Registering the database as a data store item in the ArcGIS Enterprise portal is the correct method to meet the specified requirements. This approach leverages the portal's integrated security and sharing model. The administrator can create the data store item and share it exclusively with a specific group of portal members who are designated to publish services from that database. This directly fulfills the requirement to "limit the users who can publish services" from that source. Other users with publishing privileges in the portal will not be able to see or use this specific data store for their publishing workflows.

A. As an ArcGIS-managed data store in Server Manager: Registering a database directly in ArcGIS Server Manager makes it available to any user with privileges to publish to that server. This method does not provide a mechanism to restrict which publishers can use that specific data store.

C. As a relational data store in ArcGIS Data Store: ArcGIS Data Store is a component used to create and manage data storage for layers hosted on the portal (e.g., hosted feature layers). It is not used for registering existing, user-managed databases.

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1. Esri

ArcGIS Enterprise Documentation. "Data stores in ArcGIS Enterprise." Portal for ArcGIS. Accessed October 2023.

Section: "Add a data store item in the portal"

Content: "When you add a data store item

you can share it with groups of portal members who have privileges to create content and publish. This allows those members to browse the data store and publish layers from it. For example

you can create a group of publishers in your organization who work with the contents of a specific database. You create a data store item for the database and share it with the group. Only members of that group will see the data store item and can publish from it." This directly supports using data store items to limit publishers.

2. Esri

ArcGIS Pro Documentation. "Data sources for ArcGIS Enterprise." ArcGIS Pro. Accessed October 2023.

Section: "Register your data"

Content: "When you add a data store item to the portal

you can share the data store item with members of a group who have privileges to publish. This allows you to make specific data sources available to specific groups of publishers." This confirms that sharing a data store item is the intended workflow for controlling publisher access to specific data sources.

3. Esri

ArcGIS Enterprise Documentation. "What is ArcGIS Data Store?" ArcGIS Data Store. Accessed October 2023.

Section: "Introduction to ArcGIS Data Store"

Content: "ArcGIS Data Store provides you with a convenient setup and configuration experience that creates and maintains the following types of data stores... You should not access the databases that ArcGIS Data Store creates and manages for the hosting server directly..." This reference clarifies that ArcGIS Data Store is for ArcGIS-managed data

not for registering user-managed databases

making option C incorrect.