When installing IBMs Installation Manager, you can use either the installc or the userinstc command to install Installation Manager. If Installation Manager was installed in admin mode, which typically means the install was done using the root user account, only root will be allowed to use Installation Manager.

[root ~]# ./installc -acceptLicense -showProgress

If Installation Manager was installed in non-admin mode, which usually means the install was done as a non-root user, only root and the non-root user that installed Installation Manager will be allowed to install products using Installation Manager. In this example, Installation Manager was installed as john.doe.

[john.doe ~]# ./userinstc -acceptLicense -showProgress

You can view the Installation Manager logs to know if Installation Manager is configured to run in admin mode or non-admin mode. The Installation Manager logs are located at /var/ibm/InstallationManager/logs/. In this example, Installation Manager is in admn mode.

<key>Installation Manager mode: {0}</key>
<arg>admin</arg>

As an example, if Installation Manager was not installed by jane.doe, when jane.doe attempts use Installation Manager, error CRIMC1018E will be displayed.

[jane.doe ~]# ./imcl install com.ibm.websphere.BASE.9.0.0_20181101_0200 . . .
. . .
CRIMC1018E ERROR: Administrator privileges are required.