Creating an FME Flow Hosted Instance

An FME Flow Hosted instance is a virtual machine (the server) with FME Flow (the software) and PostGIS (a database for storing spatial and non-spatial data) installed. This is your own dedicated machine. Absolutely no one else has access to your environment while you are connected.

The machine runs on Ubuntu OS, and uses Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) for highly reliable and available local storage.

The FME Flow installation is a fully-tested build of the software, running on the Linux 64-bit platform.

All FME Flow Hosted instances are configured to use UTF-8 character encoding, and run in the UTC time zone.

To check out the data formats available in the latest release, see the Complete List of Formats Supported by FME.

You can create as many instances as you need. Before you begin, make sure you have:

To Create an Instance

  1. From the side menu, click Create Instance.
  2. On the Create Instance page, complete the following:
    • Name: Enter a name for the instance that has meaning to you.
    • URL: enter a string to form the <Instance Name> part of the URL you use to access the FME Flow. We suggest using the same or similar string as the Name field.

      • http://<Instance Name>-<Account Name>.fmecloud.com

      The URLfield accepts only lower case letters, numbers, and hyphens (-), and must start with a letter.

    • Description: Enter any additional information to help you identify the instance.
    • FME Flow Version: Select the version of FME Flow you want to create. You can choose between a released version or a version that is still in beta.
    • Region: select an Amazon EC2 region to locate the instance. We recommend a region that is closest to your front-end client and/or your data.
    • Choose a Type: Choose the instance type you want to create. For information about the different types, see Instance Types. If your needs change, you can change your instance type later.

      • For instance type pricing, see FME Flow Hosted Pricing.

    • Primary Disk Size: Specify the the size of the disk that hosts the FME Flow installation, including the FME Flow Database which runs on a PostgreSQL database server. This disk contains all permanent data written by FME Flow. If you do not plan on uploading much data, the 10 GB minimum is enough. If your needs change, you can increase the disk size later. However, once the instance is running, it cannot be reduced in size.

      • The disk is an AWS EBS SSD volume. When sizing the disk, you also need to consider performance:

      • Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) increase with disk size. Each GB provides 3 IOPS; a 10GB disk provides 30 IOPS, a 500GB provides 1500 IOPS.
      • Performance burst mode: The disk starts with 5.4 million I/O credits. The burst credit is always replenished at the rate of 3 IOPS per GiB per second. If there is credit available when a spike occurs, it is consumed at 3000 IOPS per second. Once the burst is exhausted, it delivers the IOPS rate based upon the disk size. Burst mode is supported on volumes smaller than 1 TB.
    • Temporary Disk Size: Specify the size of the disk that maps to the Temp Resources folder on FME Flow. Use the Temp folder to store data that you do not mind losing. It is erased when the instance is paused, and it is not backed up.
      • Note  In addition to Primary and Temporary disks, a root disk contains the operating system and does not have any influence on FME Flow performance. It is 15 GB in size and you cannot resize it.
    • Backups: The number of automated backups you wish to keep for the instance. FME Flow Hosted backs up the instance once per day. The maximum number of backups you can store is 10.

      • FME Flow also uses this disk to write temporary files. It is a local SSD and its size varies based on the size of the instance you create. This disk has very high performance—up to 30,000 IOPS.

    • Alerts: FME Flow Hosted can send you alerts when there is an issue about your instance. You can configure alerts related to memory, number of engines, CPU, and server load after creation. You can send alerts via email, Slack, and Webhook.

      • Under "Notify," specify how you want to receive alerts through notification groups. If this is your first instance, one notification group is already configured for you to select. This "group" consists of your account name and is configured to notify your registered email address about the following issues:

      • Unresponsive Server: Server has not responded for 15 minutes.
      • Unhealthy Server: Part of FME Server has been unhealthy for 15 minutes.
      • Response Time: Server response time above 500 ms for 10 minutes.
      • Disk Usage: Primary disk usage above 90% for 10 minutes.

      To create more notification groups, click Create New Group. You can also work more with alerts later. For more information, see Monitoring Instance Health with Alerts.

    • Optional Static IP: Every time an FME Flow Hosted instance is paused, it is assigned a new IP address. Alternatively, you can assign a static IP address to an instance. Static IP addresses are a good way to securely integrate on-premises and Cloud infrastructure. For example, you can open a port into your on-premises data center, but only allow traffic from the static IP you assign to the instance.

      • When you assign a static IP to an instance, keep in mind the following:

      • Because IP addresses are a finite resource, each account is limited to one address. If you need more, contact FME Support.
      • When using the FME Flow Web User Interface and Rest API, it is still advised to access the instance using the host name, as the SSL certificate is tied to the host name, not the IP address.
      • Once assigned, the instance always has that IP address (unless you reassign it), even if you pause it.

      Click New Static IP. Optionally, in the new Static IP Address dialog, give the address a name. Click Create Static IP to return to the Create Instance page. To assign the static IP to the instance, select it under Choose a static IP.

      You can work more with static IPs after you create an instance. For more information, see Assigning a Static IP Address to an Instance

  3. On the Summary pane at right, double-check your requirements and make any necessary changes. When ready, click Create Instance. An instance may take up to 20 minutes to configure. We will e-mail you when it is ready.

Be sure to connect to your instance and use it as soon as it is ready. When an instance becomes ready, it enters the Running state, and you are billed for each hour or partial hour that you keep the instance running - even if the instance remains idle and you do not connect to it. For more information, see Pausing, Restarting and Terminating an Instance.

What's Next?