In a recent update to MO71 V9.0.4 a new feature was added to allow you to import queue manager location information from an MQ Explorer export file.

IBM MQ Explorer runs on Microsoft Windows and Linux x8664 machines. IBM MQ Explorer may be installed on as many machines as you require, but you can only have a single installation of it on a given machine, regardless of version. You can install IBM MQ Explorer on its own or alongside an installation of IBM MQ (of the same version). September 27, 2019. Let’s talk about setting up MQTT in MQ v9.1.x. Remember that images are clickable for a sharper picture. Full name of MQTT is IBM MQ Telemetry v3 protocol, and it’s used for lightweight pub/sub between small footprint devices over unreliable networks.

To export your configuration from MQ Explorer, right-click on the top level folder in the left-hand navigation pane, and choose Export MQ Explorer Settings…

This will bring up a dialog for Export. Press Next on the first panel, then on the second panel you can indicate where you want the XML file to be written and what you want to be exported. MO71 will only import the Sets and Remote queue manager information, but will not complain if there is other information in the XML file, so you can go ahead and export it all if you wish.

MO71 doesn’t import local queue managers from an MQ Explorer export file since you can import local queue managers directly in MO71 as discussed in an earlier post.

Once you have your exported XML file from MQ Explorer, you can drive the import from the MO71 File menu, which then brings up a dialog.

In this dialog, navigate to the location where you exported your MQ Explorer settings and click on Read MQ Explorer XML File.

Import MQ Explorer Locations Dialog – choose your queue managers

The list below will show all the queue managers that were found in the MQ Explorer XML file. If any of the found queue managers are already locations in MO71, the Explorer entry will have a ‘no entry’ symbol beside it showing it cannot be added again. You can click on any others to indicate you wish to import them and the red cross will change to a green tick.

If you were using Sets to group your queue managers in MQ Explorer, you can choose to have those associations imported into MO71 as well. MO71 has several grouping concepts (as described in Can you see your QMgr for the trees?). A queue manager can be in a single group on the main window, and it can be in multiple Networks, which are used in various places where queue managers are listed in MO71. Since a queue manager could be in multiple MQ Explorer Sets, you can choose whether to translate this part of the configuration into Network names or the first one into a QM Group, or both.

Once you have selected all the ones you want, click on Import, and you’re done.

You can also import local queue managers; queue manager location details from CCDT files; and other MO71 configuration files.

And of course, once imported, you can edit the locations to change the location labels and any other settings. If you have lots of newly imported locations you might like to consider using the Change Multiple Location dialog.

The new version can be downloaded from the MO71 Download Page. If you don’t have a licence and would like to try out MO71 then send an email to support@mqgem.com and a 1-month trial licence will be sent to you.

The MQ connector helps you connect your logic app workflows to an IBM MQ server that's either on premises or in Azure. You can then have your workflows receive and send messages stored in your MQ server. This article provides a get started guide to using the MQ connector by showing how to connect to your MQ server and add an MQ action to your workflow. For example, you can start by browsing a single message in a queue and then try other actions.

This connector includes a Microsoft MQ client that communicates with a remote MQ server across a TCP/IP network. You can connect to the following IBM WebSphere MQ versions:

• MQ 7.5
• MQ 8.0
• MQ 9.0, 9.1, and 9.2

Available operations

The IBM MQ connector provides actions but no triggers.

Ibm Mq Explorer Download

• Multi-tenant Azure Logic Apps: When you create a consumption-based logic app workflow, you can connect to an MQ server by using the managed MQ connector.

• Single-tenant Azure Logic Apps (preview): When you create a preview logic app workflow, you can connect to an MQ server by using either the managed MQ connector or the built-in MQ operations (preview).

For more information about the difference between a managed connector and built-in operations, review key terms in Logic Apps.

The following list describes only some of the managed operations available for MQ:

• Browse a single message or an array of messages without deleting from the MQ server. For multiple messages, you can specify the maximum number of messages to return per batch. Otherwise, all messages are returned.
• Delete a single or an array of messages from the MQ server.
• Receive a single message or an array of messages and then delete from the MQ server.
• Send a single message to the MQ server.

For all the managed connector operations and other technical information, such as properties, limits, and so on, review the MQ connector's reference page.

The following list describes only some of the built-in operations available for MQ:

• Receive a single message or an array of messages from the MQ server. For multiple messages, you can specify the maximum number of messages to return per batch and the maximum batch size in KB.
• Send a single message or an array of messages to the MQ server.

These built-in MQ operations also have the following capabilities plus the benefits from all the other capabilities for logic apps in the single-tenant Logic Apps service:

• Transport Layer Security (TLS) encryption for data in transit
• Message encoding for both the send and receive operations
• Support for Azure virtual network integration when your logic app uses the Azure Functions Premium plan

Limitations

The MQ connector doesn't use the message's Format field and doesn't make any character set conversions. The connector only puts whatever data appears in the message field into a JSON message and sends the message along.

Prerequisites

• An Azure account and subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, sign up for a free Azure account.

