Hi @David Wright​ 

If you are sure that you do not have ArcGIS Pro arcade expression and the SDE connection is correct, it is possible that the issue may be related to an architecture mis-match.

ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.1 is a 32bit application and thus will require 32bit FME Desktop to check for ArcGIS Licensing.

Although, Esri has released a small utility to leverage 64bit capabilities which FME can also use. You can download the Esri 64bit Geoprocessing

Option 1 -- Use FME Desktop 32bit

Option 2 --Install Esri 64bit Geoprocessing

How to Download ArcGIS Desktop Background Geoprocessing (64bit) from MyEsri 

• Log in to MyEsri https://my.esri.com/
• Click My Organizations --> Downloads 
• Under Download, Select ArcGIS Desktop Version you have installed
• Download the Utility 

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• Confirm that the package is installed. Go to ArcCatalog / ArcMap --> Help --> About

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It may be required to restart the workbench.

I don't think so; the log shows it checking out the "Advanced" license properly. And having both ArcGIS Pro 2.7 and ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.1 installed (with background GP installed as I use this a lot) should provide access to all possible DLLs/APIs that are needed.

An ArcGIS license is already checked out. The product checked out is 'Advanced'

Installed ArcGIS version is '10.8.1'

Ok in this case this is definitely that case of reading a table that is only available in ArcGIS Pro. 

Can you confirm this i.e. open the table in the workspace in ArcGIS Desktop 10.8.1? 

Solution:

Force FME to use ArcGIS Pro license

In order to do this, please do the following 

Open Workspace, Go to Workspace Parameters --> Scripting --> Python Compatability 

Set the value to " Esri ArcGIS Python 3.6" as below 

NOTE: ArcGIS Pro 2.7 is officially supported in FME(Esri and FME compatibility) as it is released in Dec, the support will be added in the next minor release( It may still work in your current FME Desktop)

If you do not have any Python transformer and code in the workspace, please add a simple line in the Startup Python script dialog

import os

Run the workspace, confirm that ArcGIS Pro is license checked in the log file. 

import os

No, this GDB is never used in Pro; it's a enterprise application and the DB is only used in ArcGIS Server/ArcGIS Desktop. Yes, I have verified and ran my manual processes from ArcCatalog.

@David Wright​ - I'm having the exact same issue with FME 2021 and Arcgis 10.8.1. The error doesn't make sense as I'm using only Arcgis desktop but not using Arcgis pro.

Were you able to resolve this issue?

Tagging @richardatsafe​ , @andreaatsafe​

Hi _gc; I ended up rebuilding the connection documents used in the service connections. As the ESRI connection documents (.sde) are binary files there is not a good way to troubleshoot them.

Hi @fmeuser_gc​ 

Can you confirm that the connection files can be opened in ArcCatalog or ArcMap application?

As suggested by @David Wright​, Can you try to recreate the *.sde files?

Can you confirm if you can read FileGeodatabase on the same machine? -- This test would clarify if the issue is with the connection file or FME is unable to check Esri license.

@rahulsharma​ - It worked after I recreating SDE file. However these errors doesn't make sense as the earlier used SDE file was created in ArcGIS 10.8.1 as well.

Still no sign of tips towards a real answer; and this is a major breaking issue.

Hi @David Wright​ 

We can troubleshoot this via a support ticket. We have added a new option in FME Desktop 2021 which will handle this situation slightly better.

Go to Navigator --> Translation --> Esri ArcGIS Compatibility --> ArcGIS Pro



this worked in my case