Support for WebSphere MQ Configuration Agent is removed from IBM OMEGAMON for Messaging on z/OS V7.5

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• SMP/E: Verify if the FMIDs for MQ Configuration are installed in your environment. For V7.3, the FMIDs to verify are HKMC730 and HKCF730. For V7.1, check for the HKMC710 and HKCF710 FMIDs.
• PARMGEN: In your PARMGEN configuration for each runtime environment, in the Include Products in this PARMGEN RTE panel (KCIP@PGI), under the 1 KCIJPCFG Set-up/Refresh PARMGEN work environment navigation from the PARAMETER GENERATOR (PARMGEN) WORKFLOW - PRIMARYOPTION MENU, the KMC OMEGAMON for Messaging – WebSphere MQ Configuration option is selected.
  Note: Configuration Manager does not support the MQ Configuration component.

1. Check whether there are users of MQ Configuration in your environment. In many cases the MQ Configuration component is installed and configured in PARMGEN, but no one is using it. To determine whether there are any users of MQ Configuration, complete the following steps:
   a.    In the Tivoli Enterprise Portal (TEP), using an administrator user ID, click Edit, and then click Administer Users to check whether any users or groups have access to the Configuration navigator view. For users or groups that are configured for TEP, check the Navigator Views tab to see if any of them have Configuration in their Assigned Views. If there is no access to the Configuration navigator, then the users or groups are not using MQ Configuration component.
   b.    In Administer Users, check if there is any user or group that has the Permissions tab showing the View or Modify permission been authorized for WebSphere MQ Configuration Authorities Configure authority. If it is used by anyone, a particular user or group might have the permission to use this feature.
   c.    Check whether there are configured names that reflect queue managers in your environment. In the Navigator pane, click Configuration navigator in the view drop-down list, then click Defined View. In the Defined Tree pane on the workspace, expand the various + items, and with the help of someone who knows MQ queue managers in your environment, see if any of the expanded items reflect queue managers in your environment. There are default and example items shipped with the product but look for names reflecting MQ at your site. If there are no names that reflect queue managers in your environment, then no one is using MQ Configuration.
   d.    If there are users who use MQ Configuration, verify if they require the component. The users might have experimented with it but do not actually use it regularly. If MQ Configuration is not required in your environment, it is recommended to review all the available options added in recent releases of the IBM MQ product offers that can help to configure and administer MQ. Also, remember that the OMEGAMON MQ Monitoring agent offers the Take Action facility to issue any MQSC configuration command if the user is authorized.
2. If you are not using MQ Configuration and want to remove it from your environment, you might need to complete additional steps while installing and configuring OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5. These steps are required if you have previously configured a shared agent address space for MQ monitoring (KMQ) and MQ configuration (KMC) agents. To remove MQ Configuration, complete the following steps:
   a.    If you use a Serverpac that contains the upgraded OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 components to install, the MQ Configuration FMIDs (HKMC730 and HKCF730) are not installed automatically because they are not included in the Serverpac. However, depending on your previous configuration, the missing MQ Configuration component could cause unexpected results in your LPAR runtime environment (RTE), so check and take actions on the following items prior to installation and configuration of OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5:
   1.    If your Hub TEMS is configured on the z/OS platform and there are RKCF* DDNAME statements in your existing Hub TEMS started task JCL, update the TEMS started task JCL to remove those RKCF* DDNAME statements.
   2.    If the MQ Configuration (KMC) and MQ Monitoring (KMQ) agents are running in a shared agent address space, ensure that the owner of that address space is the MQ Monitoring agent. For the MQ Monitoring agent to be the owner, the related PARMGEN LPAR RTE profile parameters for OMEGAMON for Messaging components might need adjusting, as shown in the following example before and after settings.
   Before (MQ Configuration owns the Agent address space called OMEGMQ):
   ISREDDE2 %RTE_PLIB_HILEV%.%RTE_NAME%.WCONFIG(%RTE_NAME%)
   Command ===>
   KMC_AGT_STC OMEGMQ 
   KMC_AGT_STC_OWNER “”
   KMQ_AGT_STC “”
   KMQ_AGT_STC_OWNER OMEGMQ
    
   After (MQ Monitoring owns the Agent address space called OMEGMQ):
   ISREDDE2 %RTE_PLIB_HILEV%.%RTE_NAME%.WCONFIG(%RTE_NAME%)
   Command ===>
   KMQ_AGT_STC OMEGMQ 
   KMQ_AGT_STC_OWNER “”
    
