[MQ 9.2.4 Nov 2021][UNIX, Linux, Windows, IBM i]

What's new in IBM MQ 9.2.4 for Multiplatforms - base and Advanced entitlement

For Multiplatforms, IBM® MQ 9.2.4 delivers a number of new features and enhancements that are available with base product entitlement, and also with Advanced entitlement.

Managing IBM MQ
Developing for IBM MQ

Support for influencing application re-balancing within uniform clusters

IBM MQ 9.2.4 adds support for controlling or influencing the re-balancing behavior between uniform clusters to suit the needs of specific types of application; for example, minimizing interruptions to in flight transactions, or ensuring requester applications receive their responses before being moved.

One of the goals of uniform clustering is to allow workload to be distributed across a group of queue managers. In IBM MQ 9.2.4 behavior has been modified so that applications are only balanced when they are actively performing IBM MQ operations. Applications check to see whether they should move when they are performing an IBM MQ operation like MQPUT, MQGET, or MQCMIT.
Important: An application which has only performed an MQCONN operation is not rebalanced until it subsequently performs one of these MQI operations.

You can use the default behaviors described in Influencing application re-balancing in uniform clusters or make changes, either at configuration or deployment time through the client.ini file.

Alternatively, you can make the balancing behavior and requirements part of the application logic using the MQBNO structure.

Encryption of passphrases for MQTT channels

IBM MQ 9.2.4 adds support for encryption of passphrases for IBM MQ 9.2.4 channels.

For more information, see Encryption of passphrases for MQTT TLS channels and Migration of plain text passphrases to encrypted passphrases.

.NET client changes for Application Pattern Support

IBM MQ 9.2.4 adds support for re-balancing applications on XMS .NET and .NET.

For further information on XMS .NET see Properties of ConnectionFactory, and for .NET see Influencing application re-balancing in .NET.

OutboundSNI property for NQMI and XMS .NET clients

IBM MQ 9.2.4 exposes a property and environment variable to NMQI and XMS .NET clients, which allows you to set the OutboundSNI property. In addition, the default value for this property has been changed to channel.

Prior to IBM MQ 9.2.4 the OutboundSNI property was always set to * for the .NET Clients.

For more information, see XMS .NET property mapping for administered objects and OutboundSNI property.

TLS 1.3 support from IBM MQ Java applications

From IBM MQ 9.2.4, using the Java runtime environment (JRE) provided by IBM MQ permits the use of the TLS 1.3 CipherSpecs as described in TLS CipherSpecs and CipherSuites in IBM MQ classes for JMS.

Note: In the Java runtime environment shipped as part of IBM MQ, the Java Security Provider for FIPS has been updated from IBMJCEFIPS to IBMJCEPlusFIPS.

SecureCommsOnly setting available on the queue manager

From IBM MQ 9.2.4, a security enhancement has been deployed to allow queue managers to be configured to only allow secure communications. A warning message is issued on startup if plain text communications are enabled. For more information, see SecureCommsOnly.

Configurable IBM MQ Console message browsing controls

At IBM MQ 9.2.4, general updates have been made to improve the usability of the IBM MQ Console for a better user experience. These include the capability to download and view complete message contents from the IBM MQ Console, enhancing the prior previewing capability. You can configure these capabilities with three new parameters, mqConsoleMaxMsgCharsToDisplay, mqConsoleMaxMsgRequestSize and mqConsoleMaxMsgsPerRequest, that have been added to the setmqweb command. For more information, see setmqweb (set mqweb server configuration).

Additional queue manager configuration attributes to control the connection and operation timeout for LDAP calls

From IBM MQ 9.2.4, two new optional tuning parameters, OAMLdapConnectTimeout and OAMLdapQueryTimeLimit, have been added. You can use these two parameters within the TuningParameters stanza in the queue manager configuration file, qm.ini. For more information, see TuningParameters stanza of the qm.ini file.

Option to capture installation-level diagnostics only with runmqras command

From IBM MQ 9.2.4, the runmqras command includes a new parameter, -noqmdata, to capture installation-level diagnostics only, skipping any queue manager-specific diagnostics. For more information, see runmqras (collect IBM MQ diagnostic information).

IBM MQ code signing support

IBM MQ deliverables that you can download from IBM are signed with a digital signature. From IBM MQ 9.2.4, to aid with verifying the deliverables, IBM MQ provides an additional package that you can download from Fix Central. This package contains signatures and the public keys that are used to sign the IBM MQ binary files. For more information, see IBM MQ code signatures.

Java 17 support for IBM MQ Clients

IBM MQ 9.2.4 adds Java 17 support for IBM MQ classes for Java and IBM MQ classes for JMS for Oracle and Oracle and Adoptium.