Single installation of IBM WebSphere® MQ 7.1, or later, configured as the primary installation

Marking an IBM® MQ installation as primary adds symbolic links, or global environment variables to the system so that the IBM MQ commands and libraries used by applications are automatically available with minimum system setup required.

You decide where to install IBM MQ.

Where possible, configure applications and scripts to use the system search path to find the IBM MQ control commands or IBM MQ libraries. This configuration of applications and scripts provides maximum flexibility for undertaking future tasks such as migrating to the next release of IBM MQ, or installing a second installation. For more information about options for connecting your applications, see Connecting applications in a multiple installation environment.

On Windows, the first installation is automatically configured as the primary installation. On UNIX and Linux® platforms, the first installation onto a system must be manually configured to be the primary installation. Set the primary installation using the setmqinst command. For more information, see Uninstalling, upgrading, and maintaining the primary installation.