Questions about in place upgrade of FME Server 2022 to Flow 2024

Hi There, Just wondering if you had any success on the in place upgrade? I am planning for a 2024 to 2025 move this year and wondered if you could share experience? If you haven’t moved maybe we could collaborate if you are going from 2022 to 2025. Let me know. Interested in your experience.
Best,
Clifford.

Hi there,

A good starting point is https://support.safe.com/hc/en-us/articles/34243509378061-Known-Issues-in-FME. There is always issues with new functionality being constantly introduced. I always recommend upgrading to the last build… e.g. 2024.2.3 for its stability as it has the most fixes applied.

I assume you only have an express installation, not a distributed deployment?

FME 2023 introduced flow encryption, so when you restore the 2022 back in the 2024 version, be sure to download the key, you’ll need it for future backup/restore operations.

An in-place upgrade requires a larger outage window compared to a side-by-side upgrade as the environment needs to be taken down during the uninstallation, deployment & configuration steps required. A side-by-side upgrade can minimise the outage window required, but then will require additional configuration changes to any load balancers, firewall rules and other infrastructure as the connectivity routes between FME Flow and other components will change.  

In place upgrade involves the following steps:

1. Back Up Configuration.

Warning  If System Encryption is Standard (default) on the FME Flow that is backed up, it must also be Standard on the FME Flow that is restored, and use the same custom encryption key. Before proceeding, ensure your custom encryption key is downloaded and safely saved.

• Backup configuration files from C:\Program Files\FMEServer or FMEFlow
  • fme[*].conf 
  • Any certs within ./lib/security/cacerts 
  • Tomcat configuration files from <FMEServerDir>\Utilities\tomcat\conf 
  • Tomcat keystore 

2. Verify the integrity of the backup by restoring the configuration to the existing FME Flow. A successful restore indicates the backup is valid.
3. Uninstall FME Flow.
4. Install the newer version.
5. Restore Configuration.

Upgrading Process using a Second machine… side by side:

To remove the need for an outage window, you can backup FME on MACHINE1. Restore the version on MACHINE2. You will have to manage the migration of the license and applying a new SSL certificate on machine 2. Also the FME Flow Web URL may need a different DNS entry depending on the magic your IT can perform.