Starting the channel

When you put messages on the remote queue defined at the source queue manager, they are stored on the transmission queue until the channel is started. When the channel has been started, the messages are delivered to the target queue on the remote queue manager.

Start the channel on the sending queue manager using the START CHANNEL command. When you start the sending channel, the receiving channel is started automatically (by the listener) and the messages are sent to the target queue. Both ends of the message channel must be running for messages to be transferred.

Because the two ends of the channel are on different queue managers, they could have been defined with different attributes. To resolve any differences, there is an initial data negotiation between the two ends when the channel starts. In general, the two ends of the channel operate with the attributes needing the fewer resources. This enables larger systems to accommodate the lesser resources of smaller systems at the other end of the message channel.

The sending MCA splits large messages before sending them across the channel. They are reassembled at the remote queue manager. This is not apparent to the user.

An MCA can transfer messages using multiple threads. This process, called pipelining enables the MCA to transfer messages more efficiently, with fewer wait states. Pipelining improves channel performance.