FME Server can be configured in a distributed install to use an external database (e.g. SQL Server) and for high availability installs this is actually a mandatory requirement. It is not possible to use the embedded FME Server database in a high availability installation.
The current FME Server configuration requires that the connection to the database specifies the port number that the database is communicating on. If the port number is left blank, then (for SQL Server databases) it defaults to 1433.
Independent of FME, as a security measure, SQL Server can be configured to run using dynamic port allocation. So the SQL Server connection port changes over time.
All online references that I have found state that simply removing the port number from the JDBC connection string should be adequate to make use of dynamic port allocation, however, when the port number is removed from the JDBC connection string in the FME Server configuration it is being replaced with 1433. I believe that this is being done by the FME Server code.
My request is to allow FME Server to be configured to make use of dynamic port allocation with SQL Server backend databases.
