Installation considerations for redistributable clients

The Linux® x86-64 image is shipped in a LinuxX64.tar.gz file, and the Windows 64-bit image is shipped in a Win64.zip file.

File names

The archive or .zip file names describe the file contents and equivalent maintenance levels. For example, in IBM® MQ 8.0.0, Fix Pack 4 the client images are available under the following file names:

Linux x86-64: 8.0.0.4-WS-MQC-Redist-LinuxX64.tar.gz
Windows: 8.0.0.4-WS-MQC-Redist-Win64.zip
Java - all platforms: 8.0.0.4-WS-MQC-Redist-Java.zip

Choosing the runtime files to distribute with an application

A script file named genmqpkg is provided by the redistributable client under the bin directory.

You can use the genmqpkg script to generate a smaller subset of files that are tailored to the needs of the application, for which the files are intended to be distributed.

You are asked a series of interactive Yes or No questions to determine the runtime requirements for an IBM MQ application.

Finally, genmqpkg asks you to supply a new target directory, where the script duplicates the required directories and files.

Important: IBM support is only able to provide assistance with the full, unmodified set of files contained within the redistributable client packages.

Other considerations

There is a minor change to the default data path of a non-installed client, and now the path is, on:

Linux x86-64: $HOME/IBM/MQ/data
Windows: %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%\IBM\MQ\data

On UNIX and Linux systems, the length of the path must not contain spaces.

A redistributable client runtime co-exists with a full IBM MQ client or server installation, provided that they are installed in different locations.

Important: Unpacking a redistributable image into the same location as a full IBM MQ installation is not supported.

On Linux the ccsid.tbl used to define the supported CCSID conversions is traditionally expected to be found in the UserData directory structure, along with error logs, trace files, and so on.

The UserData directory structure is populated by unpacking the redistributable client, and so, if the file is not found in its usual location, the redistributable client falls back to locate the file in the /lib subdirectory of the installation.

Classpath changes

The classpath used by dspmqver, setmqenv, and crtmqenv commands, add the com.ibm.mq.allclient.jar to the environment, immediately following the com.ibm.mq.jar and com.ibm.mqjms.jar.

An example of dspmqver output from the redistributable client on Linux:

Name:        IBM MQ
Version:     8.0.0.4
Level:       p800-804-L150909
BuildType:   IKAP - (Production)
Platform:    IBM MQ for Linux (x86-64 platform)
Mode:        64-bit
O/S:         Linux 2.6.32.59-0.7-default
InstName:    MQNI08000004
InstDesc:    IBM MQ V8.0.0.4 (Redistributable)
Primary:     No
InstPath:    /Development/johndoe/unzip/unpack
DataPath:    /u/johndoe/IBM/MQ/data
MaxCmdLevel: 802

An example of dspmqver output from the redistributable client on Windows:

Name:        IBM MQ
Version:     8.0.0.4
Level:       p800-804-L150909
BuildType:   IKAP - (Production)
Platform:    IBM MQ for Windows (x64 platform)
Mode:        64-bit
O/S:         Windows 7 Professional x64 Edition, Build 7601: SP1
InstName:    MQNI08000004
InstDesc:    IBM MQ V8.0.0.4 (Redistributable)
Primary:     No
InstPath:    C:\Users\johndoe\Desktop\Redist
DataPath:    C:\Users\johndoe\IBM\MQ\data
MaxCmdLevel: 802