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, 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 product software components.
- 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 7, Windows Server 2012, 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.