What's changed in IBM MQ 9.3.3

Before upgrading your queue managers to the latest product version, review these changes to functions and resources since IBM® MQ 9.3.2 and decide whether you must plan to make changes to existing applications, scripts, and procedures before starting to migrate your systems.

Command and Configuration

IBM Aspera faspio Gateway version upgraded
Change to RPM signature version

Application development

Removal of useIBMCipherMappings
Change to the Java mapping for CCSID 943

IBM Aspera faspio Gateway version upgraded

IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS® Value Unit Edition 9.3.3 and IBM MQ Advanced for Multiplatforms 9.3.3 upgrade the version of the IBM Aspera® faspio Gateway to 1.3.2.

IBM Aspera faspio Gateway 1.3.2 implements a number of new features that might require you to adjust your workflow, configuration or usage. See Release Notes: IBM Aspera faspio Gateway 1.3.2 for details.

Also note the following breaking changes from earlier versions:

If you are migrating from IBM Aspera faspio Gateway 1.2, a license file is now required to run the gateway in server mode. See Release Notes: IBM Aspera faspio Gateway 1.3 for details. This license file is provided with IBM MQ. See Defining an Aspera gateway connection on Linux®, or Windows.
If you are migrating from IBM Aspera fasp.io Gateway 1.1 then, in addition to the license file change already described, there is also a changed directory structure and TLS is enabled by default. See Release Notes: IBM Aspera faspio Gateway 1.2 for details. For more information, see Defining an Aspera gateway connection on Linux, or Windows.

Change to RPM signature version

The RPM signature version was changed to v4 at IBM MQ 9.3.3 for Continuous Delivery. As part of this, the private key used by IBM to sign the packages was changed, and so if you want to validate RPM packages at or above these levels, you need to import the newer IBM MQ public signing gpg key. You will also need the old key if you want to retain the ability to verify the signatures on older IBM MQ 9.3.x packages. For more information, see IBM MQ code signatures.

Removal of useIBMCipherMappings

The Java System Property com.ibm.mq.cfg.useIBMCipherMappings, which controls which mappings are used is removed from the product for Continuous Delivery from IBM MQ 9.3.3.

From IBM MQ 9.3.3, a Cipher can be defined as either the CipherSpec or CipherSuite name and is handled correctly by IBM MQ. As part of this change, three new JAR files have been added to the IBM MQ classes for Java, IBM MQ classes for JMS, and IBM MQ classes for Jakarta Messaging:

jackson-annotations.jar
jackson-core.jar
jackson-databind.jar

From IBM MQ 9.3.3, the information about configuring your application to use IBM Java or Oracle Java CipherSuite mappings in TLS CipherSpecs and CipherSuites in IBM MQ classes for JMS and TLS CipherSpecs and CipherSuites in IBM MQ classes for Java applies to Long Term Support and Continuous Delivery before IBM MQ 9.3.3 only.

Change to the Java mapping for CCSID 943

Before IBM MQ 9.3.3, the following Java components of IBM MQ would map CCSID 943 to the Java Charset “x-IBM943”:

The Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) service
The IBM MQ classes for Jakarta Messaging
The IBM MQ classes for Java
The IBM MQ classes for JMS
The IBM MQ Console
IBM MQ Explorer
Managed File Transfer
The IBM MQ resource adapter
The IBM MQ resource adapter for Jakarta Messaging
The REST API
The IBM MQ Telemetry (MQXR) service

From IBM MQ 9.3.3, CCSID 943 is now mapped to Java Charset "x-IBM943C"

Note that this will prevent the encoding of the following two characters, which were present in "x-IBM943" at the same code points at the above two characters:

YEN SIGN (U+00A5) --> 5c
OVERLINE (U+203E) --> 7e

If you wish to use these characters which are unavailable in "x-IBM943C", then using an alternative CCSID such as 1208 (UTF-8) instead of CCSID 943 is recommended which includes mappings for both sets of characters.