Agent Install using root access or userid

Products

• CA Harvest Software Change Manager
• CA Harvest Software Change Manager - OpenMake Meister

Issue/Introduction

Does the agent have to be installed with root access (the root userid) or just started with root access (userid) (or both)?

Environment

Harvest Software Change Manager all versions
zLinux, Linux, Unix platforms

Resolution

The Harvest agent component software does not have to be installed with root access (or using the root userid), but can be installed using any valid userid on the zLinux, Linux or Unix server.  (KB article 398291 explains why a separate userid such as "cascm" or "harvest" should be used rather than the Harvest administrator's personal userid.) 

However, to execute the agent as a multi-user agent, you must execute the process as the root user.

Additional Information

This bit from the Installation and Configuration guide might help:

The agent process on UNIX and Linux can be started in either multi-user mode or single-user mode. The multi-user mode agent requires system root privileges. The single-user mode agent can be started by a normal UNIX or Linux user account.

The user account starting a single-user agent process must have write access to the $CA_SCM_HOME/log directory; otherwise, a log file error similar to the following occurs:

 Error: can not open log file <Hagent_user> in <CA_SCM_HOME> 

Here is the difference between the two modes:

• The multi-user agent is started by the root user, can be configured to run as a service, and allows any user with valid login credentials to the agent's server to connect and use the SCM Agent.
• The single-user agent is started from a command prompt by a non-root user and is accessible only by the user who started the process.  It is meant to be more of a short-term or temporary agent connection and can be configured to run side-by-side with other SCM agent processes and to listen on a different port number.  

You can read more about starting a single user agent here (even though this is the "Windows" version of the page, the ideas in this section also apply to the zLinux, Linux and Unix platforms): Configure Broker and Server Communication on Windows

See these sections:

• "The Single-User Agent"
• "Start a Single-User Agent"
• "Single-User Agent Password Options"
• "Single-User Agent Log File"
• "How to Shut Down the Single-User Agent"

For some zLinux/Linux/Unix specific details about the multi-user agent, check here: Configure Broker and Server on UNIX, Linux, and zLinux

See these sections:

• "Start a Multi-User Agent"
• "Agent Options"
• "How to Enable External Authentication on the Multi-User Remote Agent"
• "How to Disable External Authentication on the Multi-User Remote Agent"
• "Multi-User Remote Agent Options"
• "OpenLDAP External Authentication Connection Options (Remote Agents, UNIX, Linux, and z/Linux)"