Choosing how you want to use IBM MQ in containers

There are multiple options for using IBM® MQ in containers: you can choose to use the IBM MQ Operator, which uses pre-packaged container images, or you can build your own images and deployment code.

Using the IBM MQ Operator

If you are planning to deploy on Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform, then you probably want to use the IBM MQ Operator.

The IBM MQ Operator extends the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform API to add a new QueueManager custom resource. The operator watches for new queue manager definitions, and then turns them into necessary low-level resources, such as StatefulSet and Service resources. In the case of Native HA, the operator can also perform the complex rolling update of queue manager instances. See Considerations for performing your own rolling update of a Native HA queue manager

Some IBM MQ features are not supported when using the IBM MQ Operator. See Support for IBM MQ in containers for details of what is supported when using the IBM MQ Operator.

Note that the IBM MQ Operator does not support installing on an OpenShift cluster with multi-architecture compute machines.

Building your own images and deployment code

This is the most flexible container solution, but it requires you to have strong skills in configuring containers, and to own the resultant container. If you aren't planning to use Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, then you will need to build your own images and deployment code.

Samples for building your own images are available. See Building your own IBM MQ container and deployment code.

See Support for IBM MQ in containers for details of what is supported when building your own image and deployment code.