IBM MQ Managed File Transfer introduction

IBM® MQ Managed File Transfer transfers files between systems in a managed and auditable way, regardless of file size or the operating systems used.

You can use IBM MQ Managed File Transfer to build a customized, scalable, and automated solution that enables you to manage, trust, and secure file transfers. IBM MQ Managed File Transfer eliminates costly redundancies, lowers maintenance costs, and maximizes your existing IT investments.

Diagram showing a simple IBM MQ Managed File Transfer topology. There are two agents, each connect to their own agent queue manager in an IBM MQ network. A file is transferred from the agent on the one side of the diagram, through the IBM MQ network, to the agent on the other side of the diagram. Also in the IBM MQ network are the coordination queue manager and a command queue manager. Applications and tools connect to these queue managers to configure, administer, operate, and log IBM MQ Managed File Transfer activity in the IBM MQ network.

The diagram shows a simple IBM MQ Managed File Transfer topology. There are two agents, each connect to their own agent queue manager in an IBM MQ network. A file is transferred from the agent on the one side of the diagram, through the IBM MQ network, to the agent on the other side of the diagram. Also in the IBM MQ network are the coordination queue manager and a command queue manager. Applications and tools connect to these queue managers to configure, administer, operate, and log IBM MQ Managed File Transfer activity in the IBM MQ network.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer can be installed as four different options, depending on your operating system and overall setup. These options are IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Logger, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service, or IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Tools. For more information, see IBM MQ Managed File Transfer product options.

You can use IBM MQ Managed File Transfer to perform the following tasks:

Create managed file transfers
- Create new file transfers from IBM MQ Explorer on Linux® or Windows platforms.
- Create new file transfers from the command line on all supported platforms.
- Integrate file transfer function into the Apache Ant tool.
- Write applications that control IBM MQ Managed File Transfer by putting messages on agent command queues.
- Schedule file transfers to take place at a later time. You can also trigger scheduled file transfers based on a range of file system events, for example a new file being created.
- Continually monitor a resource, for example a directory, and when the contents of that resource meet some predefined condition, start a task. This task can be a file transfer, an Ant script, or a JCL job.
- Use the RESTful API provided by the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Web Gateway to transfer files.
- Transfer files to and from IBM MQ queues.
- Transfer files to and from FTP, FTPS, or SFTP servers.
- Transfer files to and from Connect:Direct® nodes.
- Transfer both text and binary files. Text files are automatically converted between the code pages and end-of-line conventions of the source and destination systems.
- Transfers can be secured, using the industry standards for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) based connections.
View transfers in progress and log information about all transfers in your network
- View the status of transfers in progress from IBM MQ Explorer on Linux or Windows platforms.
- Check the status of completed transfers by using the IBM MQ Explorer on Linux or Windows platforms.
- Use the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer database logger feature to save log messages to a Db2® or Oracle database.
- Use the RESTful API provided by the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Web Gateway to see information about all transfers in your network.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer is built on IBM MQ, which provides assured, once-only delivery of messages between applications. You can take advantage of various features of IBM MQ. For example, you can use channel compression to compress the data that you send between agents over IBM MQ channels and use SSL channels to secure the data that you send between agents. Files are transferred reliably and can tolerate the failure of the infrastructure over which the file transfer is carried out. If you experience a network outage, the file transfer restarts from where it left off when connectivity is restored.

By consolidating file transfer with your existing IBM MQ network, you can avoid spending the resources required to maintain two separate infrastructures. If you are not already an IBM MQ customer, by creating an IBM MQ network to support IBM MQ Managed File Transfer you are building the backbone for a future SOA implementation. If you are already an IBM MQ customer, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer can take advantage of your existing IBM MQ infrastructure including IBM MQ internet pass-thru and IBM Integration Bus.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer integrates with a number of other IBM products:

IBM MQ Advanced Message Security: Use IBM MQ Advanced Message Security to provide enhanced security for message traffic in IBM MQ Managed File Transfer, in particular for data on queues. For more information, see Using IBM MQ Advanced Message Security with IBM MQ Managed File Transfer.
IBM Integration Bus: Process files that have been transferred by IBM MQ Managed File Transfer as part of an IBM Integration Bus flow. For more information, see Working with IBM Integration Bus.
IBM Sterling Connect:Direct: Transfer files to and from an existing Connect:Direct network by using the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Connect:Direct bridge. For more information, see The Connect:Direct bridge.
IBM Tivoli® Composite Application Manager: IBM Tivoli Composite Application Manager provides an agent that you can use to monitor information that is published to the coordination queue manager.