For an install to run smoothly you need:

1. Store client vars in a dsn per best practice. Storing them in the registry will work. Storing client vars in cookies won’t. 
    
2. You need table creation permissions to the db via CF. At least for the install process, which creates all tables and indexes. You can lock it down afterwards. 
    
3. For static and pseudo-static publishing to work, you need write permissions to the web root so either CFFILE or CFHTTP can do their work. 
    
4. CFFILE needs to be enabled so image and file downloads and uploads will work. 
    
5. CFDIRECTORY must be enabled so the various file managers will work. 
    
6. If you are running on Oracle, we tested all of our Oracle installs using either the Oracle ODBC connection (CF5 on down) or the CFMX Enterprise jdbc drivers.
    
7. Your life will be easier/safer if you take advantage of a couple of optional CFX tags. Details are in the software (check the settings screen of the default section for links). The tools are
   
   CFX_fMakeTree
   CFX_TextCrypt