Known Issue: PowerShell Execution Policy Prevents Installation of FME Flow

*FME Server was renamed to FME Flow for FME 2023.0
 

Symptom

FME Flow (formerly FME Server) hangs during installation and will not complete. Upon checking the installation log file, which can be found in the location where you extracted the setup files (the default is C:\FME), the installation is stuck on the step to encrypt the database password. 

MSI (s) (CC:10) [13:18:39:352]: Hello, I'm your 64bit Elevated Non-remapped custom action server.
-- MSI_LOGGING --   installdir is: C:/Program Files/FMEFlow/
-- MSI_LOGGING --   Escaping possible quotes in passwords...
-- MSI_LOGGING --   Encrypting Postgresql password...

Cause

The FME Flow installer uses remotely signed PowerShell scripts. If the Windows server where you are installing FME Flow has a PowerShell execution policy of AllSigned, then the installation will not complete successfully. 
You can check the PowerShell execution policy with the following command in PowerShell:

Get-ExecutionPolicy -List

The scopes are listed in order of precedence. In the example below, since there is a MachinePolicy set, it overrides the policy of the LocalMachine policy.


Please see Microsoft’s documentation for more details. 
 

Resolution

Change the PowerShell execution policy to RemoteSigned and retry the installation. If there is no policy defined above the LocalMachine scope, you can use the following command in PowerShell:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope LocalMachine

However, if there is an AllSigned execution policy set at the MachinePolicy or UserPolicy level as shown in the earlier example, then you will need to make the change via a Windows Group Policy change. The policy can be found in the Local Group Policy Editor under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows PowerShell > Turn on Script Execution.

Set the execution policy to 'Allow local scripts and remote signed scripts'.


The change should then be reflected in PowerShell.



After setting the correct execution policy, confirm that FME Flow has been completely uninstalled. You may need to manually remove the installation folder (default: C:\Program Files\FME Flow) and system share folder (default: C:\ProgramData\Safe Software\FMEFlow). Reattempt the installation.