Best Practices for Upgrading FME Flow Hosted

Overview

Upgrading an FME Flow Hosted instance involves launching a new instance on the target version and migrating your configuration and data. This article explains:

Which upgrade approach to use for stability and minimal downtime
What happens to your billing during an upgrade, for each plan type
What Safe Software handles for you as a PaaS provider, and what you are responsible for
Where to go for upgrade assistance

For the step-by-step upgrade procedure, see Upgrading an Instance in the FME Flow Hosted documentation.

Upgrades Are Your Responsibility — Here’s Why

FME Flow Hosted is a PaaS. Safe Software manages the underlying infrastructure — hardware, OS, networking, and security patching — but does not have access to the FME Flow application layer on your instance. This means FME Flow version upgrades are self-service under the included support plan.

This also means there is a practical deadline: Safe Software provides technical product support for each FME Flow Hosted version for 2 years from its public release date. Each FME Flow version is tied to a specific Ubuntu release, and security patching is available only while that Ubuntu version remains within its own support lifecycle. Once either window closes, you will need to upgrade your FME Flow version to stay eligible for ongoing security patching. For the full shared responsibility breakdown, see the FME Flow Hosted Support Policy. If you’d prefer not to manage upgrades yourself, see the MSP Partner options covered in the Support section below.

Choosing Your Upgrade Approach

The upgrade documentation organizes paths by two factors: which version boundary you are crossing, and whether you need to keep your existing instance URL. These two factors produce very different outcomes — and it is worth understanding why before you start.

Changing the URL — consistent across all version scenarios

If you can accept a new URL, the procedure is essentially the same regardless of which version boundary you are crossing: clone the instance, back up, restore to the clone, terminate the original, reassign the plan. The only version-specific note is that the clone must be on the same or a higher build number than the source. Downtime is zero.

Keeping the same URL — this is where version matters

The same-URL path evolved significantly with FME Flow 2024.0. Each of the three documentation sections reflects a different capability level:

Scenario	Downtime	Instance Settings Copied?	Uses Clone?	How the URL is Retained
Pre-2024.0 → Pre-2024.0	20+ min	No	No — no clone available for same-URL path	Terminate old instance first, then launch a brand new instance reusing the same URL on launch. A time gap exists between the two.
Pre-2024.0 → 2024.0+	7–10 min	Yes	Yes — clone runs alongside original until restore is verified	Terminate old instance, then change the new (clone) instance URL to match the old. A brief time gap still exists between termination and URL assignment.
2024.0+ → 2024.0+	3–5 min	Yes	Yes — clone runs alongside original until URL is confirmed	Old instance stays live. Its URL is freed temporarily, assigned to the new instance, confirmed, then the old instance is terminated. No time gap — rollback is possible right to the last step.

The critical shift at 2024.0 is twofold: cloning became available for same-URL upgrades (removing the need to terminate the old instance before a new one exists), and in the 2024.0+ → 2024.0+ upgrade, the old instance stays live until the URL transfer is confirmed — giving you a genuine rollback point right up to the last step.

Scenario	Recommended Approach	Downtime	Instance Settings Copied?	Stability
Pre-2024.0 → Pre-2024.0(with URL change)	Clone + change URL	None	Yes	High
Pre-2024.0 → Pre-2024.0(must keep same URL)	Snapshot + terminate + new instance + restore + URL reassign	20+ min	No	Moderate (no parallel instance)
Pre-2024.0 → 2024.0+(with URL change)	Clone + change URL	None	Yes	High
Pre-2024.0 → 2024.0+(must keep same URL)	Clone + URL swap	7–10 min	Yes	High
2024.0+ → 2024.0+(with URL change)	Clone + change URL	None	Yes	High
2024.0+ → 2024.0+(must keep same URL)	Clone + URL swap	3–5 min	Yes	Highest

Cost Implications During an Upgrade

Every upgrade approach involves temporarily running two instances in parallel: the original and the clone. The cost impact depends on your plan type.