• If you're using an on-premises MQ server, install the on-premises data gateway on a server within your network. For the MQ connector to work, the server with the on-premises data gateway also must have .NET Framework 4.6 installed.

  After you install the gateway, you must also create a data gateway resource in Azure. The MQ connector uses this resource to access your MQ server. For more information, review Set up the data gateway connection.

  Note

  You don't need the gateway in the following scenarios:

  • You're going to use the built-in operations, not the managed connector.
  • Your MQ server is publicly available or available in Azure.

• The logic app workflow where you want to access your MQ server. Your logic app resource must have the same location as your gateway resource in Azure.

  The MQ connector doesn't have any triggers, so either your workflow must already start with a trigger, or you first have to add a trigger to your workflow. For example, you can use the Recurrence trigger.

  If you're new to Azure Logic Apps, try this quickstart to create an example logic app workflow, which runs in the multi-tenant Logic Apps service.

Create an MQ connection

Ibm Mq Explorer Software

When you add an MQ action for the first time, you're prompted to create a connection to your MQ server.

Note

The MQ connector currently supports only server authentication, not client authentication.For more information, see Connection and authentication problems.

1. If you're connecting to an on-premises MQ server, select Connect via on-premises data gateway.

2. Provide the connection information for your MQ server.

   Property	On-premises or Azure	Description
   Gateways	On-premises only	Select Connect via on-premises data gateway.
   Connection name	Both	The name to use for your connection
   Server	Both	Either of the following values: - MQ server host name - IP address followed by a colon and the port number
   Queue Manager name	Both	The Queue Manager that you want to use
   Channel name	Both	The channel for connecting to the Queue Manager
   Default queue name	Both	The default name for the queue
   Connect As	Both	The username for connecting to the MQ server
   Username	Both	Your username credential
   Password	Both	Your password credential
   Enable SSL?	On-premises only	Use Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
   Gateway - Subscription	On-premises only	The Azure subscription associated with your gateway resource in Azure
   Gateway - Connection Gateway	On-premises only	The gateway resource to use

   For example:

3. When you're done, select Create.

1. Provide the connection information for your MQ server.

   Property	On-premises or Azure	Description
   Connection name	Both	The name to use for your connection
   Server name	Both	The MQ server name or IP address
   Port number	Both	The TCP port number for connecting to the Queue Manager on the host
   Channel	Both	The channel for connecting to the Queue Manager
   Queue Manager name	Both	The Queue Manager that you want to use
   Default queue name	Both	The default name for the queue
   Connect As	Both	The username for connecting to the MQ server
   Username	Both	Your username credential
   Password	Both	Your password credential
   Use TLS	Both	Use Transport Layer Security (TLS)

   For example:

2. When you're done, select Create.

Add an MQ action

In Azure Logic Apps, an action follows the trigger or another action and performs some operation in your workflow. The following steps describe the general way to add an action, for example, Browse a single message.

1. In the Logic Apps Designer, open your workflow, if not already open.

2. Under the trigger or another action, add a new step.

   To add a step between existing steps, move your mouse over the arrow. Select the plus sign (+) that appears, and then select Add an action.

3. In the operation search box, enter mq. From the actions list, select the action named Browse message.

4. If you're prompted to create a connection to your MQ server, provide the requested connection information.

5. In the action, provide the property values that the action needs.

   For more properties, open the Add new parameter list, and select the properties that you want to add.

6. When you're done, on the designer toolbar, select Save.

7. To test your workflow, on the designer toolbar, select Run.

   After the run finishes, the designer shows the workflow's run history along with the status for step.

8. To review the inputs and outputs for each step that ran (not skipped), expand or select the step.

   • To review more input details, select Show raw inputs.
   • To review more output details, select Show raw outputs. If you set IncludeInfo to true, more output is included.

Troubleshoot problems

Ibm Mq Explorer License

Failures with browse or receive actions

If you run a browse or receive action on an empty queue, the action fails with the following header outputs:

Connection and authentication problems

When your workflow tries connecting to your on-premises MQ server, you might get this error:

Ibm Mq Explorer Installation

'MQ: Could not Connect the Queue Manager '<queue-manager-name>': The Server was expecting an SSL connection.'

• If you're using the MQ connector directly in Azure, the MQ server needs to use a certificate that's issued by a trusted certificate authority.

• The MQ server requires that you define the cipher specification to use with TLS connections. However, for security purposes and to include the best security suites, the Windows operating system sends a set of supported cipher specifications.

  The operating system where the MQ server runs chooses the suites to use. To make the configuration match, you have to change your MQ server setup so that the cipher specification matches the option chosen in the TLS negotiation.

  When you try to connect, the MQ server logs an event message that the connection attempt failed because the MQ server chose the incorrect cipher specification. The event message contains the cipher specification that the MQ server chose from the list. In the channel configuration, update the cipher specification to match the cipher specification in the event message.

Connector reference

For all the operations in the managed connector and other technical information, such as properties, limits, and so on, review the MQ connector's reference page.

Next steps

• Learn about other Logic Apps connectors