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FME Flow Troubleshooting: Jobs and Transformations

Shirley Chan
Shirley Chan
  • Updated

Full Guide: FME Flow Troubleshooting Guide

This article specifically applies to problems in which you are unable to perform or complete a job in FME Flow (formerly FME Server). For troubleshooting tips where you are unable to submit a job, please see FME Flow Troubleshooting: Submitting a Job in FME Flow.

 

Content Overview 

Initial Troubleshooting

  • Are you encountering this issue with all workspaces, for example, try running the austinApartments.fmw from the Samples Repository and do you still hit an error?
  • Are you encountering this issue running the job under the Job Submitter service, or only one of the other services?
  • Turn on developer tools in your browser. Open the Network tab and then run the job in the FME Flow web interface. Check for any error messages that are returned. 
  • Check the Core and Tomcat log files for any ERROR or SEVERE messages. These in particular could be useful:
    • <fmeserverSystemShare>\Logs\tomcat\catalina.log
    • <fmeserverSystemShare>\Logs\tomcat\localhost_access_log.txt
    • <fmeserverSystemShare>\Logs\core\currentfmeserver.log
    • <fmeserverSystemShare>\Logs\core\processmonitorcore.log
    • <fmeserverSystemShare>\Logs\engine\processmonitorengine.log

Common Issues

"My workspace fails in FME Flow and I'm not sure why."

Workflows that run in FME Form (formerly FME Desktop) but not in FME Flow could indicate an issue with the FME Engine. To check if the FME Engine is causing issues:

  • Create a command file with the complete path to the workspace file
  • Open the command window in FME Form directory
  • In the FME directory, run the following command
    fme.exe COMMAND_FILE <pathToCommandFile>

If the error occurs, the FME Engine is at fault.

For more information on this topic, please see Job Failures: Determine if FME Flow or FME Engine is the Cause.

 

'FME Flow transformation failed: A fatal error has occurred. Check the log file above for details.'

The log file may have reader and writer errors, indicating the reader cannot open the source data file/directory. FME Flow runs on Windows Service, which starts before the operating system can define the mapped drives. FME may not understand the drive mappings and thus cannot find the source data nor write to mapped drives.

To resolve this issue, you can redefine the file paths with Universal Naming Convention (UNC) if your workspace is reading or writing data to a network drive. UNC uses a network-based path format and follows this pattern:
\\ServerName\SharedFolder\Resource

For more information on this topic, please see Workspace Fails Using FME Flow Data in Mapped Drive.

 

"I get a '401 Unauthorized' error when making a FME Flow request.”

FME Flow will respond with the '401 Unauthorized' error when no authorization has been given for a resource that requires it. To give authorization:

  • Include the following header in the REST API:
    Authorization: fmetoken token=your-fme-server-token
  • Accept a token query string for all services, including the REST API. For example:
    http://<host>:<port>/fmejobsubmitter/Samples/austinApartments.fmw?token=your-fme-server-token
  • Use basic authentication using these steps
    • Set authorization header to
      Authorization: Basic <base64 encoded string "username:password">
    • Include the username and password in the URL
      http://username:password@<host>:<port>/fmejobsubmitter/Samples/austinApartments.fmw

For more information on this topic, please see 401 Unauthorized Error When Making FME Flow Request.

 

"When I make an HTTP request in FME Flow's services, I receive a '403 Forbidden Error'.”

Unauthorized user credentials can give a '403 Forbidden' error. This may be due to an incorrect username, password, token, or lack of permissions. Verify your username, password, or token is correct and try again.

For more information on this topic, please see 403 Forbidden Error When Making FME Flow Request.

 

“A '404 Error' is returned when I download data.”

A request may be made to the web server, but it does not match the location of the zip file. This is can be resolved in two ways.

  • If the URL being returned by the data download service does not match the zip file residing on the web server:
    • Ensure the zip file is placed in the public directory of the web server. You can check the data download location by opening the fmeEngineConfig file:
      <FME Server Install Dir>\Server\fmeEngineConfig.txt
      Look for the "engineresults" location, e.g.
      FME_WORKING_DIR "!FME_SERVER_ROOT!/resources/system/temp/engineresults"
  • If a separate web server and servlet container is being used (i.e. IIS and Tomcat, or Apache and Tomcat):
    • Identify the file that defines the requests handled by the web server and the requests handled by the servlet container
    • Ensure the filters in the file do not cause the ZIP file to be forwarded to the servlet engine.

 For more information on this topic, please see Data Download Link Returning 404 Error.

 

“Reader: Failed to open and parse file '\\MyNetworkLocation\Data\Parks.tab'. Make sure that the file exists and is valid”

This is most likely due to permissions. The service accessing the network location may be running under a "Local System" and may not have the necessary permissions. 
Change the user running the FME Flow Engines Services to an account with access to the network. Please refer to Running the FME Flow System Services Under Different Accounts (Windows) for a step-by-step procedure. Once the service accounts have changed, rerun the job and verify that it completes successfully.

For more information on this topic, please see Workspace Fails on FME Flow When Using UNC Paths.