Plan Type	Upgrade Cost Impact	What Happens	Tip
Pay-as-you-go (Hourly)	Low — 1 hour minimum instance-hours	Both old and new instances run concurrently during the upgrade window. Each is billed at the hourly rate (minimum 1 hour per instance). Storage for the new instance begins accruing immediately.	Run the upgrade in one session. Terminate the old instance as soon as you verify the new one works.
Annual Plan	Minimal — pay-as-you-go rate for clone only	Your Annual Plan is tied to the original instance. The cloned instance runs at pay-as-you-go rates until you terminate the original and reassign the plan. The overlap duration depends on how long your backup and restore takes.	Reassign the plan to the new instance immediately after terminating the old one to stop pay-as-you-go charges.
FME Platform Subscription (bundled)	Similar to Annual Plan	The subscription covers one instance. The clone runs at pay-as-you-go rates during the upgrade window. Plan reassignment is required after the upgrade.	Contact Safe Software sales with questions about your specific bundled plan.

Pay-as-you-go: the upgrade-specific cost to know

The key difference during an upgrade: you are billed for both the original and the clone simultaneously until you terminate the original. Storage charges also begin on the new instance immediately, even while it is paused. For a full breakdown of hourly rates, storage, and data transfer costs, see the FME Flow Hosted Pricing and Sizing article.

Reducing costs during an upgrade

Complete the upgrade in a single, uninterrupted session to minimize the parallel-running window.
Pause the original instance before terminating it if you want to stop instance-hour billing while you do final checks (storage charges still apply).
For large data sets, back up to S3 rather than downloading locally — transfers between FME Flow Hosted and S3 within the same AWS region are $0.01/GB each way, which is significantly cheaper than the $0.13/GB outbound rate to the public internet.
Remove snapshots once the upgrade is confirmed to avoid ongoing snapshot storage costs.

Annual Plans — plan reassignment: After terminating the original instance, go to Account Settings > Billing > Subscriptions to reassign your Annual Plan to the new instance. See Managing Billing in the FME Flow Hosted documentation for instructions.

Before You Upgrade: Checklist

The Upgrading an Instance documentation covers the full procedure. Work through these points before you start:

Review the FME Flow release notes for the target version — some major releases include migration steps specific to your configuration.
Back up your FME Flow configuration. For large data sets, use an Amazon S3 bucket — transfers between FME Flow Hosted and S3 within the same AWS region are $0.01/GB each way. See Backing Up an FME Flow Configuration. Please note that the clone copies instance settings and configuration only — your workspaces, jobs, and Automations are not carried over. The FME backup via the UI is what moves that data. Without this you could clone, skip the FME backup, and find an empty instance on the other end. Also note that the old instance's encryption key is required to restore the backup file — if it's lost, the data cannot be recovered.
Clone to the same or a higher build only — you cannot clone to an older FME Flow build number than the source instance.
Take a snapshot before terminating the original instance — it gives you a point-in-time rollback if something goes wrong. Remove it once the upgrade is confirmed successful.
Note your current instance type, URL, and assigned plan details — you will need these when reassigning your plan after the upgrade. Reassign immediately after terminating the original to avoid accruing pay-as-you-go charges on the new instance. Also note that if you have a static IP on the old instance, you'll need to pause the old instance, detach the IP, and reattach it to the new one as part of the cutover.
Schedule during a low-traffic period to minimize business impact and reduce the cost window while two instances run in parallel.
Verify you have an Emergency Contact on file (Account Settings > Emergency Contact) — Safe Software may need to reach you if an issue arises during or after the upgrade.

Support Options for Upgrades

Upgrade Task	Included Support	Managed Support (MSP)
OS (Ubuntu) maintenance and security patching	Safe Software	Safe Software
Hardware, networking, and cloud infrastructure	Safe Software	Safe Software
FME Flow application upgrade (clone, backup, restore)	Self-service (customer)	MSP Partner
Backup and snapshot before upgrade	Self-service (customer)	MSP Partner
Plan reassignment to new instance	Self-service (customer)	MSP Partner
Proactive monitoring and version tracking	Self-service (customer)	MSP Partner

Included Support

Version upgrades are not covered under the Included Support Plan — they are self-service. See the FME Flow Hosted Support Policy for the full scope of what is and isn’t covered.

Managed Support (MSP Partners)

If you’d prefer not to manage upgrades yourself, MSP Partners can handle them on your behalf as part of a Managed Support Plan. Use the Partner Finder to locate an MSP, and the Support Policy for a comparison of what Included vs. Managed plans cover.