Workflow Manager (Classic) system deployment

Available with Workflow Manager license.

Once you've built up your ArcGIS Workflow Manager (Classic) repository with workflows, job types, users, and other elements, you'll be ready to have users start accessing Workflow Manager (Classic) to create jobs and manage the work they're doing. This topic discusses the things you'll need to think about when starting to deploy Workflow Manager (Classic) to your users.

Administrator access

Workflow Manager (Classic) consists of two applications that you'll use to administer and interact with the system: ArcGIS Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator and ArcGIS Pro. Access to the Workflow Manager (Classic) repository is configured using Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator.

Note:

The version of Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator must match the version of ArcGIS Pro.

You'll need to decide which users are responsible for defining your job types, workflows, users, steps, and other configuration elements discussed in configuring Workflow Manager (Classic) database connections. Once you've identified these users, you'll add them to the list of users under the security folder and grant them administrator access by adding them to the Administrator group.

Users without administrator access can't connect to the repository in Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator. They will only have access to the Workflow Manager (Classic) repository in ArcGIS Pro.

Note:

The Administrator group is created by the Create Workflow Database tool when creating a new Workflow Manager (Classic) database or upgrading an existing database. The user who runs this tool and imports a configuration file is automatically added to the Administrator group and granted administrator access to the repository.

You can also have more than one repository available in Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator, but do not enable administrator access in all of them.

Learn more about configuring users and groups

Workflow Manager (Classic) database connections

For desktop client machines, at least one Workflow Manager (Classic) database connection needs to be configured for the applications to open successfully. When Workflow Manager (Classic) is installed, no connections exist, so this is the first task that should be completed. The options for connecting to a client machine to a Workflow Manager (Classic) repository are as follows:

  • Distribute the .jtc file that was created by the Create Workflow Database tool or create a Workflow Manager (Classic) database connection in Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator.
  • Provide users with the connection information to the Workflow Manager (Classic) database and allow them to create their own Workflow Manager (Classic) database connections in Workflow Manager (Classic) Administrator.

Special note for terminal server deployments

The Workflow Manager (Classic) API and applications use the DEFAULT_JTX_DB environment variable to determine the default Workflow Manager (Classic) database connection. To set the default Workflow Manager (Classic) database connection for all users on the machine, add the DEFAULT_JTX_DB variable to the System variables list and set the value of the variable to match the name of the default database connection.

Note:

Setting the system-level variable does not prevent users from switching their default Workflow Manager (Classic) database connection if there is more than one Workflow Manager (Classic) connection configured on the machine.

Deploy custom development

If you've built customizations that are used during workflow execution, you'll need to distribute those customizations to your Workflow Manager (Classic) users. The types of customizations available include:

  • Custom steps
  • Custom executables
  • Extra job tabs
  • Additional application views

For additional information on building these customizations, refer to the developer kit in the Workflow Manager (Classic) installation location.

Windows users

There are four folders that Workflow Manager (Classic) references: Jobs, Database, Logs, and Packages. Opening ArcGIS Pro from Workflow Manager (Classic), adding Workflow Manager (Classic) database connections, writing logs with an elevated log level, or exporting elements to a Workflow Manager (Classic) package requires a Windows user account, as does writing to any of these folders. You'll also need to ensure that your users have the necessary privileges to the default location for these folders.