Documentation Questions - v4.02

[FeralCatColonist]

Community Note

• Please vote on this issue by adding a 👍 reaction to the original issue to help the community and maintainers prioritize this request
• Please do not leave "+1" or "me too" comments, they generate extra noise for issue followers and do not help prioritize the request

There does not seem to be a substantive difference between the following resources: https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-powershell-dsc/blob/master/SampleConfigs/v4/v4.0.2/Base%20Deployment/BaseDeployment-ThreeMachine-ssl-per-Node-Example2.json https://github.com/Esri/arcgis-powershell-dsc/blob/master/SampleConfigs/v4/v4.0.2/Base%20Deployment/BaseDeployment-ThreeMachine-ssl-per-Node-Example3.json

The only change that I can see is the order of parameters ["SslRootOrIntermediate"] & ["Target"] on "machine1" and "machine3". What is the intended purpose/difference between these two examples?

Is it possible to have a readme file for each of the folders within the SampleConfigs sub-directories that explains the intended purpose and context of each file? A file name alone is not particularly descriptive in terms of helping to navigate the arcgis-powershell-dsc configuration options. While the maintainers are likely very familiar with the deployment options, a casual entrant into this space does not have that background level of understanding. It would also be a helpful pointer back to the wiki for that version.

[FeralCatColonist]

Would it be possible to add a sample configuration for ArcGIS Monitor?

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[FeralCatColonist]

I'd still be interested in having a readme that goes along with the template. I'm still finding myself bouncing between the variable wiki, reading issues where people provide configuration samples to get a better context of what to use and why.

Including a readme in the sample configs folder to briefly explain the purpose/context behind each sample (instead of the current practice of a title only) and then to use the readme to link back to specific areas of the wiki for someone to get more information. If the explanations are repetitive it might be a good opportunity to use the sample configurations to show frequently asked questions from the user base like, gMSA accounts, utilizing password files, etc.

A minimum example might look something like:

Configuration File ReadMe

BaseDeployment-DualMachine.json

This configuration template builds a hypothetical deployment based on two machines. Maybe a quibble here, reviewing this template it is a 3-machine deployment so maybe not the best for my example. The error isn't part of the toy example but I'm just riffing here.

BaseDeployment-MultiMachine-InternalLoadBalancer.json

This configuration templates orchestrates an ArcGIS Enterprise across 8 machines utilizing an internal load balancer. It features 2 Portals and 2 Servers and would be more appropriate for an organization seeking an active-active configuration. It uses the pre-4.x parameters for the WebAdaptor; we recommend reviewing the current parameters in the variable wiki here

BaseDeployment-MultiMachine.json

This configuration is exactly the same as the one above with the internal load balancer but it doesn't have a load balancer so there's that. Instead, it might be helpful to show here, or whichever file, how one would use password-ing in a template file. Then point to the wiki on passwords.

But what's actually the difference between BaseDeployment-SingleMachine-CloudStore.json and BaseDeployment-SingleMachine-CloudObjectStore.json

On title alone this gets difficult? So we're peering through the template line-by-line on a screen side-by-side?

This goes back to the original submission. I know y'all can't cover the spectrum of possibility of configurations but certainly there's internal data at Esri to detail the Top N Deployment patterns. I'm sure Esri Professional Services has opinions on that. Having the templates with a bit more variety in terms of patterns, explaining the patterns of which there's significant work, in terms of diagramming, already on the front page links of the wiki or differences to be aware of in the templates would go a long way to increasing usability. Instead of being able to start with a template and move on from there, I find myself referring between multiple templates, issues, and then the variable wiki. And there's a lot of ground that's already been trod by others and the configuration templates would be a nice place to distill that.

[cameronkroeker]

Thanks @FeralCatColonist for the sample json configuration files readme suggestion. This is a great idea, and something I think we can work on including.