eDirectory 8.8 and up supports installation and configuration of eDirectory servers by a nonroot user. Earlier versions of eDirectory could be installed and configured only by a root user with only a single instance of eDirectory running on a host.
With eDirectory 8.8 or higher, any nonroot user can use a tarball build to install eDirectory. There can be multiple instances of eDirectory binary installs by the same or different users. However, even for non-root user installs, the system-level services such as NICI, SNMP and SLP can be installed only with the root privileges (NICI is a mandatory component, and SNMP and SLP are optional components for eDirectory functionality). Also, with a package install, only a single instance can be installed by the root user.
After the install, a nonroot user can configure eDirectory server instances using his or her individual tarball installation, or by using a binary installation. This means that there can be multiple instances of eDirectory servers running on a single host because any user, either root or non-root, can configure different eDirectory server instances on a single host by using either a package or tarball install. For more details on the Multiple Instances feature, refer to Multiple Instances and Upgrading Multiple Instances.
Nonroot installation and configuration is applicable to Linux and UNIX platforms only. For more information on nonroot installation and configuration, refer to Nonroot User Installing eDirectory 8.8.