   Tip: Review the SMPE06 upgrade scenario in the OMEGAMON Shared documentation as part of deploying these changes. You can use the refreshed OMEGMQ OMEGAMON for Messaging – KMQ Agent-only address space in the RTE’sW/RKANSAMU dataset for refreshing the original shared address space in your system procedure library. The only delta is the RKMCAPLA DDNAME, which can be staged for removal.
   
   b.    If you install OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 as a CBPDO into an existing SMP/E CSI, the MQ Configuration FMIDs will remain installed, but since you are not using MQ Configuration, it is recommended you follow these steps:
   1. If MQ Configuration (KMC) and MQ Monitoring (KMQ) agents are running in a shared agent address space, ensure that the owner of that address space is the MQ Monitoring agent. See item a.2 above for more details.
   2. In the “Include Products in this PARMGEN RTE panel (KCIP@PGI)” (under step “1 KCIJPCFG Set-up/Refresh PARMGEN work environment” navigation from the PARAMETER GENERATOR (PARMGEN)
   WORKFLOW - PRIMARY OPTION MENU), clear the line with “KMC OMEGAMON for Messaging – WebSphere MQ Configuration” so that it is removed from the runtime environment (RTE) during reconfiguration/upgrade of the RTE. Follow one of the SMPE04 upgrade scenarios documented in the OMEGAMON Shared documentation.
    
   Tip: Prior to upgrading the RTE, you also have the option to SMP/E delete the HKMC730 and HKCF730 FMIDs from the existing CSI. When you start the PARMGEN configuration phase of the upgrade, the inexistence of these deleted FMIDs is PARMGEN’s trigger to delete the product from the RTE upon reconfiguration following any of the SMPEnn upgrade scenarios (SMPE04, SMPE05, or SMPE06).
3. If you have users that use MQ Configuration and want to continue supporting that usage while they move to using other tools, first you need purchase extended support from IBM for this usage since v7.3.0 is no longer in support. With extended support in place, you will need to follow these recommendations when you are installing and configuring OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 for other components: It is highly recommended that you install OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 as a CBPDO into the existing SMP/E CSI so that MQ Configuration remains available. If you do this, there are no other steps required, however, the following step is also highly recommended:
   a. If MQ Configuration (KMC) and MQ Monitoring (KMQ) agents are running in a shared agent address space, separate them into their own address spaces, since they will be running at different product levels. For this, the related PARMGEN LPAR RTE profile parameters for OMEGAMON for Messaging components might need adjusting as shown in the following example, where MQ Configuration is running in an address space called OMEGMC and MQ Monitoring is running in an address space called OMEGMQ:
   ISREDDE2 %RTE_PLIB_HILEV%.%RTE_NAME%.WCONFIG(%RTE_NAME%)
   Command ===>
   KMC_AGT_STC OMEGMCKMC_AGT_STC_OWNER “”
   KMQ_AGT_STC OMEGMQKMQ_AGT_STC_OWNER “”
    

   b. If you want to install OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 in a Serverpac, you will need to retain your old SMP/E CSI and maintain a separate PARMGEN runtime environment to use MQ Configuration separately. This may be acceptable to you if you already have separate MQ Configuration from the rest of your monitoring infrastructure, with its own Hub TEMS. In this case, for the configuration that will contain OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5, see item 2 above, steps a.1 and a.2 in case they would apply to that configuration.
   c. OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5 application support does not include application support for the MQ Configuration component. If you need to re-install application support for MQ Configuration for any reason, you should use the latest V7.3 level of application support. The best way to do that is using the latest fix pack level for v7.3.0 on distributed platforms, that is a ITCAM Agents for WebSphere Messaging V7.3 fix pack.

Important:  MQ Configuration does not function with Persistent Data Store V2 (PDS V2). If you continue to use MQ Configuration, you must continue to use Persistent Data Store V1 (PDS V1).

For more information about OMEGAMON for Messaging V7.5, see IBM OMEGAMON for Messaging on z/OS 7.5.0.
For more information about OMEGAMON installation and configuration with PARMGEN, see IBM OMEGAMON and Tivoli Management Services on z/OS shared documentation.
For more information about recommended ways to configure IBM MQ, see Administering IBM MQ, Configuring queue managers on z/OS, and Using IBM z/OSMF to automate IBM MQ.