Ways of administering IBM MQ queue managers and associated resources

IBM MQ control commands

The control commands provide a way to perform a number of IBM MQ administration tasks. For AIX®, Linux®, and Windows, you issue these commands at the system command line. For IBM i, you issue these commands within a Qshell. See Administering IBM MQ for Multiplatforms using control commands.

IBM MQ Script (MQSC) commands

Use MQSC commands to manage queue manager objects, including the queue manager itself, queues, process definitions, namelists, channels, client connection channels, listeners, services, and authentication information objects.

On AIX, Linux, and Windows, you open a runmqsc command prompt, then issue MQSC commands to a local or remote queue manager from that prompt. You can do this interactively, or you can run a sequence of commands from an ASCII text file. For more information, see Running MQSC commands interactively under runmqsc and Running MQSC commands from text files under runmqsc.

On IBM i, you create a list of commands in a Script file, then run the file by using the STRMQMMQSC command. For more information, see Administering using MQSC commands on IBM i.

On z/OS®, MQSC commands can be issued from a number of sources, depending on the command. For more information, see Sources from which you can issue MQSC and PCF commands on IBM MQ for z/OS.

Programmable Command Formats (PCFs)

Programmable Command Formats (PCFs) define command and reply messages that can be exchanged between a program and any queue manager (that supports PCFs) in a network. You can use PCF commands in a systems management application program for administration of IBM MQ objects: authentication information objects, channels, channel listeners, namelists, process definitions, queue managers, queues, services, and storage classes. The application can operate from a single point in the network to communicate command and reply information with any queue manager, local, or remote, using the local queue manager.

For more information about PCFs, see Introduction to IBM MQ Programmable Command Formats.

For definition of PCFs and structures for the commands and responses, see Programmable command formats reference.

The administrative REST API

The administrative REST API provides a RESTful interface that you can use to administer IBM MQ. When you use the administrative REST API, you invoke an HTTP method on a URL that represents an IBM MQ object. For example, you can request information about IBM MQ installations by using the HTTP method GET on the following URL:

https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/rest/v1/admin/installation

You can use the administrative REST API with the HTTP/REST implementation of a programming language, or by using tools such as cURL, or a REST client browser add-on.

For more information, see The administrative REST API

The IBM MQ Console

You can use the IBM MQ Console to administer IBM MQ from a web browser.

For more information, see Administration using the IBM MQ Console.

The IBM MQ Explorer

On Windows and Linux for x86-64 systems, you can start IBM MQ Explorer by using the system menu, or the MQExplorer executable file.

On Linux, to start the IBM MQ Explorer successfully, you must be able to write a file to your home directory, and the home directory must exist.

For more information, see Administration using the IBM MQ Explorer.

You can use IBM MQ Explorer to administer remote queue managers on other platforms including z/OS.

From IBM MQ 9.3.0, IBM MQ Explorer has been removed from the IBM MQ installation package. It remains available as a separate download, and can be installed from the stand-alone IBM MQ Explorer download available from Fix Central. For more information, see Installing and uninstalling IBM MQ Explorer as a stand-alone application on Linux and Windows.

IBM i Control Language (CL)

This is the preferred way to issue administration commands to IBM MQ for IBM i. The commands can be issued either at the command line or by writing a CL program. These commands perform similar functions to PCF commands, but the format is different. CL commands are designed exclusively for servers and CL responses are human-readable, whereas PCF commands are platform independent and both command and response formats are intended for program use.

For full details of the IBM i Control Language (CL), see Managing IBM MQ for IBM i using CL commands and IBM MQ for IBM i CL commands.

The Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS)

Microsoft Cluster Service (MSCS) enables you to connect servers into a cluster, giving higher availability of data and applications, and making it easier to manage the system. MSCS can automatically detect and recover from server or application failures.