Analyzing a mosaic dataset

If you want to optimize your mosaic dataset or your mosaic dataset isn't behaving as you expect, you can analyze it using the Mosaic Dataset Analyzer tool. This tool is designed to examine your mosaic dataset to look for commonly known anomalies and report them as errors and warnings along with suggestions to resolve problems and optimize performance.

Individual items are analyzed to check for invalid parameters or incorrectly constructed function chains. The tool also performs visibility analysis on the mosaic dataset, checks validity of overviews, and makes general recommendations to improve service performance. Once the analysis is complete, the results are displayed in a tabular form.

To run the analysis, you can access the tool from within the toolbox, or right-click the mosaic dataset in ArcMap's table of contents and click Data > Analyze Mosaic Dataset.

To review the results, right-click the mosaic dataset in ArcMap's table of contents and click Data > View Analysis Results.

The results are categorized into the following:

• Error/High—Indicates an issue that may adversely affect the basic desktop roaming or publishing with the mosaic dataset. Examples: invalid visibility or cannot open the raster dataset.
• Error/Medium—Indicates an issue that directly affects the authoring experience. Geoprocessing tools under the mosaic dataset toolset are quite likely to fail because of this issue. Examples: Empty mosaic or invalid raster type ID.
• Error/Low—Indicates that the issue might affect some aspects related to the mosaic dataset (or any derived image service). Examples: invalid center XY or broken paths.
• Warning/High—Indicates an issue related to performance or optimum display. Examples: missing overviews missing statistics.
• Warning/Low—Indicates a low impact issue typically attached to a recommendation to ensure smooth and efficient operation. Examples: bad metadata, JPEG quality too low, or too many uncompressed pixels in the mosaic dataset, missing raster pyramids.
• Message/Low—Only messages that report statistical facts related to the mosaic dataset appear under this category.

Publishing analysis

When publishing a mosaic dataset as an image service or as part of another service, such as a map service, the mosaic dataset will be analyzed. This analysis is at a higher level and will not examine the contents of the mosaic dataset. It is recommended that you analyze a mosaic dataset using the Mosaic Dataset Analyzer tool before you publish it.

Running the tool from the Catalog

1. In ArcMap, open the Search window, type analyze in the search box, and click the Search button .
2. From the returned search list, open the Mosaic Dataset Analyzer tool.
3. Enter the mosaic dataset and modify the parameters to suit your needs, then click OK to run the tool.
4. When the tool completes, if the mosaic dataset is not added to the table of contents, then drag it from the Catalog window into the display view.
5. Right-click the top of the mosaic dataset in the table of contents and click Data > View Analysis Results.

   This opens the results of the analysis in the Prepare window.

6. Right-click on each message to get more information, read help for the error, and to click on suggested fixes.

   You must fix the Errors in the Prepare window.

Running the tool from the layer

1. Open the mosaic dataset in ArcMap.
2. Right-click the mosaic dataset layer and click Data > Analyze Mosaic Dataset.
3. Enter the mosaic dataset and modify the parameters to suit your needs, then click OK to run the tool.

   When the tool completes, the Prepare window displays the analysis results.

4. Right-click on each message to get more information, read help for the error, and to click on suggested fixes.

   You must fix the Errors in the Prepare window.