FME Server Troubleshooting: Job Runs on Workbench, but not FME Server

Introduction

Are you able to run a workspace successfully in FME Desktop but it’s failing in FME Server? Please read below for some common troubleshooting tips, questions and resources.
 

Initial Troubleshooting

• Have you reviewed the job log file for errors and/or warnings?
• Have you verified that the workspace is identical between FME Desktop and FME Server?
• Can you run the workspace on FME Desktop on the same machine as FME Server?
• Do all relevant datasets, file paths, web/database connections, etc. already exist?
• Does the FME Server User have permission to access the relevant resources?
• Are you unable to run other jobs on FME Server such as from the Samples repository? Does the job work in Schedules or Automations? If yes to both of these, please review the following troubleshooting guide.
• Does your network allow access to/from the web services and databases used in your workspace?
• Do you have a distributed installation of FME Server? Does the job work on one Engine host but not another? (You can use queue control to route the job to specific Engines for testing)
• Have you tried restarting FME Server?

Common Issues

Please review these troubleshooting suggestions for jobs that are failing on FME Server but succeeding on FME Desktop.
 

“The workspace and parameter values used in FME Desktop and FME Server aren’t identical.”

To ensure the workspace and parameter values are the same, republish the workspace to FME Server and submit the job with the exact same parameter values. If you’re using an web or database connections, verify that the credentials match between the connection you’re using on FME Workbench and FME Server. Also verify that your OAuth web services are using the same app ID and secret.
 

“Mismatched version between FME Desktop and FME Server.”

Confirm that your version and build of FME Desktop matches with FME Server. We strongly advise using the exact same build to avoid compatibility issues. Note that you can have multiple versions of FME Desktop installed side-by-side, and you can find older versions of FME in our FME downloads (Past Versions). Please review the following guide.

Also, please verify your readers and writers were not added in a newer build than your current FME version. To check the build, open the workspace in FME Workbench, go to the Navigator, and hover your mouse over the reader/writer. To update the build, right-click the reader/writer and click “Update Reader/Writer…”, select the “Update Reader/Writer…” option, and click OK.
 

“You’re encountering issues accessing data or a path in a mapped drive or UNC path.”

Please review the following guides to troubleshoot this issue:

• Workspace fails when reading/writing data on a Mapped Drive
• Workspace fails when reading/writing data through a UNC Path

“The following error occurs when attempting to access a web or database connection: Unauthorized request by user due to lack of proper permissions”

This error indicates that the user or token being used to submit the workspace to run has not been granted access permissions to the connection(s) being used within the workspace. Please refer to the following troubleshooting article.
 

“The FME Server services are running under an account that doesn’t have permissions to access relevant datasets.”

If you’re running your FME Server services with a service account, make sure that the account has adequate permissions to all relevant directories and network drives. Please review the following guide.

If you’re running the FME Server Engine with a service account and you have workspaces with SQL Server readers/writers (with Windows Authentication), the Engine will be accessing SQL Server as the service account. Make sure the service account has all required permissions to interact with SQL Server. 
 

“A network firewall or configuration is blocking FME Server’s ability to connect to web services, databases, and/or the internet.”

Make sure that your firewall configuration, ports, load balancer, and proxy settings are all correct to allow connections across your network and/or to the internet.
 

“For ArcGIS-related jobs, the configuration and licensing of your ArcGIS software and/or FME Server is not complete or incorrect.”

When a workspace using Esri formats succeeds on FME Desktop but fails on FME Server, check the following:

• For using ArcGIS applications with FME Server, please review Using FME Server with Esri ArcGIS Software.
• Make sure the correct Esri Python version has been selected in the workspace scripting parameters.
• If the issue still occurs after verifying the above, please contact Safe Support.

“A web connection stopped working after some time but works after being republished.”

Most OAuth web services use access tokens that expire after a certain amount of time, and the tokens must be refreshed. Token refreshes can be done automatically by configuring the web service with an app and redirect URI.

To create an ArcGIS Portal app and web service, see the following guide. For ArcGIS Online, see this guide. For other web services, please review their provided documentation on how to create an OAuth web connection.
 

“There’s a reprojection error when converting between NAD27 and NAD83 datums.”

You may encounter an error like this one: "Could not reproject the geometry of the preceding feature: Reprojector: Could not create reprojection engine". Please review this article.
 

“There are errors when running a workspace using a Python script.”

Please review the following guides for common issues on FME Server related to Python scripts.

• No module named arcpy
• Could not import an external python module

For more information about working with Python on FME Server, see Using Python with FME Server.
 

“The TextStroker isn’t working on FME Cloud, but it works on FME Desktop.”

The TextStroker uses system fonts, and Windows and Mac OS have a wider and different selection of fonts than Ubuntu (which FME Cloud runs on). It's likely the font you're attempting to use isn't available on Ubuntu. As a workaround, you can select a similar-looking font that’s available in Ubuntu.
 

“Other differences may exist in your FME Server environment compared to your FME Desktop host.”

• Please review the following factors that may be different between your FME Desktop and FME Server environments to make sure everything is as consistent as possible:
• For missing package errors such as “Python Exception <ModuleNotFoundError>: No module named ‘fmepy_<package component>’”, please review the following guide.
• Different/missing drivers or third-party client libraries (i.e: Python packages/interpreters, Oracle client, ODBC driver, JAR libraries, bindings file) 
  • See Workspace Fails on FME Server due to Missing Client Libraries
• Environment variables (i.e: PYTHONHOME)
• System encoding or locale
• Timezone (of where the FME Server Engines are installed)
• Missing custom reader/writer formats, custom transformers, coordinate systems, or grid shift files
  • See Publishing Custom resources to FME Server
• Other third-party software or anti-virus may be interfering with the job

Known Issues

There are several known issues where a feature works correctly on FME Desktop but not on FME Server. Many of these issues are eventually fixed. Please review the known issues for your FME Server version to see if your issue has been discovered and if a fix has been released (i.e: 2022.x, 2021.x, 2020.x).

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.

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