Provide a Remote File System for the FME Server System Share

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

FME Server 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 Server System Share that is physically separate from the machine on which the FME Server 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 Server 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 Server 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 Server Core and Engines. This user must be named 'fmeserver' and belong to group 'fmeserver', and be granted permissions on the FME Server System Share. For more information, see Directory and Account Permissions.

Example Instructions

The following example creates user 'fmeserver' in group 'fmeserver', 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 fmeserver

    useradd -m -g fmeserver fmeserver

  2. Mount the FME Server System Share directory so that user 'fmeserver' 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 fmeserver

    id -u fmeserver