn't come with the benefit of managing the deployment in a GUI experience.

[PapachoSneak]

Thanks for the responses @bailsman and @shailesh91 !

We will look into the Powershell DSC scripts. Questions on those: 1) do / can they use the App Gateway that the v3 sites in Cloud Builder and the Azure templates here do? Glancing through the wiki, I'm only seeing mentions of Web Adaptors, no App Gateways.
2) I do see a reference to 3rd party load balancers in the variables reference page here https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-powershell-dsc/wiki/V3.-Variables-reference-page-for-JSON-configuration-files, but it only lists (HAProxy, Nginx, F5, etc.), not Azure App Gateway.

I'll keep reading - thanks again!

[shailesh91]

@PapachoSneak you can use App Gateway with PowerShell DSC Module as well, but the responsibility of setting it up is yours and providing the necessary load balancer endpoints in the json configuration is yours.