The MFT installation.properties file

The installation.properties file specifies the name of your default set of configuration options. This entry points Managed File Transfer to a structured set of directories and property files that contain the configuration to use. Typically the name of a set of configuration options is the name of the associated coordination queue manager.

This file is created by the installer, and can be changed by using the fteChangeDefaultConfigurationOptions command.

The installation.properties file is located in your MQ_DATA_PATH directory. For example on Windows, the default file location is MQ_DATA_PATH\mqft\installations\installation_name and on UNIX and Linux systems, the default file location is /var/mqm/mqft/installations/installation_name.

For the Redistributable Managed File Transfer Agent, the data path is set when you run the fteCreateEnvironment command. If you run the command and specify your chosen location with the -d parameter, the data path is set for this location. If we do not specify the location with the fteCreateEnvironment command, a directory mftdata is created under the root directory where the Redistributable Managed File Transfer Agent is extracted. The installation.properties file for the Redistributable Managed File Transfer Agent is located in the MQ_DATA_PATH\mqft\installations\MFTZipInstall directory.

The installation.properties file contains the following values:

Table 1. Basic properties
Property name	Description	Default value
commandMessagePriority	Sets the priority of both internal messages and command messages for the fteStopAgent, fteCancelTransfer and ftePingAgent commands. If you submit a large number of transfer requests to transfer many small files in quick succession, for example, the new transfer requests can become queued on the source agent's command queue. The external and internal messages have the default IBM MQ message priority so the internal messages are blocked by the new transfer requests. This can cause the transfer negotiation time to be exceeded and for the transfers to go into recovery. We can also use the commandMessagePriority property to set the priority of internal acknowledgment and acknowledgment-expected messages. To prioritize the internal Managed File Transfer messages above new transfer requests, set this property to a value between 1 (the lowest) and 9 (the highest). The default value of the commandMessagePriority property is 8. This means that, if the IBM MQ attribute DEFPRTY (default priority) on an agent command queue is less than or equal to 7, internal negotiation messages are prioritized ahead of new transfer requests. If the value of the DEFPRTY attribute is set to either 8 or 9, to maintain the effectiveness of the commandMessagePriority property, you must change either DEFPRTY or the commandMessagePriority property.	For IBM MQ Version 9.0.0.0, the default value is 8. For earlier releases, and before APAR IT06213, the default value is the MQPRI_PRIORITY_AS_Q_DEF constant, which has a value of -1.
defaultProperties	The name of the default set of configuration options. This value is the name of a directory located in the configuration directory, which contains directories and properties files that specify configuration information.	No default
enableFunctionalFixPack	The fix pack function level to enable. By default, any new function included with a fix pack is not enabled. Set this property to a version identifier to enable the new features available with that version. We can specify the version identifier with or without period characters (.). For example, to use the function available with Version 8.0.0, Fix Pack 2, set this property to 8002 or 8.0.0.2.	No default
messagePublicationFormat	Allows you to specify the message publication format used by MFT agents for their status XML messages. This property can be set to the following values: messagePublicationFormat=mixed Messages are published without an MQMD FORMAT (MQFMT_NONE), except for those messages that are published under the /LOG topic tree, which are published in the MQMD format of MQFMT_STRING. messagePublicationFormat=MQFMT_NONE Messages are published without an MQMD FORMAT. messagePublicationFormat=MQFMT_STRING Messages are published in a string format. There is a coding error in Version 9.0.2. In that version, when you specify messagePublicationFormat=mixed the effect is the same as specifying messagePublicationFormat=MQFMT_NONE. The error is fixed in Version 9.0.3. Before Version 8.0, MFT agents published XML status messages to the SYSTEM.FTE topic in a string format (MQFMT_STRING). If possible, applications that previously used Version 7.5 must be updated to process messages in the Version 8.0 or later format. If it is not possible to change an application, set the messagePublicationFormat property to MQFMT_STRING to revert to the Version 7.5 behavior.	messagePublicationFormat=mixed
z/OS-specific:
productId	Product type against which MFT usage is to be recorded: Standalone Managed File Transfer product. (MFT is the productID). Part of an IBM MQ Advanced product. (ADVANCED is the productID). Part of an IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS®, Value Unit Edition product. (ADVANCEDVUE is the productID). See z/OS MVS Product Management for more information on product usage recording. This property is ignored on Multiplatforms.	MFT

The following text is an example of the contents of a installation.properties file.

defaultProperties=ERIS

ERIS is the name of a directory that is located in the same directory as the installation.properties file. The directory ERIS contains directories and properties files that describe a set of configuration options.