How to determine a message route

WebSphere MQ provides techniques that allow activity information to be recorded for a message as it is routed through a queue manager network. The techniques available follow.

Activity recording

If a message has the appropriate report option specified, it requests that applications generate activity reports as it is routed through a queue manager network. When an application performs an activity on behalf of a message, an activity report can be generated, and delivered to an appropriate location. An activity report contains information about the activity that was performed on the message. For more information, see Activity recording.

The activity information collected using activity reports must be arranged in order before a message route can be determined.

Trace-route messaging

Trace-route messaging is a technique that involves sending a trace-route message into a queue manager network. When an application performs an activity on behalf of the trace-route message, activity information can be accumulated in the message data of the trace-route message, or activity reports can be generated. If activity information is accumulated in the message data of the trace-route message, when it reaches its target queue a trace-route reply message containing all the information from the trace-route message can be generated and delivered to an appropriate location.

Because a trace-route message is dedicated to recording the sequence of activities performed on its behalf, there are more processing options available compared with normal messages that request activity reports. For comparisons between these techniques, see Table 15.

Trace-route messaging is described in Trace-route messaging.

Only certain applications record activity information, see Message route completeness.