Backing up and restoring IBM MQ queue manager data

We can protect queue managers against possible corruption caused by hardware failures by backing up queue managers and queue manager data, by backing up the queue manager configuration only, and by using a backup queue manager.

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CAUTION:We must take great care if you move a queue manager to a different operating system. See Moving a queue manager to a different operating system for more information. Periodically, we can take measures to protect queue managers against possible corruption caused by hardware failures. There are three ways of protecting a queue manager:

Back up the queue manager data

If the hardware fails, a queue manager might be forced to stop. If any queue manager log data is lost due to the hardware failure, the queue manager might be unable to restart. If you back up queue manager data you might be able to recover some, or all, of the lost queue manager data.

In general, the more frequently you back up queue manager data, the less data you lose in the event of hardware failure that results in loss of integrity of the recovery log.

To back up queue manager data, the queue manager must not be running.

Back up the queue manager configuration only

If the hardware fails, a queue manager might be forced to stop. If both the queue manager configuration and log data is lost due to the hardware failure, the queue manager is unable to restart or to be recovered from the log. If you back up the queue manager configuration, we can re-create the queue manager and all of its objects from saved definitions.

To back up queue manager configuration, the queue manager must be running.

Use a backup queue manager

If the hardware failure is severe, a queue manager might be unrecoverable. In this situation, if the unrecoverable queue manager has a dedicated backup queue manager, the backup queue manager can be activated in place of the unrecoverable queue manager. If it is updated regularly, the backup queue manager log can contain log data that includes the last complete log from the unrecoverable queue manager.

A backup queue manager can be updated while the existing queue manager is still running.

• Backing up queue manager data
  Backing up queue manager data can help you to guard against possible loss of data caused by hardware errors.
• Restoring queue manager data
  Follow these steps to restore a backup of a queue manager's data.
• Backing up queue manager configuration
  Backing up queue manager configuration can help you to rebuild a queue manager from its definitions if both the queue manager configuration and log data is lost due to the hardware failure and the queue manager is unable to restart or to be recovered from the log.
• Restoring queue manager configuration
  We can restore the configuration for a queue manager from a backup by first making sure that the queue manager is running and then running the appropriate command for the platform.
• Use a backup queue manager
  An existing queue manager can have a dedicated backup queue manager for disaster recovery purposes.

Parent topic: Configure high availability, recovery and restart