ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 doesn’t just include new features, it also includes something new altogether within the final release: beta features.  This is the first time we’ve included beta features in a final release of the software.  Read on for more information on what beta features are, considerations for using them, how to provide feedback, and what specific beta features you can experience in this latest release of ArcGIS Enterprise.

What are beta features

Beta features are released within fully supported versions of ArcGIS Enterprise but are different from general availability functionality.  These types of features are intended for testing and providing early feedback to Esri to help guide future development efforts.  They are not to be used in production environments.  We recommend that you carefully evaluate how to take advantage of beta functionality.

Beta features are limited to short-term support releases of ArcGIS Enterprise on Windows and Linux.  You can expect support for beta releases until the next release of ArcGIS Enterprise becomes available.  For example, ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 is a short-term support release; the beta features in this release will be supported until ArcGIS Enterprise 11.1 becomes available.

Beta features in ArcGIS Enterprise provide an early view into future functionality and give you an opportunity to us your feedback – and your feedback is very important to us, as it will help guide the development these features.

With this specific purpose in mind, it is important to know that beta features may not be feature complete and may have known performance or quality issues.

Considerations

There are certain considerations to take into account when using a beta feature.  Although we do not recommend beta features be used in production environments, we ask that you carefully consider the following caveats if you are choosing to use beta features in a production environment in your organization:

• Functional bugs and other quality issues in beta functionality will be addressed in future software releases. They will not be addressed in patches. Any such issues will be addressed in future software releases as the feature is moved to be a regularly supported piece of the software. Please keep in mind this will not necessarily be in the next release of the software depending upon the criticality and priority of the issue.
• The user experience and APIs for beta features may change substantially prior to the functionality being released out of beta. Any use of or customizations built on top of beta features may need to be updated to work with subsequent software releases.
• Beta functionality may not graduate to be regularly supported functionality and may be removed from future releases of the software without prior notice. While Esri intends for beta functionality to be part of future software releases, there may be circumstances that cause the functionality to be dropped instead.

Feedback and support for beta features

Beta features are not considered feature complete, therefore they are not supported by Esri Technical Support.  Not to worry, you can still reach out for help if you need it.  Instead, there will be an Early Adopter Community where you can provide feedback and get limited assistance.  Please join this program if you are interested in using the new beta features!

Within the forum, you can anticipate specific expectations to be outlined.  As a reminder, beta forums and limited support will be available until the next release of the software at which time the forums will be retired.

For additional information about submitting feedback and receiving support for the beta features in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0, please read through help documentation in the Early Adopter Community program.

Beta features in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0

The ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 release includes service webhooks.   ArcGIS Notebook Server customers will also have access to another beta feature: Notebook Server Windows containers.

Service webhooks

Service webhooks are available as both feature service webhooks and geoprocessing service webhooks.  Feature service webhooks are available for the same conditions available for ArcGIS Online feature service webhooks.  This includes create, read, update, delete (CRUD) operations for referenced and hosted services.  Geoprocessing service webhooks are available for asynchronous services.  They will be triggered when a job is completed – this can be when a job has succeeded, when a job has failed, or when a job has been canceled.

Service webhooks are automatically enabled in the Enterprise portal in 11.0.  Read more on service webhooks in the Webhooks section in the ArcGIS Enterprise product documentation.

Notebook Server Windows containers

Available as a beta release at 11.0, ArcGIS Notebook Server supports the use of Mirantis Container Runtime (formerly Docker Engine Enterprise) and Windows container images for the ArcGIS Notebooks runtime on Windows Server 2022.

Notebook Server Windows containers are available in ArcGIS Notebook Server as a separate installation available through the Early Adopter Community.  Read more about Notebook Server Windows containers in the What’s new in ArcGIS Notebook Server product documentation.

Your feedback is crucial in shaping the development of these features before they are finalized; this will ensure these new features meet your needs.  We are excited to see you testing these new beta features in ArcGIS Enterprise 11.0 and look forward to hearing from you!