Configuring a reverse proxy server with your portal

A reverse proxy is a device or service placed between a client and a server in a network infrastructure. Incoming requests are handled by the proxy, which interacts on behalf of the client with the desired server or service residing on the server. A reverse proxy is most commonly used to enable controlled access from the web at large to internal servers behind a firewall. For example, some organizations set up reverse proxies so ArcGIS is not exposed directly to clients. Instead, incoming requests to ArcGIS are funneled through the reverse proxy, potentially filtering malicious requests, caching responses, or applying some other business logic.

To configure your organization's reverse proxy server with your portal, follow the steps below.

Legacy:

In 10.2, you were required to edit a properties file on disk to configure a reverse proxy server with your portal. This is no longer required at 10.2.1 and later versions. The following instructions only apply to 10.2.1 and later versions. For help with these instructions at 10.2, see the 10.2 documentation.

Steps:

1. If you haven't done so already, configure ArcGIS Web Adaptor with your portal. This is required in order for the reverse proxy to communicate with your portal correctly. For full instructions, see the configuration topics for IIS, Java (Windows), or Java (Linux).
2. After configuring the Web Adaptor with Portal for ArcGIS, open a web browser and log in to the ArcGIS Portal Directory with a user that has administrator privileges. The URL is formatted https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/portaladmin.
3. Click System > Web Adaptors.
4. Click the name of the Web Adaptor you configured with your portal. After clicking the link, the URL displayed in the browser will be similar to the following:

   https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/portaladmin/system/webadaptors/0b579e98-31c2-4459-a8b2-f830b0edf08a

5. In the browser, append /edit to the end of the URL, for example:

   https://portal.domain.com:7443/arcgis/portaladmin/system/webadaptors/0b579e98-31c2-4459-a8b2-f830b0edf08a/edit

6. Press Enter.
7. Specify the URL of the reverse proxy or DNS alias as the value for Web Adaptor URL, for example:

   https://reverseproxy.domain.com/<context>

8. Click Edit Web Adaptor. The portal is restarted. Wait for the portal to restart before proceeding.
9. Open a web browser and enter the sharing/rest/info URL of the reverse proxy, for example:

   https://reverseproxy.domain.com/<context>/sharing/rest/info

10. Verify the reverse proxy URLs are returned for the owningSystemUrl and tokenServicesUrl.

Once you've configured the reverse proxy server with your portal, you'll now access your portal through the reverse proxy URL instead of the Web Adaptor URL. Anything you access in the portal website or the Portal Directory will return the reverse proxy URL. The following administrative tasks (if not already completed using the reverse proxy URL) should be recompleted using the reverse proxy URL:

• Federating an ArcGIS Server site with your portal
• Configuring utility services

If you've previously added secured services as items in your portal, you'll need to delete the original items and add them again. This is because the original items use the Web Adaptor URL, instead of the reverse proxy URL. For instructions, see Connecting to secured services.