Queue sharing group migration

You can combine queue managers from different releases in a queue sharing group. Limit the time you manage a mixed group to only as long as it takes to migrate all the queue managers to the same command level. You cannot combine a queue manager at IBM® MQ 9.0 or later in the same queue sharing group as queue managers earlier than IBM WebSphere® MQ 7.1. You must update all queue managers in a queue sharing group with a coexistence PTF, before migrating any of them.

When you migrate queue managers in a queue sharing group, aim to migrate all the queue managers to the new version as soon as you can. Queue sharing groups can contain queue managers with a restricted mixture of versions. A mixture of queue managers in a queue sharing group is supported so that you can migrate and test the upgrade of each queue manager.

Migrate each queue manager, one at a time, leaving the queue sharing group running. At no stage is an outage of the entire queue sharing group required. Mixed groups are harder to administer, than if all the queue managers are at the same version.

Migrating each queue manager comprises the bulk of the work of migrating a queue sharing group. Approach migrating a queue sharing group as requiring some extra tasks that must be performed during the migration of each queue manager. These tasks are listed in Migrating IBM MQ for z/OS - order of tasks as part of the procedure to migrate a single queue manager.

A good approach is to create a migration plan incorporating queue sharing group migration; see Planning to migrate IBM MQ to a later version on z/OS for further information.