 

“This FME edition does not recognize the 'RoutingFactory' factory.” or "The clause 'FACTORY_NAME AttributeCreator_5 ATTRSET_PROPAGATE_MISSING YES' within 'FACTORY_DEF * AttrSetFactory FACTORY_NAME AttributeCreator_5 ATTRSET_PROPAGATE_MISSING YES INPUT FEATURE_TYPE TestFilter_5_UpdateRecord ATTR fme_db_operation Update OUTPUT OUTPUT FEATURE_TYPE AttributeCreator_5_OUTPUT' is incorrect. It must look like: FACTORY_NAME"

These errors may appear when a workspace runs in Form but fails to complete in Flow. This is most likely due to a workspace being created and/or edited in a newer version of Form and then run on an older version of FME Flow. Please refer to FME Versions and Workspace Compatibility.
Ensure your FME Form and FME Flow are the same version, then copy over and/or rebuild the workspace in FME Form and republish to FME Flow. Alternatively, you can update the FME Flow engines to the latest version.
For more information on this topic, please see Workspace Fails on FME Flow FME Version Incompatibility.

 

“My Data Download Service output an empty ZIP file.”

An empty ZIP file with no data may be produced when trying to generate a dataset over 10 GB. FME Form uses the Windows %TEMP% directory and may fill to capacity. This causes the ZIP file to fail and produce an empty file. To resolve this issue:

  • Ensure you have sufficient disk space
  • Use the 64-bit FME Form build
  • Upgrade your operating system
  • Split the dataset into smaller sets

For more information on this topic, please see Data Download Service ZIP Files Greater Than 10GB May Be Empty.

 

“When I use the Data Streaming service in FME Flow, I get a .ZIP file instead of a data stream."

For workspaces outputting more than 1 file, FME Flow will ZIP the files into an archive.
Rerun the workspace in FME Form and check the outputs. Some outputs appear to be one item may be a collection (i.e. a shapefile contains a .shx and .dbf file). When the issue is corrected in Form, republish the workspace to FME Flow and run the Data Streaming service again.
For more information on this topic, please see Data Streaming Service Returns a ZIP file.

 

“My Data Streaming service returns a blank response."

When sending a POST with a large amount of content, a blank response may be returned. The "Request Data" section of the job log may also show the parameter input is empty.
FME Flow's Data Streaming service does not support text parameters larger than 2MB and will remove the content.
To increase the post size, open the server.xml file (default location is C:\Program Files\FMEFlow\Utilities\tomcat\conf\server.xml), navigate to the Connector section, and add the following text:
maxPostSize="67589953"
Restart the FME Flow Application in Windows Service and rerun the workflow.
For more information on this topic, please see Known Issue: Data Streaming cannot submit a POST body larger than 2 MB.

 

“Non-English File Names in a ZIP File Are Scrambled When Unzipped”

A non-English version of Windows 7 or 8 uses the native Windows file compression and the file is not zipped using UTF-8 encoding. 
To resolve this problem, zip the file on MacOS, Linux, or Windows.
For more information on this topic, please see Non-English File Names in a ZIP file are Scrambled when Unzipped.

 

“FME Flow can't read ZIP files with long file paths in Windows.”

Workspaces with a ZIP file source may produce an error that the file could not be opened. This may be due to Windows having a maximum path length restriction of 260 characters. The FME Engine will not read the file and the translation may fail. To resolve this issue: 

  • enable Windows 10 long paths
  • shorten the name of the ZIP file or subfolder/file name

For more information on this topic, please see Reading zip files on FME Flow fails with long file paths.

 

“I submitted a job from Automations, and it's stuck running, and I cannot cancel it.”

For FME Flow versions prior to 2024.2, jobs submitted through Automations may get stuck running and cannot be canceled. The FMEProcessMonitorEngine, FMEServer, or job log may show the following errors:

AUTOMATIONS writer: FME Flow error: FME Flow error: UNPROCESSABLE_REQUEST(Automations) Route "AutomationWriterFeatureType" does not exist''

 

ERROR engine-localhost-localhost_Engine1 SQLException: ERROR: invalid byte sequence for encoding "UTF8": 0x00
Where: unnamed portal parameter $18
etc...

To resolve this issue:

  • From the Flow Web UI
    • Navigate to Engine Management under Admin
    • In the Engines Tab, select Edit Engine Distribution
    • In the Hosts page, select Edit > lower Standard Engines to zero > save
    • Restart FME Flow
    • Cancel the Job in the Queued tab under Jobs
    • Once successfully canceled, restore the Standard Engine value

For more information on this topic, please see Known Issue: Job Submitted from Automation is Stuck Running and Cannot be Cancelled

 

"Unknown Result No Log File generated.”

Using underscores (_) in your hostnames is not supported FME Flow. Ensure to use a hostname without an underscore and update the services, machine name, domain name, and IP address.

For more information on this topic, please see FME Flow Cannot Run Jobs - Underscore in Host Name.

 

"The log file for Job ID <n> does not exist.”

The log file may be missing due to the automated system cleanup tasks, the job remaining in the queue, or the job failing to submit. To resolve this error:

  • Change the frequency of the system cleanup via System Configuration > System Cleanup > Schedule Cleanups
  • Review FME Flow Jobs go straight into 'Queued' state and never run
  • Use basic authentication using these steps
    • Set authorization header to
      Authorization: Basic <base64 encoded string "username:password">
    • Include the username and password in the URL
      http://username:password@<host>:<port>/fmejobsubmitter/Samples/austinApartments.fmw

For more information on this topic, please see The Log File for Job ID <n> Does Not Exist.

 

"My Flow jobs go into the Queued state and do not run.”

Please refer to FME Flow Jobs Go Straight into 'Queued' State and Never Run.

 

"There was an error submitting the job.”

Please refer to FME Flow Run Workspace: There was an error submitting the job.

 

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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