Our ArcGIS Server licenses were going to expire soon, so I went ahead and updated them with new license files.  All was well … for a while.

A week later one of our ArcGIS Server installations started having issues with the map services.  Basically the map services, though running, stopped displaying the features that were in them.  Looking into the error logs, we found stuff like this:

The Layer:’Parcel’ in Map:’Layers’ is invalid. The base table definition string “bur.ags.parcels” is invalid. No ArcGIS server license found. Contact your geodatabase administrator to update license

What?  I updated the ArcGIS Server license!  What is going on?  Reading the error messages again, the part about “the base table definition string is invalid” reminded me about when I setup the Enterprise Geodatabase.

For this particular ArcGIS Server installation, I decided to setup the Enterprise Geodatabase inside PostgreSQL, store GIS data in it, and use the data for the map services.  When I was setting it up I used the Create Enterprise Geodatabase tool.  One of the parameters for the tool required me to provide a path to the keycodes file that was created when I authorized ArcGIS Server.  I wonder if it is PostgreSQL?

Using ArcCatalog I tried to connect to the Enterprise Geodatabase in PostgreSQL, and here is what I got:

Aha!  I guess PostgreSQL does not automatically get updated when I update the ArcGIS Server license.  I am running ArcGIS Server 10.2, so the keycodes file (named keycodes) is located under C:\Program Files\ESRI\License10.2\sysgen.  After entering that and pressing OK, I had access to the Enterprise Geodatabase again.  I then restarted the map services that access the Enterprise Geodatabase and all was well again!

Surprisingly my other ArcGIS Server installation’s map services were working fine.  However, they access an Enterprise Geodatabase in Oracle.  I guess Oracle was updated automatically when I updated the ArcGIS Server license file?  I don’t know, but if something similar happens, I will check the Enterprise Geodatabase first!

If you use ArcGIS Server with PostgreSQL, this little fix should help you if you encounter similar problems.  -mike