A service definition (.sd) encapsulates a service into a single transferable file, optionally including source GIS data. The Upload Service Definition tool uploads a service definition to the server and publishes it. It can be invoked from the arcpy site package included with ArcGIS Desktop.
The following Python example loops through a given folder, finds the service definitions contained therein (excluding subfolders), and publishes them to ArcGIS Server. All that's required is a data location, the path to an ArcGIS Server connection file, and the name of the destination folder on ArcGIS Server. The service definitions could be of any service type.
# Publishes all service definitions in an operating system directory
# (excluding subfolders)
import arcpy, os
# Define path to SDs
wrkspc = "C:/data"
sdDir = wrkspc + "/SDs"
# Provide path to connection file
# To create this file, right-click a folder in the Catalog window and
# click New > ArcGIS Server Connection
con = wrkspc + "/connections/arcgis on myserver_6443 (publisher).ags"
# Destination folder name on ArcGIS Server
serverFolder = "TestPublish"
# Loop through all items in folder
sdList = os.listdir(sdDir)
for sd in sdList:
# Construct path to item
extension = os.path.splitext(sd)[1] #Get file extension
sdPath = os.path.join(sdDir, sd)
# Check if item is an SD file and, if so, try to publish
if os.path.isfile(sdPath) and extension == ".sd":
try:
arcpy.UploadServiceDefinition_server(sdPath, con, "", "", "EXISTING", serverFolder)
print "Published " + sd + " with no errors reported."
except:
print "Could not complete publishing operation for " + sd + "."
print arcpy.GetMessages()