Provide a Remote File System for the FME Flow System Share

  • Skill Level: Intermediate
  • Estimated Time Required: 5-15 minutes
  • Prerequisites:

FME Flow System Share files, which include Repositories and Resources, are installed in specific directories that are shared to enable access from different computers.

Create a directory for the FME Flow System Share that is physically separate from the machine on which the FME Flow Core and web application server are installed. Separating the file system ensures it remains available in a fault tolerant scenario.

When providing a remote file system, keep in mind the following:

  • The accounts that run the FME Flow components must have read and write permissions on the remote file system directory. For more information, see Directory and Account Permissions.
  • In addition to being physically separate, the file system should, by itself, be configured for fault tolerance.
  • When the directory is specified during installation, it must be in the form of a UNC path. Mapped drives are not supported.
  • The directory that holds the System Share must be empty, unless System Share folders have already been created there as part of an installation involving multiple FME Flow Cores.

For information about acquiring a fault tolerant file system, consult your IT department.

Linux Only

For distributed installations on Linux, it is necessary to create a user, prior to installation, on the machine that will host the installation of the FME Flow Core and Engines. This user must be named 'fmeflow' and belong to group 'fmeflow', and be granted permissions on the FME Flow System Share. For more information, see Directory and Account Permissions.

Example Instructions

The following example creates user 'fmeflow' in group 'fmeflow', and allows mount /mnt/data to be writable by the newly-created user.

Note  The following instructions are provided as a general guideline for adding a user and mounting a directory. Exact instructions may vary depending on the distribution and share type in your Linux configuration.
  1. Run the following commands in the Linux command line:

    2. groupadd fmeflow

    useradd -m -g fmeflow fmeflow

  2. Mount the FME Flow System Share directory so that user 'fmeflow' has read and write permissions. For example, to mount a Windows-based file share:

    3. mount -v -t cifs //network/share /mnt/data -o gid=1008,uid=1008

    gid and uid are the group id and user id of the user and group that were created. These id's can be found using these commands:

    id -g fmeflow

    id -u fmeflow