ArcGIS Server won’t release SDE table locks

Question

My ArcGIS Server services are locking tables in SDE. This is a problem if I need to edit or overwrite them. Unfortunately the locks don't go away upon stopping the services. The only solution I have found is to restart the Linux arcsde service, which has many implications. Is there a better way to lose these phantom locks?

Answer 1

Tell ArcGIS Server not to make those locks.

In your service cfg files, add this:

<ServerObjectConfiguration>
...
    <Properties>
         ...
         <SchemaLockingEnabled>false</SchemaLockingEnabled>
    </Properties>
</ServerObjectConfiguration>

ESRI does not recommend this practice, but it should work for you. I did this for a bunch of really big services that required a massive (thousands of layers) data update while still running.

For more info, refer to the ESRI docs.

Answer 2

At the UC ESRI was in fact recommending the use of the tag, so long as you carefully consider the "Use caution..." paragraph in the documentation.

Answer 3

Are spatially-enabled views an option? They've worked well for me in cases where I can't have a table locked.