Configuring connections to WebSphere MQ

You can configure a local or client connection to WebSphere® MQ to enable your IBM® Integration Bus message flows to access messages on WebSphere MQ queues.

If you intend to use IBM Integration Bus to process WebSphere MQ messages, you must install WebSphere MQ in addition to installing IBM Integration Bus. On distributed platforms, if you want to connect to a remote queue manager to process WebSphere MQ messages, you must install either an MQ Client or an MQ Server on the same machine as IBM Integration Bus, in addition to installing an MQ Server on the machine that is running your queue manager. On z/OS®, WebSphere MQ is a prerequisite for IBM Integration Bus, and only local connections to queue managers are supported. WebSphere MQ is available as a separate installation package, and your IBM Integration Bus license entitles you to install and use WebSphere MQ with IBM Integration Bus. For more information, see Enhanced flexibility in interactions with WebSphere MQ and Installing WebSphere MQ.

You can configure MQ Connection properties on the following nodes to specify a local or client connection with WebSphere MQ:

You can also specify the properties through an MQEndpoint policy.

You can connect to a secured WebSphere MQ queue manager (local or remote), by passing a user name and password to the queue manager when the connection is made. You can also choose whether to use the SSL protocol when a client connection is made to a remote queue manager. For information about securing connections to WebSphere MQ, see Connecting to a secured WebSphere MQ queue manager.

You can choose to configure either a local or client connection between your integration node and your queue manager, depending on the configuration of your existing architecture. If your queue manager is running on the same machine as your integration node, you can specify a local connection, either by choosing a specific queue manager to be used for the MQ node or by using the queue manager that is specified on the integration node. Alternatively, if WebSphere MQ is installed on separate machines from IBM Integration Bus, you can define a client connection, either by configuring the connection details on the MQ node or policy, or by specifying a client channel definition table (CCDT) to control the client connection information. For more information, see Configuring a client connection to WebSphere MQ.

You can specify either a local or client connection by using one of the following methods:

Specify an MQEndpoint policy to control connection properties for one or more MQ nodes on the Policy tab.
Set explicit connection properties for a specific MQ node on the MQ Connection tab.

An MQEndpoint policy is an operational policy, which dynamically controls the connection properties that are applied at runtime. Create and configure MQEndpoint policies for your MQ nodes by using the methods that are described in MQEndpoint policy. You can use a single MQEndpoint policy for multiple MQ nodes, so that when you update the connection properties in the MQEndpoint policy, the updated properties are automatically applied to all MQ nodes that have the policy attached.

All MQ nodes that do not have either MQ Connection properties set, or an MQEndpoint policy specified, use the connection details of the queue manager that is associated with the integration node at run time. If no queue manager was specified for the integration node, the message flow cannot deploy.

If you want to set explicit connection properties, select a value for the Connection property on the MQ Connection tab:

Select Local queue manager to specify a local connection to a named queue manager, which is specified in the Destination queue manager name property.
Select MQ client connection properties to choose a client connection to a queue manager, and specify the connection details of the queue manager in the following properties:
- Queue manager host name
- Listener port number
- Channel name
- Destination queue manager name
Select Connect with CCDT to use the client connection details that are specified in a client channel definition table (CCDT).

The following topics describe how to configure local and client connections to WebSphere MQ:

By default, a thread that is processing WebSphere MQ messages becomes idle when it has not received any messages on its input queue for 1 minute, at which point the connection times out. However, you can change the length of time after which a connection for an idle message flow is released, by setting the sharedConnectorIdleTimeout property of the mqsichangeproperties command. For more information, see WebSphere MQ connections.