Creating a database and geodatabase in SQL Server

This topic applies to ArcGIS for Desktop Standard and ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced only.

You can use the Create Enterprise Geodatabase geoprocessing tool in ArcGIS for Desktop to do the following in a Microsoft SQL Server instance:

• Create a database (500 MB) and log file (125 MB) in the default SQL Server location.
• If necessary, create an sde login, database user, and schema, and grant the user privileges to create a geodatabase and disconnect users from the SQL Server instance.
• Create a geodatabase in the database.

At a minimum, you must install SQL Server on your server and configure it to accept remote connections, and install the SQL Server native client on the ArcGIS client computer before you run the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool.

The following instructions explain how to create a geodatabase using the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool. Alternatively, you could run a Python script or enable geodatabase functionality in a preconfigured SQL Server database.

Steps:

1. Start ArcMap or ArcCatalog.
2. Open the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool.

   You can search for or browse to this tool, which is located in the Geodatabase Administration toolset of the Data Management toolbox.

3. Choose SQL Server from the Database Platform drop-down list.
4. Type the name of the SQL Server instance to which you will connect in the Instance text box.
5. In the Database text box, type a name for the database where you want to store the geodatabase.

   If a database with that name does not already exist in the SQL Server instance, it will be created. If it already exists, the database you specify will be used to store the geodatabase.

6. Connect to SQL Server as a system administrator. This can be done with either an operating system-authenticated login that is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role in SQL Server or by typing a database user name and password for a sysadmin user.
   • To log in with a sysadmin operating system-authenticated login, check Operating System Authentication. You must be logged in to Windows with the correct login to use this option.
   • To log in as sysadmin, type the sysadmin user name in the Database Administrator text box and the corresponding password in the Database Administrator Password text box.
7. Choose which geodatabase administrator will own the geodatabase.
   • If you want the user named sde to be the geodatabase administrator and the geodatabase to be stored in the sde user's schema, check Sde Owned Schema.
   • If you want the dbo user to be the geodatabase administrator and the geodatabase to be stored in the dbo schema, uncheck Sde Owned Schema.

If you choose an sde-owned schema, the Geodatabase Administrator text box will be prepopulated with sde. If a user with that name does not already exist, the user and its corresponding schema will be created, and the user will be granted the privileges required to create a geodatabase.

If you are using database authentication and a dbo schema to store the geodatabase, type the name of a user who is dbo in the SQL Server instance in the Geodatabase Administrator text box.

If you are using operating system authentication to connect to the database, your current login must be in the SQL Server sysadmin fixed server role to create a dbo-schema geodatabase.

8. Type a password for the geodatabase administrator in the Geodatabase Administrator Password text box.

   If the geodatabase administrator you specified already exists in the database, be sure to type the correct password for the existing user; this tool will not change the password.

9. To specify an Authorization File, navigate to and choose the keycodes file that was created when you authorized ArcGIS for Server Enterprise.

   This file is written to the \\Program Files\ESRI\License<release#>\sysgen folder on Windows servers. If you have not already done so, authorize ArcGIS for Server now to create this file.

10. Click OK to run the tool.

A database and log file are created in the default SQL Server location if you did not specify an existing database. A geodatabase is created in the database. If you chose an sde-schema geodatabase, a SQL Server-authenticated sde login, database user, and schema are created.

A log file for the geodatabase creation (GDBCreateGeodatabase<#>.log) is written to the directory specified for your %TEMP% variable on the computer where the tool is run.