Use IBM MQ and WebSphere Application Server together

Through the IBM MQ messaging provider in WebSphere Application Server, Java Message Service (JMS) messaging applications can use the IBM MQ system as an external provider of JMS messaging resources.

About this task

Applications that are written in Java that are running under WebSphere Application Server can use the Java Messaging Service (JMS) specification to perform messaging. Messaging in this environment can be provided by an IBM MQ queue manager.

A benefit of using an IBM MQ queue manager is that connecting JMS applications can participate fully in the functionality of an IBM MQ network, which allows the applications to exchange messages with queue managers that are running on a multitude of platforms.

Applications can use either the client transport or bindings transport for the queue connection factory object. For bindings transport, the queue manager must exist locally to the application that requires a connection.

By default, JMS messages that are held on IBM MQ queues use an MQRFH2 header to hold some of the JMS message header information. Many legacy IBM MQ applications cannot process messages with these headers, and require their own characteristic headers, for example the MQCIH for CICS Bridge, or MQWIH for IBM MQ Workflow applications. For more information about these special considerations, see Mapping JMS messages onto IBM MQ messages.

• Use WebSphere Application Server with IBM MQ
  IBM MQ and IBM MQ for z/OS can be used with, or as an alternative to, the default messaging provider that is included with WebSphere Application Server.
• Determining the number of TCP/IP connections that are created from WebSphere Application Server to IBM MQ
  Using the sharing conversations feature, multiple conversations can share MQI channel instances, this is also known as a TCP/IP connection.
• Configure authentication aliases to secure WebSphere Application Server connection to IBM MQ
  Authentication aliases map to a user name and password combination that can be used to secure WebSphere Application Server connection to IBM MQ. We can configure a connection factory with an authentication alias.
• Workload balancing for message driven beans when using WebSphere Application Server clusters
  When using message driven bean applications deployed in a WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 and Version 8.0 cluster, and configured to run in IBM WebSphere MQ messaging provider normal mode, one of the cluster members processes the majority of the messages. We can balance the workload of cluster members in order to distribute the processing of messages across more than one cluster member.

Parent topic: Developing JMS and Java applications

Related information

• Configure JMS resources in WebSphere Application Server
• Configure the application server to use the latest resource adapter maintenance level