Running the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain

Run the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain to connect to IBM Blockchain and IBM MQ. When connected, the bridge is ready to process request messages, send them to your Hyperledger Composer blockchain network, and receive and process the replies.

Use the configuration file that you created in the previous task, to run the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain.

Procedure

Start the IBM MQ Advanced queue manager that we want to use with the bridge.

Start the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain to connect to your Hyperledger Composer REST server, and the IBM MQ Advanced queue manager. Run the bridge command.

runmqbcb -f /config_file_location/config_file_name.cfg -r /log_file_location/logFile.log

When the bridge is connected, output similar to the following is returned:

2018-05-17 14:28:16.866 BST IBM MQ Bridge to Blockchain
5724-H72 (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 2017, 2020

2018-05-17 14:28:19.331 BST Ready to process input messages.

Optional: Troubleshoot connections to the IBM MQ Advanced queue manager and to your blockchain network, if the messages that are returned after you run the bridge indicate that a connection is not successful.
1. Issue the command in debug mode with the debug option 1.
```
runmqbcb -f /config_file_location/config_file_name.cfg -r /log_file_location/logFile.log -d 1
```
  The bridge steps through the connection set up and shows the processing messages in terse mode.
2. Issue the command in debug mode with the debug option 2.
```
runmqbcb -f /config_file_location/config_file_name.cfg -r /log_file_location/logFile.log -d 2
```
  The bridge steps through the connection set up and shows the processing messages in verbose mode. Full output is written to your log file.

Results

We have started the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain and connected to your queue manager and blockchain network using your Hyperledger Composer REST server.

What to do next

Follow the steps in Running the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain client sample to format and send a query or update message to your blockchain network.
Use the MQBCB_EXTRA_JAVA_OPTIONS variable to pass in JVM properties, for example to enable IBM MQ tracing. For more information, see Tracing the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain.

Message formats for the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain
Information on formatting of the messages that are sent and received by the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain.
Message formats for the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain from IBM MQ Version 9.1.4
Information on formatting of the messages that are sent and received by the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain.
Running the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain client sample
We can use the JMS client sample that is provided with the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain, to put a message on the input queue that the blockchain bridge is checking and see the reply that is received. This sample is based on using the IBM MQ Bridge to blockchain integrating with the Hyperledger Composer Trader network example.

Parent topic: Configure IBM MQ for use with blockchain