Wondering what abilities I have on the server when I am not an admin

[uberSCHUMI]

Total newb here.  I was granted access to a development web server (Unix) using PHP/MySQL.  I was searching the net for things like portals and CMS's and I did not know if there are server configurations that need to be applied in order to run some/most of these programs on the dev web server.  Since I am not an admin on the server and they won't take requests to modify the machine/software, I will be severely limited as to what I can actually do to/on this server.

Clarify:
If I downloaded a misc PHP portal or CMS, would I simply be allowed (in most cases) to lay out the directory structure and copy it to the web server, or would I have to perform an actual install of software?  I guess that totally depends on the software I choose, but I was looking for a "in most cases" answer.  The database isn't a major concern of mine, because I would hope I could follow simple instructions for configuring and connecting to it.  You may see me writing about that later though.   ;)

I'm going to search this site some more to get more information, but does anyone have a suggestion for a portal/CMS open source program?

Thanks in advance.

[taith]

it really depends on the program your using... what i suggest, is create an admin account, and a user account to see both of the controls they have...