When connection to a database SDE there are two ways to achieve that:
(From ESRI site the ArcCatalog connection screen)
1. Regular connection using Server, Service (enter the SDE service number), database, user(optional), password(optional)
The regular way uses a service on the database machine which must be running. The service can be found in:
Right click on My Computer –> Manage:
Computer Management –> Services And Applications –> Service:
By Default the service will be called “ArcSde Service(esri_sde)”:
As you can see I am not using the regular way (the service is not marked as started). For both 10 and 9.3.1 ESRI advices not to use it this way since it does all it’s work on the DB machine.
Note: if you are using several sde services than the Service port will differ than the default of 5151. If you are unsure about the number than look in the DB server at services file (located at: c:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and has no extension). The file contains lines for services, their port and connection protocol:
esri_sde 5151/tcp #ArcSDE for SqlServer
2. Direct Connection using Server, Service, database, user(optional), password(optional)
The difference in the connection is only in Service, for example in SQL Server: “sde:sqlserver:<sql_server_instance>” (for any other server use this ESRI reference the forth step).
This connection doesn’t use the SDE service. It connects directly to the DB and does all it’s work on the client. If you are using only this connection type then I advise you to change the “ArcSde Service(esri_sde)” to run Manually instead of Automatic – it just means that at startup the service won’t be turned on.
Managing SDE connection in a developer team
I have created all my SDE connection but now my team mate Bob needs a connection, What do I do?
Well I usually save the connections in one of the team’s network folders with a bat file called install connections. Here is how I do that:
- Copy all the connections from %APPDATA%\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcCatalog to your network folder.
- Create a bat file with:
xCopy *.sde %APPDATA%\ESRI\Desktop10.0\ArcCatalog /I
(The /I is for creating the sub folder when they don’t exist (like when you never opened ArcCatalog…))
Resources:
ESRI: Geodatabase connections in ArcGIS Desktop
ESRI: Preparing database connection files
