Plan the IBM MQ environment on z/OS

When planning the IBM MQ environment, you must consider the resource requirements for data sets, page sets, Db2, Coupling Facilities, and the need for logging, and backup facilities. Use this topic to plan the environment where IBM MQ runs.

Before we plan the IBM MQ architecture, familiarize yourself with the basic IBM MQ for z/OS concepts, see the topics in IBM MQ for z/OS concepts.

When planning your queue manager, you might need to work with different people in your organization. It is usually a good idea to involve those people early, as change control procedures can take a long time. They might also be able to tell you what parameters we need to configure IBM MQ for z/OS.

For example you might need to work with the:

  • Storage administrator, to determine the high level qualifier of queue manager data sets, and to allocate enough space for queue manager data sets.
  • z/OS system programmer to define the IBM MQ subsystem to z/OS and APF authorize the IBM MQ for z/OS libraries.
  • Network administrator to determine which TCP/IP stack and ports should be used for IBM MQ for z/OS.
  • Security administrator to set up access to queue manager data sets, security profiles for IBM MQ for z/OS resources, and TLS certificates.
  • Db2 administrator to set up Db2 tables when configuring a queue sharing group.

  • Plan for the queue manager
    When we are setting up a queue manager, your planning should allow for the queue manager to grow, so that the queue manager meets the needs of our enterprise.
  • Plan your channel initiator
    The channel initiator provides communications between queue managers, and runs in its own address space.
  • Plan your queue sharing group (QSG)
    The easiest way to implement a shared queuing environment, is to configure a queue manager, add that queue manager to a QSG, then add other queue managers to the QSG.
  • Plan for backup and recovery
    Developing backup and recovery procedures at your site is vital to avoid costly and time-consuming losses of data. IBM MQ provides means for recovering both queues and messages to their current state after a system failure.
  • Plan your z/OS UNIX or UNIX System Services environment
    Certain processes within the IBM MQ queue manager (MSTR), channel initiator (CHIN), and mqweb server use z/OS UNIX or UNIX System Services (USS) for their normal processing. Plan the configuration if we do not want to use the default USS configuration.
  • Plan for Advanced Message Security
    TLS (or SSL) can be used to encrypt and protect messages flowing on a network, but this does not protect messages when they are on a queue ("at rest"). Advanced Message Security (AMS) protects the messages from the time that they are first put to a queue, until they are got, so that only the intended recipients of the message can read that message. The messages are encrypted and signed during put processing, and unprotected during get processing.
  • Plan for Managed File Transfer
    Use this topic as guidance on how set up the system to run Managed File Transfer (MFT).
  • Plan to use the IBM MQ Console and REST API on z/OS
    The IBM MQ Console and REST API are applications that run in a WebSphere Liberty (Liberty) server known as mqweb. The mqweb server runs as a started task. The MQ Console allows a web browser to be used to administer queue managers. The REST API provides a simple programmatic interface for applications to do queue manager administration, and to perform messaging.

Parent topic: Plan an IBM MQ architecture


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