Upgrading the level of WebSphere MQ that interacts with WebSphere Application Server

Body

When you upgrade the level of WebSphere MQ you need to let WebSphere Application Server know about this change.

To do this you need to update the MQ_INSTALL_ROOT environment variable to point to the new MQ libraries.

You can make this change from the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console:

1. Log on to the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console.
2. In the navigation tree, expand Environment and select WebSphere Variables so that the WebSphere variables page displays.
3. Click on MQ_INSTALL_ROOT.
4. In the Value field, enter the location of the new MQ libraries.
5. Click OK.
6. Click Save in the Administrative Console task bar.
7. On the Save page, select Synchronize changes with node.
8. On the Save page, click Save.
9. Close the WebSphere Application Server Administrative Console.
10. Stop and restart the affected WebSphere Application Server application servers.

This change requires that you restart the WebSphere servers, and you may have to restart the servers a second time, due to the OSGI cache shared among the servers. When the MQ version changes, this cache needs to be rebuilt based on the new version. All servers sharing the cache need to reflect this new version.

There is a WebSphere environment variable that you can use that removes this second restart requirement. Starting with Fixpacks 7.0.0.31, 8.0.0.7 and 8.5.5.1, APAR PM80934 introduced the MQ_USE_BUNDLE_REFERENCE_INSTALL environment variable. When the variable is set to 'true', the WebSphere MQ JMS bundle is installed using a reference install. A reference install avoids the race condition at startup by avoiding the need for the bundle manifest data to be persisted by the OSGi framework. This variable needs to be set at the cell or node level. Do not try to use it at the Server level.

The following links have more details:

• APAR PM80934
• Installing WebSphere MQ to interoperate with WebSphere Application Server