Non-administrators (non-root users) can install WebSphere® Application Server Network Deployment in both silent and interactive
nonAdmin mode for full product installations and removals, incremental
feature installations, and edition upgrades.
For existing installations, the user who owns the currently installed
files is the only user who can perform subsequent installation, maintenance,
or removal operations on that installation except under one of the
following conditions:
- Installation Manager and the product were installed in group mode.
- The owner reassigns ownership of the appropriate directories and
files to another user.
The set of post-installation operations that are subject to this
rule includes installing a feature, upgrading a trial or from Express® to the base product,
installing maintenance, and uninstalling the product.
Installation considerations
There
are various considerations that you must examine if you want to install
in nonAdmin mode.
- Non-administrator installations can apply to all of the WebSphere software components
in the product package
Non-administrators can install all of
the components, including the following:
- Application Client for IBM® WebSphere Application Server
- DMZ Secure Proxy Server for IBM WebSphere Application Server
- IBM HTTP Server for WebSphere Application Server
- IBM WebSphere Application Server
- IBM WebSphere Application Server Web 2.0 and
Mobile Toolkit
- IBM WebSphere SDK Java Technology
Edition Version 7.0
- Pluggable Application Client for IBM WebSphere Application Server
- Web Server Plug-ins for IBM WebSphere Application Server
- WebSphere Customization
Toolbox
- Non-administrator installations install an operational product
If
some portion of an installation requires administrator privileges,
Installation Manager provides an option so that the non-administrator
can install an operational product without enabling the privileged
option whenever possible.
- Installation Manager identifies root-only options
Installation
Manager clearly identifies privileged options by disabling such options
in the interface of the non-administrator.
- Default installation locations are within the non-administrator’s
home directory
Default installation locations are within the
home directory of the non-administrator to verify a writable disk
space. Installation Manager verifies that specified disk locations
are writable.
Private GSKit installation
Note: Installing IBM HTTP Server and the Web Server
Plug-ins installs a private copy of IBM Global
Security Kit (GSKit), which allows both administrators and non-administrators
to enable SSL support.
The GSKit package is installed to
the gsk8 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.
If
you are using zones on the Solaris operating system, you can use the
private GSKit without a zone-writable /usr directory.
Non-administrator
limitations
There are some limitations and differences when
installing as a non-administrator as opposed to an administrator.
- 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-administrator installation for
the plug-in component is only supported if the application server
was also installed by the same user. Otherwise, the web server configuration
scripts fail to run against the application server installation.
![[AIX]](../images/aixlogo.gif)
![[HP-UX]](../images/hpux.gif)
![[Linux]](../images/linux.gif)
Home directoriesYou
cannot successfully complete certain post-installation tasks if the
installing non-administrator does not have a home directory defined.
Any user installing and using the product must have a valid home directory.
- Port value assignment
Profile creation avoids port-value
conflicts by examining port values in use by other WebSphere Application Server installations.
Multiple non-administrative 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-administrator installations do not register globally. If an
administrator performs all WebSphere Application
Server installations, the problem is avoided.
Fast Response Cache Accelerator (FRCA) /
Adaptive Fast Path Architecture (AFPA) limitationsFRCA/AFPA
was been deprecated starting with Version 7.0 and its use is discouraged.
There is no support for Windows Vista, Windows 2008, or any later Windows operating systems.
AFPA
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.
- Edge Components
Edge requires administrator (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-administrator cannot create Windows services for any of the WebSphere Application Server processes,
including the application server, node agent,
deployment manager, IBM HTTP
Server, or IBM Administration
Server.
- An administrator 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-administrator 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.