HCL OneTest API for non-administrative users

To run HCL OneTest API as a non-administrative user, you must install the software as a non-administrative user. On Linux systems, if you already installed HCL OneTest API as a root user, you can change the ownership of the product installation directories, and then use the software as a non-root user.

You have two options to make HCL OneTest API available to non-administrative user profiles.

Option 1: Install the software as a non-administrative user
  1. Install Installation Manager and HCL OneTest API for non-administrative users.
  2. If there are multiple users, create a non-administrative user group, and assign read and write permissions to the product and log directories to the user group. For Linux systems, see Modifying the directory ownership for Linux systems
When you install these products as a non-administrative user, the installation directory is the user's home directory: on Linux systems, $HOME for that user, and on Windows systems, %UserProfile% for the user.

Option 2: (applies to Linux installations only) Install the software as a root user, and change the ownership of product directories to a non-root user

  1. Install Installation Manager as an administrative user. See Installing HCL OneTest API.
  2. Install HCL OneTest API as an administrative user. See Installing HCL OneTest API.
  3. Change the ownership of all product files and directories, including the log directories, to a non-administrative user. If there are multiple users, create a non-administrative user group, and assign read and write permissions to the product and log directories to the user group. For Linux systems, see Modifying the directory ownership for Linux systems.
Remember: If you change file or directory permissions, you must repeat the process after each product upgrade.

Installing Installation Manager and HCL OneTest API for non-administrative users

  1. Install Installation Manager as a non-administrative user by using the userinst program. In the following table, see the installation command to use and the default installation directories.
    Installation Manager commands and directories for administrative and non-administrative user instances
    Installation commands and directories Administrative user installation Non-administrative user installation
    Command to install Installation Manager Windows systems: install.exe Windows systems: userinst.exe

    Linux systems: # ./install

    Linux systems: # ./userinst

    Installation Manager installation directory Windows systems: C:\Program Files\IBM\Installation Manager Windows systems: %UserProfile%\IBM\InstallationManager\eclipse

    Linux systems: /opt/IBM/InstallationManager

    Linux systems: $HOME/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse

  2. Use Installation Manager to install HCL OneTest API and the required components by following the instructions in Installing HCL OneTest API. See the following table for the default installation directory for administrative and non-administrative user installations. During the installation you can modify the default installation directories.
    Tip: For non-administrative user installations on Linux systems, it is a good practice to set the installation directory to a path that is not in the home directory of the installing user. On Windows systems, do not install to the Program Files directories.
    Table 1. HCL OneTest API installation directories for administrative and non-administrative user instances
    Installation directories Administrative user instance Non-administrative user instance
    HCL OneTest API installation directory Windows systems: C:\Program Files\HCL\HCLProducts\API Windows systems: %UserProfile%\HCL\HCLProducts\API
    Linux systems: /opt/HCL/HCLProducts/API Linux systems: $HOME/HCL/HCLProducts/API
    HCL OneTest API Agent Windows systems: C:\Program Files\HCL\HCLProducts\Agent Windows systems: %UserProfile%\HCL\HCLProducts\Agent

    Linux: /opt/HCL/HCLProducts/Agent

    Linux systems: $HOME/HCL/HCLProducts/Agent
    HCL® Quality Server installation directory Windows systems: C:\Program Files\HCL\HCLProducts\QualityServer Windows systems: %UserProfile%\HCL\HCLProducts\QualityServer
    Linux systems: $HOME/HCL/HCLProducts/QualityServer
  3. During the HCL® Quality Server installation, enter the path to the HCL® Quality Server workspace. See the following table for examples.
    Tip: Set the HCL® Quality Server workspace to a directory location to which you have write permission. Ensure that the directory path does not have any spaces.
    Table 2. HCL® Quality Server workspace locations for administrative and non-administrative user instances
    Installation directories Administrative user instance Non-administrative user instance
    HCL® Quality Server workspace Windows systems: C:\HCL\HQS-Workspace Windows systems: C:\HCL\HQS-Workspace
    Linux systems: var/hqs Linux systems: $HOME/var/hqs
  4. For the technologies that you want to use for testing, configure the application settings and the libraries to include by running the Library Manager for HCL OneTest API and HCL OneTest API Agent. For more information on running the Library Manager, see Working with Library Manager. Running the Library Manager creates the librarysettings.xml file. See the following table for the file location.
    Note: In the non-administrative installation environment, Library Manager cannot access the network interface, so you cannot use the packet capture recording mode. You can only use the external proxy server recording mode.
    Table 3. Location of the librarysettings.xml file
    File File location
    HCL OneTest API librarysettings.xml file Windows systems: : %UserProfile%\.integrationtester
    Linux systems: $HOME/.integrationtester
    HCL OneTest API Agent librarysettings.xml file Windows systems: %UserProfile%\HCL\HCLProducts\Agent
    Linux systems: $HOME/HCL/HCLProducts/Agent
You can now run HCL OneTest API as a non-administrative user.

What to do next

For multiple users on Linux systems, create a non-administrative user group. Assign ownership to the product and log directories to the user group. For more information about assigning directory ownership, see Modifying the directory ownership for Linux systems

Modifying the directory ownership for Linux systems

If you installed Installation Manager and HCL OneTest API as an administrative or root user on Linux, you can modify the installation directory ownership so that non-root users can run the software.

Note: This procedure is applicable in a Linux environment only. A similar process is not currently identified for Windows installations.

Before you begin

Before you change the directory permissions, ensure that you stop all services.

About this task

This process assumes that you installed Installation Manager as a root user, and then installed HCL OneTest API by using Installation Manager as a root user.

  1. Change ownership of each product installation directory by running the chown command.

    The command syntax is chown -R user:group dir, where user is the name of the user to change the ownership to, group is the user group name, and dir is the directory path of the directory that you want to change the ownership of.

    For example, to change ownership of the HCL OneTest API to a non-root user named John, run the following command: chown -R <john:usergroup1> opt/HCL/HCLProducts/API. You must change the ownership for the following installation directories:
    • opt/HCL/HCLProducts/API
    • /opt/HCL/HCLProducts/Agent
    • /opt/HCL/HCLProducts/QualityServer
    • /opt/HCL/HCLProducts/HCLIMShared
    Note: The HCLIMShared directory is created only if this is the first use of installing a product with Installation Manager, otherwise the currently used IMShared directory is used.
  2. Run the chown command on each product log directory that is not under one of the product installation directories specified in step 1. By default, the product logs are saved to the installation directory. If the location of the log directories is not the product installation directory, you must separately change the ownership of those directories.
  3. Run the chown command on the HCL® Quality Server workspace directory. The workspace directory is specified by the workingDirectory= property in the /opt/HCL/QualityServer/usr/servers/defaultServer/apps/RTCP.war/WEB-INF/classes/container.server.properties file.

You can now run HCL OneTest API and its components on Linux as a non-root user.