Managing profiles for non-root users

The non-root user can receive permissions for files and directories so that the non-root user can create a profile.

Before you begin

This task assumes a basic familiarity with the manageprofiles command, the Profile Management Tool, and system commands.

This task uses the following terms:

Root users refers to:
- Root users
- Administrators
Non-root users refers to:
- Non-root users
- Non-administrators
Installer refers to a root user or a non-root user.

Remember:

About this task

Non-root users might typically need these tasks completed so that they can start their own application servers in development environments. For instance, an application developer might test an application on an application server in a profile assigned to that application developer.

Keep the following guidelines in mind when you are delegating profile management to non-root users and setting the permissions that are required to manage each profile.

For a particular profile, use the same non-root user ID to manage the entire profile. Profile management includes running any command-line scripts that might act on the profile, such as startServer.sh, wsadmin.sh, syncNode.sh, managesdk.sh, and manageprofile.sh. Running these scripts with an alternative user ID, such as a root user ID, might cause other scripts to fail due to mismatched file permissions. In general, start any processes that run on a profile from the same user ID, or from user IDs with compatible file permissions. For example, if you run the deployment manager as the wasuser user ID and then also run the command line tool to generate plug-ins on that same profile, run the tool as wasuser.
Establish the proper permissions to the directory to which you plan to use the command.
In WebSphere® Application Server Version 8.5, files that are created by an administrator outside of the Program Files directory are usable by non-administrators. Therefore, profiles created outside of the Program Files directory can be used by non-administrators to start the server and so on.
An ease-of-use limitation exists for non-root users who create profiles. Mechanisms within the Profile Management Tool that suggest unique names and port values are disabled for non-root users. The non-root user must change the default field values in the Profile Management Tool for the profile name, node name, cell name, and port assignments. Consider assigning non-root users a range of values for each of the fields. You can assign responsibility to the non-root users for adhering to their assigned value ranges and for maintaining the integrity of their own definitions.
When you create a new profile, you can umask to 002 and then run the manageprofiles command to give group users the appropriate permissions.

Procedure

Create a profile as an installer and assign ownership to a non-root user.

This article describes how the installer creates a profile and assigns ownership of the profile directory to a non-root user so that the non-root user can start the application server for a specific profile.
Grant write permission of files and directories to a non-root user for profile creation.

This article describes how an installer can create a profile and assign ownership of the profile directory to a non-root user so that the non-root user can start the product for a specific profile.
Install maintenance as an installer and change the ownership of profile-related files.
This article describes how to install product maintenance and change the ownership of new profile files to the non-root user that owns the profile. The installer changes ownership of the files so that the non-root user can then successfully start the application server.

Results

Depending on the tasks that the installer followed, the installer has completed the following actions:

Created a profile for a non-root user and assigned ownership of the profile directory to the non-root user
Granted permission to the appropriate directories so that non-root users can create profiles
After installing maintenance, changed ownership of new profile files in a directory that is owned by a non-root user, so that the non-root user can successfully start the application server

Note: Connections to the Derby database might not work, and you might see errors like the following in the logs:

java.io.FileNotFoundException: C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere\AppServer\derby\derby.log (Access is denied.)

These errors can happen when files under app_server_root are read-only. You can configure Derby to write its log to another location by setting the following property in the app_server_root/derby/derby.properties file

# This property can be set to make Derby log to System.err.  This is useful if you 
# do not have write permission to the default location: 
/opt/wasprofile/derby/derby.log derby.stream.error.field=java.lang.System.err

What to do next

Depending on the tasks that the installer completes, a non-root user can create a profile, start WebSphere Application Server, or do both.