Non-root users can install WebSphere® Application
Server Network Deployment in
both silent and interactive mode for full product installations and
removals, incremental feature installations, and silent profile
creation. The term non-root implies an installer on an
operating system such as AIX® or Linux®,
but it also means a non-administrator group installer on a Windows® system. Significant enhancements
have been made to non-root installation in the current version of
the product.
For existing installations, the root or non-root installer who
owns the currently installed files is the only user who can perform
subsequent installation or removal operations on that installation,
unless the owner reassigns ownership of the appropriate directories
and files to another user. The root user is not under the same restriction,
and can delete an installation owned by a non-root user.
The set of post-installation operations that are subject to this
rule includes installing a feature (incremental installation), installing maintenance, uninstalling the product,
and installing a customized installation package (CIP)
created with the IBM® WebSphere Installation Factory on
top of an existing installation in a slip installation.
The full installer programs and the Update Installer (UPDI) check
to verify that the current installer is also the owner of the installed
files.
Installation considerations
There
are various considerations you must examine if you want to install
as a non-root user.
- Non-root installations apply to all of the WebSphere software
components in the product package
Non-root installers can install
all of the components, including:
- WebSphere Application Server
- IBM HTTP Server
- Web server plug-ins
- DMZ Secure Proxy Server for IBM WebSphere Application Server
- Application Client
- Update Installer
- Non-root installations install an operational product
Whenever
possible, if some portion of an installation requires root privileges,
the installation programs provide an option so that the non-root installer
can install an operational product, but without enabling the privileged
option.
- Installation programs identify root-only options
Installation
programs clearly identify privileged options by disabling such options
in the interface of the non-root installer.
- Default installation locations are within your home directory
Default
installation locations are within the home directory of the non-root
installer to verify a writable disk space. The installation programs
verify that specified disk locations are writable.
- Installation programs display a list of limitations
Non-root
installers see a panel in the installation user interface after prerequisite
checking completes. The panel clearly summarizes limitations that
exist for a non-root installation. The non-root installer can continue
with the knowledge of the existing limitations or can cancel to install
as root without the limitations.
- Silent installers support non-root installations
Silent
installations have a new option across all installation packages that
achieves a similar objective. The allowNonRootSilentInstall option
has a default value of false.
- The installation program checks the value of this option when
a non-root installer attempts the installation. The installation program
ignores the option when the root user is installing.
- A false value discontinues a non-root installation. The resulting
message in the installation log indicates that the allowNonRootSilentInstall
value must be true. The log also indicates non-root installation limitations.
- A true value permits the installation to proceed. The resulting
message in the log indicates conditions that might exist because of
the non-root limitations.
- Comments for the non-root installer option in the sample response
file clearly summarize the limitations.
- Root can use specialized installation routines to install privileged
options
Whenever possible, separately installed privileged options
are integrated with the non-root installation.
Verifying and setting permissions
New feature: A major enhancement to non-root support for the
application server is the ability to verify and set file permissions.
Users can now verify adequate file permissions before installing the
product, and can use a utility to change ownership to another user
for the file system after installation for future operations on that
product.
newfeat
Certain subsequent install operations (SIOs) on
the application server can now be attempted and performed by other
users, whether root or non-root. SIOs include installing features,
edition upgrades, fix packs, and slip installs of customized installation
packages created with the IBM Installation Factory. New utilities
allow you to determine whether your user has sufficient file permissions
to perform a subsequent installation operation successfully before
the operation begins, and to change owner and group file permissions
on a targeted application server installation.
See Verifying and setting file permissions for more information.
Restriction: The permissions features are
not currently available on Windows operating
systems.
Private GSKit installation
New feature: IBM HTTP Server and the Web server
plug-ins installers now install a private copy of IBM Global
Security Kit (GSKit) which allows both root and non-root users to
enable SSL support.
newfeat
In previous versions of the product, IBM Global
Security Kit (GSKit) was installed as a global installation by the IBM HTTP
Server and Web server plug-ins installers and was shared among all
registered applications. The only supported GSKit installation method
was to run the native installation package as a root user. In the
current version of the product, a private copy of GSKit is installed
as part of the IBM HTTP Server and Web server plug-ins installations
which allows non-root users to perform complete installations that
include SSL support.
The GSKit package is installed to the gsk7 directory
within the installing product's root directory.
The private
copy of GSKit is maintained through GSKit update packages delivered
in IBM HTTP Server and Web server plug-in fix packs.
Fix packs are applied using the Update Installer (UPDI).
Because a global copy of the GSKit is no longer
installed, if you are using zones on the Solaris operating system
you can now use the private GSKit without a zone-writable /usr directory.
In previous releases, GSKit had to be installed manually in the global
zone before installing IBM HTTP Server or plug-in in a
non-global zone.
Non-root limitations
There
are some limitations and differences when installing as a non-root
user as opposed to a root user.
- Local Web server plug-in installation
When the Web server
plug-in and the application server are installed on the same machine
(local installation scenario), non-root installation for the plug-in
component is only supported if the application server was also installed
by the same non-root user. Otherwise the Web server configuration
scripts will fail to run against the application server installation.
