Geocoding arcpy slow startup time

Question

When scripting with arcpy.GeocodeAddress_geocoding (http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.2/index.html#//002600000006000000), there's always a major lag to start up the geocoder. The issue here is that even geocoding 1 address typically takes 2-3 minutes.

Since the function just takes the path to the locator, I'm not seeing any way to pre-load the locator into memory (this is command line or gp service, not within arcmap).

Environment:

• ArcGIS Server 10.2.2 64-bit python called from command line
• Navteq Street Map Premium 2013 - USA_Zip4.loc (composite locator)
• Same results on several very fast machines, so computer's not really the issue here

Looking for workarounds or creative solutions here.... ArcObjects solution available to python? Changing settings on locator? Would prefer non-service based solutions (publish as geocode service and call).

Answer 1

You could write a python or ArcObjects program that will do the heavy lifting on startup and will run as a windows service.

The command line or GPScript can talk to the windows service over some lightweight and fast protocol like ZeroMQ which also supports multiple languages

Answer 2

This appears to have been fixed in ArcGIS 10.4+. Startup time is on the order of a couple seconds instead of a couple minutes.