Verifying the installation of MQ Telemetry by using IBM MQ Explorer

Use the Define sample configuration wizard and the MQTT client utility in IBM MQ Explorer to verify that the MQ Telemetry components have installed. Also check that publish/subscribe works correctly.


Before you begin

The MQ Telemetry runtime and support for IBM MQ Explorer must be installed. The telemetry folder is part of a queue manager. To view the telemetry folder, you must start a queue manager.

Before running the define sample configuration wizard on an existing queue manager, review the information provided by the wizard about the configuration changes that are made. The changes might have implications for the configuration of the existing queue manager. Alternatively, run the sample configuration wizard on a newly created queue manager to avoid changing any security settings.


To configure MQ Telemetry there is a define sample configuration wizard that can be run from IBM MQ Explorer. The wizard runs through a series of steps, including defining and starting the telemetry (MQXR) service, setting up the default transmission queue, and configuring a telemetry channel.

If you would prefer to do this manually, see Configure a queue manager for telemetry on Linux and AIX . For Windows, see Configure a queue manager for telemetry on Windows .

We can open the define sample configuration wizard from the MQ Telemetry Welcome page in IBM MQ Explorer. The wizard determines which steps are required based on the current configuration.

For example, the following actions might be specified by the wizard:

  • Define the telemetry (MQXR) service.
  • Start the telemetry (MQXR) service.
  • Define the telemetry transmit queue.
  • Set the default transmit queue of the queue manager to SYSTEM.MQTT.TRANSMIT.QUEUE.

If telemetry is already configured for this queue manager, the link to open the wizard is replaced with static text. The text confirms that the sample configuration has been set up.

After the configuration has finished, we can use IBM MQ Explorer to open the MQTT client utility. Use the MQTT client utility to verify that MQ Telemetry is set up correctly.

The following items summarize the main goals that can be achieved using the MQTT client utility:

  • Validation of a basic or custom MQ Telemetry configuration by connecting, subscribing to topics and publishing messages.
  • Showcases the main features of MQTT protocol.
  • Provides a simple tool to aid in debugging MQ Telemetry applications.

We can find additional information within the IBM MQ Explorer by using the Help menu or pressing the F1 key.


Procedure

  1. Start IBM MQ Explorer.

    On Windows and Linux systems, we can start IBM MQ Explorer by using the system menu, the MQExplorer executable file, the mqexplorer command, or the strmqcfg command.

  2. Open the Welcome to MQ Telemetry page.

    • To use an existing queue manager, click on IBM MQ\Queue Managers\qMgrName\Telemetry folder to open the Welcome to MQ Telemetry page.
    • If, for the reasons mentioned, you decide to use a new queue manager,
      1. Click Queue Managers > New > Queue Manager.
      2. Type MQTTVerification as the Queue manager name > Next > Next > Next.
      3. Change the default port in Listen on port number, if the port is in use > Finish.
      4. When the queue manager starts, click on IBM MQ\Queue Managers\MQTTVerification\Telemetry folder to open the Welcome to MQ Telemetry page.
  3. From the Welcome to MQ Telemetry page in IBM MQ Explorer, click Define sample configuration.

    If this link is not present, and instead you see the text, The sample configuration has been set up for this queue manager, then telemetry has already been configured. Proceed to step 6.

    If you clicked Define sample configuration, the page opens, and lists actions that are to be performed as part of the sample configuration.

  4. Leave Launch MQTT client utility checked, if you want to automatically start the MQTT client utility. The check box is selected by default.
  5. Click Finish.
  6. Click Connect.

    In the MQTT client utility panel, ensure that the host and port names are correct.

    If you did not automatically start the MQTT client utility panel in step 4, we can start it either by using a direct link from the Welcome to MQ Telemetry panel, or by right-clicking a NON-TLS channel, which allows you to control the channel it runs on.

    The client history records a Connected event.

  7. Click Subscribe.

    The client history records a Subscribed event.

  8. Click Publish.

    The client history records a Published and Received event.


Results

If the publish/subscribe finishes successfully, the MQ Telemetry installation is verified.

If you encounter problems during the installation process, view the error log:

  • On Windows, the default location for this log is, IBM MQ data directory\qmgrs\qMgrName\mqxr
  • On AIX and Linux, the default location for this log is, /var/mqm/qmgrs/qMgrName/mqxr/