Distributing FME Server Components

You can physically distribute the components of an FME Server installation to achieve an n-tier architecture. Both 3-tier and 2-tier configurations are supported:

A 3-tier architecture distributes the FME Server Web Services, FME Server application (including the FME Server Core and FME Engines), and the FME Server Database across three physically separate servers. In this scenario, you must provide and manage the following additional components:

  • A web application server to run the FME Server Web Services. You can run the FME Server Web Services on your own servlet (Apache Tomcat and Oracle WebLogic are supported), or use an Apache Tomcat servlet provided with the installation.
  • A database server to host the FME Server Database. You can choose to install a PostgreSQL database that is included with the FME Server installer, or you can configure the FME Server Database on your own database server (Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server are supported).
  • A remote file system to host the FME Server System Share, which includes Repositories and Resources.

WARNING: We recommend installing the web application server on a system that is synchronized to the same time zone as the FME Server Core. Differing time zones may result in improper timing of FME Server Schedule triggers.

In a 2-tier architecture, an Apache Tomcat servlet is provided to run the FME Server Web Services, and is installed along with the FME Server Core and Engines. Only the FME Server Database is installed separately, along with a remote file system.

Benefits of Distributing Components

Distribute components if you want to keep them separate so that each can be managed by the appropriate expert team.

Implementing a Distributed Architecture

You can implement a distributed architecture of FME Server in one of two ways: