Running the FME Engines Under a Different Account

The FME Server Core and the FME Server Engines system services use the local system account by default on Windows, and the fmeserver account on Linux. You may wish to run the FME Server Engines service under a different account that can read and write data across a network, particularly in a distributed installation where this service is installed on separate machines.

  1. Add or identify a new user account that will run the FME Server Engines service.
    • Windows: To ensure the integrity of your overall file system, this user should belong to a standard account that is part of the "Users Group," rather than an Administrator. For example, this user could be called "FMEEngineUser." Be sure to create a password for this user.
    • Linux: Typically, you can create a new user with the command adduser <username> , and follow the prompts. For example:
    • adduser fmeengineuser

  2. Grant the necessary permissions to the account identified above to the FME Server System Share and the FME Server install directory. For more information, see Directory and Account Permissions.
  3. On the Resources page of the Web User Interface, delete all files and folders located under Logs > engine. This step is necessary to allow the new user account to write to the engine log. Before you delete, use the Download button to archive any logs you want to keep.
  4. Update the account that logs on to the FME Server Engines service to the new user:
    • Windows:
    • Linux: Start FME Server by calling the startServer.sh script in the Server directory with the root user. This starts the FME Server Core as the user that installed FME Server, and the FME Server Engines as the new engine user. If you are using the Linux startup scripts, no further setup is required, and on the next restart, the Engines will start under the engine user.