Migrating root configurations to non-root

On Linux® and UNIX operating systems, you can run WebSphere® Application Server Version 8.5 as a non-root user when you previously used a root user ID in Version 6.1 or later.

Before you begin

Supported configurations:

This topic is about configuration migration, such as migrating deployment managers and federated nodes in a network deployment environment. The Application Migration Toolkit for WebSphere Application Server provides support for migrating applications from previous versions of WebSphere Application Server to the latest product version. For information about migrating applications, read more about the Migration Toolkit.

About this task

Previous releases of WebSphere Application Server required root access to the system. The default migration paths to Version 8.5 carry forward that requirement unless you modify the standard migration process.

1. Collect related information.
   • Collect user and group information on the non-root user profile (referred to here as nonroot_user) that will run Version 8.5.
   • Collect user and group information information on any files outside the WebSphere Application Server tree that are are referenced by your current configuration and applications.
     • Library files (.jar files)
     • Resource Adapter Files (.rar files)
     • Keyfiles (.jks and .p12files for example)
     • Other files (database driver files and application helper files or services for example)
   • Does your configuration use Run As User on the servers?

     If it does, include that in your plans. Ideally, they should use RunAsUser nonroot_user.

   • Do your applications or your application-server configurations use system services with user-restricted access?
2. Provide access to all necessary files, including files in the the WebSphere Application Server configuration directories and all files outside the WebSphere Application Server tree that you identified in the first step.
   1. Perform one of the following actions:
      • Change the ownership of the previous version's installation.

        chown -R nonroot_user WAS_HOME
        chown -R nonroot_user USER_HOME

      • Change the restrictions of the previous version's installation.

        chmod -R 0777 WAS_HOME
        chmod -R 0777 USER_HOME

   2. Change ownership or group access for all the files outside the WebSphere Application Server tree that you identified in the first step.
3. Install Version 8.5 using nonroot_user.
4. Create a migration backup directory accessible by nonroot_user.
5. Use the migration tools to migrate your previous configuration to Version 8.5.