DB2 10.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows

Installing DB2 database servers as a non-root user

Most DB2® database products can be installed as a non-root user.

Before you begin

Before you install any DB2 database product as a non-root user, be aware of the differences between root installations and non-root installations, and the limitations of non-root installations. Refer to the Related Links at the end of this topic for details.

Prerequisites for installing a DB2 database product as a non-root user are:

You must be able to mount the installation DVD, or have it mounted for you.
You must have a valid user ID that can be used as the owner of a DB2 instance.
User IDs have the following restrictions and requirements:
- Must have a primary group other than guests, admins, users, and local
- Can include lowercase letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and the underscore character ( _ )
- Cannot be longer than eight characters
- Cannot begin with IBM, SYS, SQL, or a number
- Cannot be a DB2 reserved word (USERS, ADMINS, GUESTS, PUBLIC, or LOCAL), or an SQL reserved word
- Cannot use any User IDs with root privilege for the DB2 instance ID, DAS ID or fenced ID.
- Cannot include accented characters
- If existing user IDs are specified instead of creating new user IDs, make sure that the user IDs:
  - Are not locked
  - Do not have expired passwords
The hardware and software prerequisites that exist for the product you are installing apply to the non-root user just as they do for root users.
Ensure that kernel parameters are updated as required. On Linux, kernel parameters are managed automatically for root installation but must be updated manually for non-root installations.
On AIX®, Asynchronous I/O (AIO) must be enabled. It is strongly recommended the system has I/O Completion Ports (IOCP) enabled.
Your home directory must be a valid DB2 path.
DB2 installation paths have the following rules:
- Can include lowercase letters (a-z), uppercase letters (A-Z), and the underscore character ( _ )
- Cannot exceed 128 characters
- Cannot contain spaces
- Cannot contain non-English characters
- The path name cannot be a subdirectory of an existing DB2 installation.
- The installation paths cannot be symbolic links.

About this task

Installing DB2 database products as a non-root user is transparent to the non-root user. In other words, there is nothing special a non-root user needs to do to install a DB2 database product, other than being logged in as a non-root user.

Procedure

To perform a non-root installation:

Log in as a non-root user
Install your DB2 database product using any of the methods available to you. Options include:
- The DB2 Setup wizard (GUI install)
- The db2setup command with a response file (silent install)
  Note: Since non-root users cannot choose the directory where DB2 database products are installed, any FILE keyword in your response file is ignored.
Refer to the Related Links at the end of this topic for details.
After the DB2 database product is installed, you must open a new login session to use the non-root DB2 instance. Alternatively, you can use the same login session if you set up the DB2 instance environment with $HOME/sqllib/db2profile (for Bourne shell and Korn shell users) or $HOME/sqllib/db2chsrc (for C shell users), where $HOME is the non-root user's home directory.

What to do next

After the DB2 database product is installed, verify your operating system user process resource limits (ulimits). If the minimum ulimit values are not met, the DB2 engine can encounter unexpected operating resource shortage errors. These errors can lead to a DB2 database system outage.