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Shared Installation Type

The shared installation type is designed for environments that have the following characteristics:

• Multiple users share an installation of DevTest from multiple computers.
• Each user has separate data.

In a shared installation, all data and temporary files are stored in user-specified directories. Each user has their own data, but they share a common DevTest installation. With a shared installation, users only need read access to the DevTest programs directory.

If you select the shared installation type in the installer, the installer prompts you to specify the data directory and the temporary files directory. The default location of each directory is the USER_HOME directory.

In a shared installation, the lisa.user.properties file is added to the LISA_HOME directory and the USER_HOME directory for the user that is running the installation. This file contains the lisa.data.dir and lisa.tmpdir properties. You can specify the location of the file by setting the lisa.user.properties system property or the LISA_USER_PROPERTIES environment variable. If either of the properties have been defined as a system property, the system property definition takes precedence.

Note: Although lisa.tmpdir allows you to change the location of where you can store your temporary files, CA does not recommend that you change this property to save the temporary files out to an external mount point or external share. If you encounter issues with product instability, and you are using an external share for temp file storage, Support may instruct you to go back to using a local disk for temp file storage for continued support of your environment.

New users on different computers must manually set up their own lisa.user.properties file in their USER_HOME directory before they attempt to access a shared installation. You can copy the file from the LISA_HOME directory, or you can create it manually if you want to use different directories.

If you attempt to start any DevTest component before setting up this property file, the components will not start. An error message appears on the screen and in the log files indicating an error reading the lisa.user.properties file.