Let's say you already have IBMs Installation Manager installed and you want to update Installation Manager to a higher version. 

The imcl (Installation Manager command line tool) command with the version flag can be used to display the version of Installation Manager that is currently installed. In this example, the imcl command is located at /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools/imcl but you may have the imcl command located at some other directory. In this example, version 1.9.1 of Installation Manager is currently installed.

~]$ /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools/imcl -version
Installation Manager (installed)
Version: 1.9.1
Internal Version: 1.9.1000.20191001_1228
Architecture: 64-bit

Let's say you want to update Installation Manager to version 1.9.2. In this scenario, you would download version 1.9.2 of Installation Manager from IBM Fix Central. Let's say that agent.installer.linux.gtk.x86_64_1.9.2001.20211222_1411.zip is downloaded. Make a directory for Installation Manager installation files.

mkdir /opt/IM

Use the unzip command to unzip the package. The -d /opt/IM option is used to unzip the package to the /opt/IM directory.

AVOID TROUBLE

Do NOT remove the files and directories below /opt/IM (or whatever directory you extracted the zip file to) as these files and directories would be needed for a clean uninstall of Installation Manager.

unzip agent.installer.linux.gtk.x86_64_1.8.5000.20160506_1125.zip -d /opt/IM

In this example, the extracted directory will also contain an imcl command line tool. Use the imcl command line tool to verify that the extracted zip contains a higher version of Installation Manager than what is currently installed.

"install kit" is the version of Installation Manager in the extracted directory and "installed" is the installed version of Installation Manager (which is at /opt/IBM/InstallationManager in this example).

~]$ /opt/WebSphere/IM/tools/imcl version
Installation Manager (install kit)
Version: 1.9.2.1
Internal Version: 1.9.2001.20211222_1411
Architecture: 64-bit

Installation Manager (installed)
Version: 1.9.1.1
Internal Version: 1.9.1001.20191112_1525
Architecture: 64-bit

Use the imcl command in the extracted directory to update Installation Manager.

/opt/IM/tools/imcl install com.ibm.cic.agent
-repositories /opt/IM
-acceptLicense
-showProgress

Install as non-root user

If you will be using Installation Manager as a non-root user, include the -accessRights nonAdmin option.

/opt/IM/tools/imcl install com.ibm.cic.agent
-repositories /opt/IM
-acceptLicense
-showProgress
-accessRights nonAdmin

Installation Directory (optional)

By default, Installation Manager will be installed in the /opt/IBM/InstallationManager directory. The -installationDirectory option can be used to define some other directory. In this example, Installation Manager would be installed in the /opt/InstallationManager directory. 

IMPORTANT

The -installationDirectory must immediately follow the install com.ibm.cic.agent command. If the -installationDirectory does not immediately follow the install com.ibm.cic.agent command, the -installationDirectory option will be ignored, and Installation Manager will be installed to the default location of /opt/IBM/InstallationManager.

If installing Installation Manager as root, there is no need to ensure the target directory exists and has certain permissions. You can simply just issue the install command with the -installationDirectory option, and the target directory will be created if it does not already exist.

/opt/IM/tools/imcl install com.ibm.cic.agent
-repositories /opt/IM
-acceptLicense
-showProgress
-installationDirectory /opt/InstallationManager

The following should be displayed.

Updated to com.ibm.cic.agent_<version> in the /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse directory.

Now reissue the imcl version command using the imcl command at the installed directory to confirm that Installation Manager is running at the higher version.

~]$ /opt/IBM/InstallationManager/eclipse/tools/imcl -version
Installation Manager (installed)
Version: 1.9.2.1
Internal Version: 1.9.2001.20211222_1411
Architecture: 64-bit