Agent data location (appDataLocation)

The agent data location, or the cic.appDataLocation property, is the directory that contains information about installed packages. This directory is required to update, modify, roll back, or uninstall packages. Stored information includes the state and history of operations.

Changing the content, files, or directories in the agent data location directory or subdirectories is not supported. Any modification to this data is likely to cause corruption of the installed packages making it impossible to update, uninstall, modify, rollback, or install any packages in the future.

The cic.appDataLocation property is recorded in the config.ini file. Depending on the OS, the config.ini file is in one of the following directories:

Windows	install_dir\IBM\Installation Manager\eclipse\configuration
UNIX	install_dir/InstallationManager/eclipse/configuration
OS X	install_dir/Installation Manager/eclipse/configuration

We cannot change the value of the cic.appDataLocation property for the installed Installation Manager. See below for instructions on how to change the location of the cic.appDataLocation property when installing Installation Manager.

The agent data location is established during the installation of Installation Manager from the installation kit. Start the Installation Manager from the installation kit for Installation Manager with the -dataLocation parameter to set the data location of the installed Installation Manager.

Default locations for the agent data location:

Operating system	Administrator installation	Nonadministrator installation	Group installation
Windows	C:\ProgramData\IBM\Installation Manager	C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\IBM\Installation Manager	Not available.
UNIX	/var/ibm/InstallationManager	/user_home/var/ibm/InstallationManager	/user_home/var/ibm/InstallationManager_Group
IBM i	/QIBM/UserData /InstallationManager	/user_home/var/ibm/InstallationManager	Not available.
IBM z/OS	/InstallationManager/appdata	/user_home/InstallationManager/appdata	/InstallationManager/appdata
OS X	/Applications/IBM/Installation Manager	/Users/user_home/var/IBM/Installation Manager	/Users/user_home/var/IBM/InstallationManager_Group

See also Installation Manager command-line arguments for silent mode.

On Windows, the value for the cic.appDataLocation property contains double backslashes. For example:

cic.appDataLocation=C\:\\Documents and Settings\\All Users\\Application Data\\IBM\\Installation Manager

Using the number sign, #, in the path for the agent data location is not supported.

Installation Manager stores information about the installed version and the installation location in the registry file.

To determine the location of Installation Manager, open the registry file and look at the location entry.

Windows Registry key	HKLM\SOFTWARE\IBM\Installation Manager\location
UNIX	location=/var/ibm/InstallationManager
IBM i	location=/QIBM/UserData /InstallationManager

Operating system	Administrator installation	Nonadministrator installation	Group installation
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\Installation Manager\location 64 bit: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\IBM\Installation Manager	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\IBM\Installation Manager\location	Not available
UNIX	/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	user_home/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	application_data_location/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat
IBM i	/QIBM/InstallationManager/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	user_home/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	Not available
IBM z/OS	/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	user_home/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	application_data_location/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat
OS X	/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	user_home/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat	application_data_location/etc/.ibm/registry/InstallationManager.dat

Folder or file	Information
adapters	Directory location where adapters save information for rollbacks
bundles	Contains package bundles
.settings	Preferences
histories	Contains information about previous installations and uninstall procedures
installRegistry.xml	Contains information about known profiles and installed packages
installRegistry	Metadata for installed offerings
installed.xml	Contains information about the set of installation locations and installed packages
license	The license folder is empty for IBM products that do not use Installation Manager licensing.
logs	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 file during installation
uninstall	Contains an executable file and other files that are needed for uninstalling packages