Getting started with the IBM MQ Console

To get started with the IBM® MQ Console, you determine the URI for the console, connect to it and log in.

Before you begin

Before you can use the IBM MQ Console the mqweb server must be installed and configured. For more details, see Basic configuration for the mqweb server.

The mqweb server must be started, see strmqweb (start mqweb server).

To complete this task, you must be a user with certain privileges so that you can use the dspmqweb command:

On z/OS®, you must have authority to run the dspmqweb command, and write access to the mqwebuser.xml file.
On all other operating systems, you must be a privileged user.

[IBM i] On IBM i, the commands should be running in QSHELL.

About this task

Be aware of the following restrictions of the IBM MQ Console:

- Queue managers on z/OS cannot be created, deleted, started or stopped.
- Channel initiators on z/OS cannot be started or stopped, and the channel initiator status is not displayed.
- Listeners cannot be administered.
- Start, ping, resolve, and reset channel commands can only be issued with CHLDISP(DEFAULT).
- Objects defined with QSGDISP(GROUP) cannot be displayed or managed.
- Queue manager security cannot be managed.
- System resource usage cannot be monitored.

Procedure

If the mqweb server is not already configured for use by the IBM MQ Console, configure the mqweb server.
For more information about configuring the mqweb server with a basic registry, see Basic configuration for the mqweb server.
On z/OS, set the WLP_USER_DIR environment variable so that you can use the dspmqweb command. Set the variable to point to your mqweb server configuration by entering the following command:
```
export WLP_USER_DIR=WLP_user_directory
```
where WLP_user_directory is the name of the directory that is passed to crtmqweb. For example:
```
export WLP_USER_DIR=/var/mqm/web/installation1
```
For more information, see Creating the mqweb server.
Determine the URI for the IBM MQ Console by entering the following command:
```
dspmqweb status
```
The command generates an output similar to the following:
```
MQWB1124I: Server 'mqweb' is running.
   URLS:
   https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/rest/v1/
   https://localhost:9443/ibmmq/console/
```
The URI for the IBM MQ Console ends with the suffix console/.
Connect to the IBM MQ Console by entering the URL from the previous step in a browser.

A security exception might be produced by the browser because the default certificate that is provided with the mqweb server is not a trusted certificate. Choose to proceed to the IBM MQ Console.
Log in to the IBM MQ Console. If you have used the default settings provided in the basic registry sample file when configuring the mqweb server, you can use the user name mqadmin and the password mqadmin to log in.

What to do next

By default, users log in to the IBM MQ Console with a user ID and password, and an LTPA token is used by the browser to authenticate further requests for the duration of the session. You can also use client certificate authentication. For more information, see Using client certificate authentication with the REST API and IBM MQ Console.