In between risking my life dodging the hurricane and thinking about RHQ :-) I've written up some more ideas on a "standalone" RHQ installer (to replace the Installer WAR we have today). Let me know what you think: https://docs.jboss.org/author/display/RHQ/Deploying+Via+AS7+Extension+Module#DeployingViaAS7ExtensionModule-AStandaloneInstaller