Agent data location

The agent data location, or appDataLocation, is the directory that Installation Manager uses for data that is associated with an application. Associated data includes the state and history of operations that Installation Manager completes.

Important: Changing the content, files, or directories in the agent data location directory or subdirectories is not supported. Changes to these contents might prevent Installation Manager from working.

If you specify a directory location for the agent data location by using the -dataLocation option and the location is not the default value, the specified location must be used each time you use Installation Manager or the Installation Manager installer. For the Installation Manager installer, each time you start the installer, you must specify the same directory location using the -dataLocation option. The installed instance of Installation Manager uses the specified location automatically.

The cic.appDataLocation property is set in the config.ini file. The config.ini file is located as follows:
  • Microsoft™ Windows™:  \Installation Manager\eclipse\configuration
  • Linux:  /Installation Manager/eclipse/configuration
Installation Manager uses the cic.appDataLocation property when this property is defined in the config.ini file. If the cic.appDataLocation property is not defined, Installation Manager uses the default value. This table indicates the default locations.
Table 1. Default agent data locations
Operating system Administrator installation Nonadministrator installation
Windows™ 2008 C:\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\IBM\Installation Manager
Linux /var/ibm/Installation Manager /<user>/var/ibm/Installation Manager
Note: On Windows™, the cic.appDataLocation value contains double backslashes. For example: cic.appDataLocation=C\:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\IBM\\Installation Manager. This text is correct.
To determine the location of Installation Manager, check in these locations:
  • Windows™ Registry key: HKLM\SOFTWARE\IBM\Installation Manager\location
  • Linux:  
    1. Open the /etc/.ibm/registry/Installation Manager.dat file.
    2. Look at the location entry; for example, location=/var/ibm/Installation Manager

Before installing Installation Manager, you can change the value of the appDataLocation property. When you start an Installation Manager installation from the command line, specify the -dataLocation silent command argument. For more information, see Installation Manager command-line arguments.

Example: install.exe -dataLocation C:\HCL\appDataLocation

Table 2. Information stored in the agent data location
Folder or file Information
adapters Directory location where adapters save information for rollbacks
bundles Contains package bundles
.settings Contains preferences
histories Contains information about previous installations and uninstall procedures
installRegistry.xml (file) Contains information about known profiles and installed packages
installRegistry Contains metadata for installed offerings
installed.xml Contains information about the set of installation locations and installed packages
license The license folder is empty for HCL products that do not use Installation Manager licensing.
logs Contains agent log files
p2 Contains Eclipse p2 profile metadata
pluginState Contains Eclipse plug-in state information and the Eclipse error log file
temp Contains temporary files created during installation
uninstall Contains an executable file and other files needed for uninstalling packages with Installation Manager