Home directoriesYou
cannot successfully complete certain post-installation tasks if the
installing non-root user does not have a home directory defined. Any
user installing and using the product must have a valid home directory.
- Port value assignment
- Creating a profile is optional during WebSphere Application
Server Network Deployment installation.
Port
value assignments for the profile occur only when the installation
creates a profile. The port value assignments are part of the profile
configuration.
The installation program does not prompt an
installer for which port values to use, but instead, generates and
assigns a set of nonconflicting port values. The installation program
assigns appropriate port values to a non-root installer, such as greater
than 1024, for example.
- Profile creation avoids port value conflicts by examining port
values in use by other WebSphere Application Server
installations.
Multiple non-root installers diminish the ability
to detect and avoid port value conflicts. WebSphere Application
Server installations are visible to the installer ID only, because
the non-root installations do not register globally. If the root user
performs all WebSphere Application Server installations,
the problem is avoided.
- When running as non-root, the IBM HTTP
Server installation program displays a default port value of 8080.
The
default value for a root installer is 80.
- Operating system and InstallShield Multi-Platform (ISMP) registration
- Installation visibility
The non-root installer cannot
register software packages natively. However, ISMP registers installed
programs in its vpd.properties file, while the
installer programs register installed components in the WebSphere Application
Server installation registry file. Both files are in the home directory
of the non-root installer as opposed to being a globally shared resource
available to all users.
In case a non-root or non-administrator
user is granted access or visibility to share installation information
with a root or administrator user, all installation information cannot
be accessed in certain scenarios. If the non-root or non-administrator
user has previously installed WebSphere Application Server
before increased access rights are granted, the scope of the installation
registry will still be local instead of global.
However, if
the non-root or non-administrator user has not installed WebSphere Application Server before and
access is upgraded, it becomes possible to access global installation
information generated by a root or admin user.
Temporary filesNon-root users installing
on Solaris might experience errors accessing temporary files left
in the
/var/tmp directory from a previous installation
attempt by another user, as seen in the installation log:
Process, com.ibm.ws.install.ni.ismp.actions.FeaturePanelControlAction,
err, java.io.FileNotFoundException:
/var/tmp/normalFeaturePanelControl.xml (Permission denied)
Manually
delete all
*Control.xml files in the
tmp directory
before running the installation program.
Adaptive Fast Path Architecture (AFPA) limitationsAFPA
is a software architecture that dramatically improves the efficiency,
and therefore the capacity, of Web servers and other network servers
by caching static files.
AFPA is a Windows kernel-level
device driver within the IBM HTTP Server. AFPA provides caching
of static files served from IBM HTTP Server. AFPA is recommended
for very high-volume static-file Web sites only.
Dynamic Web
pages, such as those generated by WebSphere Application
Server, are not usually cacheable. Most application servers should
not enable AFPA.
- A Windows kernel-level device driver cannot
install from a non-administrator installer. Windows requires
administrator group privileges when installing device drivers.
- The IBM HTTP Server installation program indicates
to non-administrator installers that AFPA is not installed.
- Users and group definition limitations
IBM HTTP
Server Administrative Server configuration creates users and user
groups. A root user is required to perform such configuration.
- Edge Components
Edge requires root privileges because
of its native installation mechanisms.
Java™ Web
StartThe Application Client supports Java Web
Start (JWS) on all supported platforms. Particularly on a Windows system, the Application Client requires
administrator access in order to configure JWS properly, by updating Windows native registry entries with some
JWS-specific entries.
Non-administrator installers cannot register
the update, which provides less than full support for JWS. For example,
a JWS application cannot launch from the Internet Explorer or Mozilla
Firefox browser.
JWS is not an installable feature for the
Client and cannot be separately installed by an administrator installer.
The installation program lists JWS as one of the non-administrator
limitations on Windows systems.
Windows services
limitations
- The non-root installer cannot create Windows services
for any of the WebSphere Application Server processes,
including the application server, the node agent, the deployment
manager, the IBM HTTP Server, or the IBM Administration
Server.
- An administrator installer can create the service after installation
using the WASService command.
- Menu limitations
Start menu entriesEntries in the
menu are for the non-administrator installer, but they are not available
to all users.
If an administrator installs the product and then
non-administrators create profiles, the non-administrators can see
their shortcuts.
Gnome and KDE menu entriesEntries in
the menus are for the non-root installer instead of being applicable
to all users.
Normally, menu items are only visible to the installing
user. If you want to allow other users who create profiles to see
menu items for their profiles, they must have access to a copy of
the base WebSphere#.menu file. All profile shortcuts
are visible to all users who have access to the base WebSphere#.menu file.
Copy this file into either the /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged directory
(for all users) or the user's $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged directory.
Make sure there are no conflicts between the menu file names in the /etc/xdg/menus/applications-merged directory
and any user's $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged directory.
Uninstallation
considerations
Uninstalling as an administratorIf
an administrator user uninstalls an application server which is owned
by another user, then all registry entries for all application server
instances owned by the administrator will also be removed. You should
uninstall any non-administrator application server with the owning
non-administrator user if possible.