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ArcObjects/FGDB and parallel processing issues

stevenjh
Contributor
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Hi all,

I’m running a workflow that reads a licensed FGDB layer, it’s setup within a custom transformer to take advantage of parallel processing.

The problem is I’m getting the following error when the PC spins up 16 instances.

025-06-03 22:38:47|   0.3|  0.0|INFORM|2>   Opening the Esri Geodatabase reader
2025-06-03 22:39:48|   0.4|  0.1|INFORM|2>   The ArcObjects license 'Advanced' is being selected from the ESRILicenseInfo ArcObjects call
2025-06-03 22:39:48|   0.4|  0.0|INFORM|2>   The Esri Product license used by this machine does not include licenses for the 'Advanced' licensing level
2025-06-03 22:40:48|   0.5|  0.1|INFORM|2>   The ArcObjects license 'Advanced' is being selected from the ESRILicenseInfo ArcObjects call
2025-06-03 22:40:48|   0.5|  0.0|INFORM|2>   The Esri Product license used by this machine does not include licenses for the 'Advanced' licensing level
2025-06-03 22:40:48|   0.5|  0.0|ERROR |2>   Unable to perform any licensing related tasks. Please check your Esri ArcGIS Compatibility workspace parameter, found in Navigator -> Workspace Parameters -> Translation. This 64-bit version of FME requires ArcGIS Desktop along with 64-bit Background Geoprocessing; ArcGIS Pro; or ArcGIS Enterprise. Refer to this this article http://fme.ly/qua for more details
2025-06-03 22:40:48|   0.5|  0.0|ERROR |2>   An error has occurred. Check the logfile above for details
2025-06-03 22:40:48|   0.5|  0.0|FATAL |2>   The below feature caused the translation to be terminated

When running this with no parallelism there is no license issues.

I’m wondering if it’s a limit on the number on FGDB reader instances I can have open? But not seeing anything definitive in FME or ESRI docs.

Thanks!

 

As a side note: this idea on being able to limit the number of parallel instances would be great!

Parallel Processing - Choose number of cores/sub-processes to use | Community

danilo_fme
crutledge
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5 replies

crutledge
Influencer
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  • crutledgeInfluencer
  • Influencer
  • June 3, 2025

Hi ​@stevenjh Does your custom transformer use a python caller? I wonder if you can define the #of cores using a variation of:

 

import arcpy

# Use half of the cores on the machine
arcpy.env.parallelProcessingFactor = "50%"

 

At your rest service ^B
stevenjh
Contributor
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  • stevenjhContributor
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  • June 4, 2025

It wasn’t using arcpy at all, but adjusted it so the general workbench did need arcpy (but not anything in the CT).
This now triggers a slightly different error within the CT parallel process logs of:

A compatible ArcGIS application could not be found or is not licensed for Python Compatibility 'Esri ArcGIS Python 3.9+'

So it’s making me think there’s some sort of instances limit still.

crutledge
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emma.at.safe
Safer
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Hi ​@stevenjh,

You're likely right, this does seem related to a limitation with Esri licensing. What might be happening is when parallel processing is enabled, FME may attempt to spin up multiple Esri sessions at the same time, each requiring its own ArcObjects license. For context, FME Form licenses allow up to 8 fme.exe processes (16 threads) running at once.

Have you tried reducing the number of parallel instances to see if the error persists? Or does the translation only succeed when run with no parallelism?

Emma

crutledge
raghavendrans
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stevenjh
Contributor
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  • stevenjhContributor
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  • June 9, 2025

Thanks Emma, from the idea I’d linked to I’m not sure there’s an easy way to manage the number of parallel instances created?

Next time we need to run it I’ll try and find a PC with the RAM we need without so many cores available.

virtualcitymatt
crutledge
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birgit
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  • birgitInfluencer
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  • June 10, 2025

Another question, do you actually have an advanced license? I am asking because the logging shows FME trying to retrieve an advanced license and giving an error on not finding it. Now I know that ESRI error handling can be quite vague so this might not actually be the cause of the problem you're experiencing but it is an avenue that might lead to some answers.

🫠

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