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Backing up queue manager data

Backing up queue manager data can help you to guard against possible loss of data caused by hardware errors.


Before you begin

Before starting to back up the queue manager, ensure that the queue manager is not running. If you try to take a backup of a running queue manager, the backup might not be consistent because of updates in progress when the files are copied. If possible, stop your queue manager by running the endmqm -w command (a wait shutdown), only if that fails, use the endmqm -i command (an immediate shutdown).


About this task

To take a backup copy of a queue manager's data, complete the following tasks:


Procedure

  1. Search for the directories under which the queue manager places its data and its log files, by using the information in the configuration files. For more information, see Change IBM MQ and queue manager configuration information. Note: The names that appear in the directory are transformed to ensure that they are compatible with the platform on which you are using IBM MQ. For more information about name transformations, see Understanding IBM MQ file names.
  2. Take copies of all the queue manager's data and log file directories, including all subdirectories. Make sure that we do not miss any files, especially the log control file, as described in What logs look like, and the configuration files as described in Initialization and configuration files. Some of the directories might be empty, but you need them all to restore the backup at a later date.

    For circular logging, back up the queue manager data and log file directories at the same time so that we can restore a consistent set of queue manager data and logs.

    For linear logging, back up the queue manager data and log file directories at the same time. It is possible to restore only the queue manager data files if a corresponding complete sequence of log files is available.

  3. Preserve the ownerships of the files.

    For IBM MQ for UNIX and Linux systems, we can do this with the tar command. (If we have queues larger than 2 GB, we cannot use the tar command. For more information, see Enabling large queues.

    Note: When you upgrade to IBM WebSphere MQ Version 7.5 and later, ensure to take a backup of the qm.ini file and the registry entries. The queue manager information is stored in the qm.ini file and can be used to revert to a previous version of IBM MQ.