How to Crack Open an ArcGIS Relational Data Store

You can connect directly to a relational data store with ArcGIS Pro. Here’s how:

On the Data Store box, open a command prompt as Admin and cd to the Data Store tools directory:

C:\Windows\system32>cd C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\DataStore\tools

The relational data store is a PostgreSQL database that is managed by the Datastore software. We need to get the login specifics to log into the database directly. Run the listadminusers command to get the Postgres user credentials and the database name from the relational data store entry:

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\DataStore\tools>listadminusers.bat

Admin users for relational data store ds_4qhc0hu3
================================================
Database Admin User.... adm_5iqvl / 2YZhC8E3SlE=
Database Repl User..... dsrepuser / wYz4mz3mEBk=
GDB Admin User......... sde / 2YZhC8E3SlE=

Admin user for tile cache data store tcs_hune39fe
================================================
Store admin user....... admin_neybm / jwcrj9bbko

Admin user for queue store 5yarlyo
================================================
Store admin user....... d6eg17m1 / 9gyl3ss3jgkg09h9

This next part can be done in different ways. Postgres manages access to machines using a pg_hba.conf file. This file is stored along with the relational database in the data store home directory.

We need to alter it to allow a connection from the machine that’s running Pro. You can edit that file directly, using instructions at https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/auth-pg-hba-conf.html. Or, you can run the allowconnection command to open up permissions:

C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\DataStore\tools>allowconnection.bat all all all

The command makes edits to pg_hba.conf:

Launch ArcGIS Pro and add a new database connection. Enter the database name, including port 9876, plus the username and password gathered earlier. You can use either the Database Admin User or the GDB Admin User (sde) from the listadminusers command.

You’ll see whatever hosted data you have, plus other sde and database management tables:

When you’re finished, it’s a good idea to reverse the change we made to allow connections. Run revokeconnection to remove the entry:

When finished, be sure to revoke the permissions previously added to pg_hba.conf.