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FME Flow Troubleshooting: Web Interface Login

Liz Sanderson
Liz Sanderson
  • Updated

Full Guide: FME Flow Troubleshooting Guide

Are you encountering issues accessing/logging into the FME Flow (formerly FME Server) web interface? 
Please read below for some common troubleshooting tips and resources.

In 2023, FME Server underwent a name change and is now known as FME Flow. Since this article discusses features present in previous versions of FME, it will refer to both names interchangeably, using the appropriate product name based on the year the feature was introduced. For more information on the rebranding, see our website. 
 

Content Overview

 

Initial Troubleshooting

  • Try logging in using a different web browser. You may also consider testing in a private window, emptying the cache or deleting cookies.
  • Try to login on the machine hosting the FME Flow itself. Is there any difference in behaviour when accessing using http(s)://<hostname>:<port>/fmeserver or http(s)://localhost:<port>/fmeserver ?
  • Try temporarily disabling any firewalls and check if you can log in afterwards.
  • Check the log files that may help identify errors for both the FME Flow and Tomcat. These can be accessed via the file system.
<FMEFlowSystemShare>\resources\logs\core\current\fmeserver.log
<FMEFlowSystemShare>\resources\logs\tomcat\catalina.log
  • Try enabling the web developer tools for your browser. Monitor the network status and identify if there is anything failing, hanging or timing out.
 

Common Issues

 

“The web interface (login page) is not accessible.”

First, verify that you are using the port specified during installation. If you are unsure how to confirm this, review this article.  

Once this is confirmed, make sure that there are no firewall rules preventing you from accessing FME Flow. Please see this article for suggestions.

This issue may also be related to the FME Flow Application Server, if you are serving the web interface from Apache Tomcat (the default in an Express installation). Verify that the FME Flow Application Server (Windows Service) is running. Please take a moment to review this article and determine if it is applicable to your scenario.

When using Internet Explorer and if the web interface is visible but the login button is missing or appears as a blue bar without text [please see screenshot below], go to Internet Options > Security and add FME Flow to the list of trusted sites. See this question for additional troubleshooting options. 

image.png 


“The web interface page hangs after trying to log in.”

This issue is commonly experienced when there are orphaned processes running. Orphaned or “rogue” processes can occur if there are any errors when shutting down or restarting FME Flow, or if one of the supporting applications for the FME Flow crashes and the FME Process Monitor starts another without gracefully removing the one at fault. 

To resolve this issue, please see the resolution from this article. Note that the exact symptom may be different, but this general resolution can fix most scenarios. We may also see a hanging interface if a certain FME process is stuck trying to run a certain task. Please contact Safe Support for assistance if the article above does not match the hanging interface symptoms on your FME Flow.

“I cannot remember my password.”

If you cannot remember your password, you must have an admin user login to FME Flow and manually change it for you. This is applicable to FME Server 2016.0+.
For FME Server 2018.0+, you can reset your own password if the Reset Password feature has been enabled in the System Configuration.

“I have entered the correct password but the response is ‘Login failed, please try again’.”

In FME Server 2018.0 and older, usernames are case-sensitive. Please make sure that the correct combination of lowercase and uppercase characters is used. Other applications may be case-insensitive.

This error might be experienced when FME Flow is connected to an Active Directory listing. Please check with your IT/Security Department if uncertain that you have the correct case.
If Active Directory is enabled, please see this article for more troubleshooting information.

“After logging in, I cannot see many options in the web interface. Only Manage > Jobs is accessible.”

Has the installation of the FME Flow been configured to point to an existing PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, or Oracle Database? The post-installation configuration scripts may not have been run. Please try invoking these as an Administrator while FME Flow Core is running, then restart FME Flow and try logging in again.

Note that as of 2018.0, the post-configuration scripts should run automatically after the installation is complete. If they failed to run, this should be indicated by a warning in the fmeserver.log. In this case, please confirm the database credentials in fmeCommonConfig.txt and fmeFlowWebApplicationConfig.txt are correct and try running these scripts manually. 

“After logging in, the message ‘Could not connect to FME Core. Please ensure that it is running.’ is displayed.”

Has the installation of the FME Flow been configured to point to an existing PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL, or Oracle Database? It is possible that the user or service account running the FME Flow Windows Services does not have proper network privileges. Please see this article for more troubleshooting information.

“After logging in, some pages work, but others show a message like 'Error communicating with FME Flow host... Contact your FME Flow administrator...'.”

You might see this problem after setting up a distributed installation of the FME Flow. 
Some webpages in the web interface use different ports to communicate with the FME Flow core. 
For example, the Jobs, Projects, and Resources webpages use port 7071, but the Schedules webpage uses port 7073. So, if port 7071 was open between the web application server host and the core host but 7073 was closed, you would see the Jobs webpage working properly, but the Schedules webpage would show an error. 
Please see this FME Flow documentation page  for a full list of the required ports.


"When I try and view Resources or Broadcast Messages in the Web UI, I get the error ‘We could not find what you wanted’"

There is a known issue if you are using FME 2020.0 and have distributed database or web application server please see this article for details on the resolution.
 

“Why does the FME Flow Web interface not display fully when I try to login through the web interface? The login button is not complete.”

If you are viewing the web UI from a Windows Server machine (probably the same machine you installed on), the default security for Internet Explorer 11 will be higher, and you may need to add your IP to the browser’s trusted sites to allow all components of the webpage to display properly.

This issue may be a symptom of a bad install of the FME Flow.
In FME 2017.0,  if you use the 'Custom\Distributed' install option to install FME Server, the installer allows you to set a specific account to run the service. You also define a shared resource directory either on the machine or your network. If the aforementioned account does not have permission, you will face a bad install.

"Can you restrict access to the FME Flow web interface to local traffic only?"

You should be able to control that through the .htacces file. Please see the documentation on your web server for details on how to set that up.
 

Additional Resources 

  1. FME Flow Database Service Does Not Start After Reboot
  2. FME Flow 'Notifier' Fails to Start  
  3. Enabling AES256 in the Java Runtime Environment for Single Sign-On
  4. FME Flow Won't Start - When using a Production Database
  5. Web Application Server Port Already in Use When Running FME Flow
 

Are you still experiencing issues? 

Please consider posting to the FME Community Q&A if you are still experiencing issues that are not addressed in this
article. There are also different support channels available.
 

Have ideas on how to improve this? 

You can add ideas or product suggestions to our Ideas Exchange.

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