On successful completion of this course attendees will be able to:

• explain clustering terminology and basic clustering concepts
• describe how a cluster works
• implement a cluster and perform common administrative tasks
• recognise the symptoms of frequently encountered problems and solve them
• evaluate and exploit the range of workload management options
• use distributed queuing techniques to connect Queue Managers inside a cluster to Queue Managers outside a cluster
• configure overlapping clusters
• outline how clusters support distributed publish/subscribe
• take steps to render a cluster secure
• discuss clustering current best practices.

Schedule

Intended for

Experienced MQ Administrators who will be responsible for designing, implementing and managing a WMQ cluster.

Background

Experience of administering IBM MQ in a Linux, UNIX and/or Windows environment, or in a z/OS environment.(see IBM MQ administration for Linux, UNIX & Windows or IBM MQ z/OS system administration).

Main topics

• Introduction to clustering

What is an IBM MQ cluster?; What an MQ cluster is not; Cloned application services; Continuous putting; Scalability; Cluster components; Reduced administration; Joining a Queue Manager to a cluster; Definition through use; Disseminating cluster information; Cluster information message contents; Retention of information in repositories; Dynamically created reply to queues.

• Definition, administration and management

Basic cluster configuration; Cluster administration commands; DISPLAY CLUSQMGR; DISPLAY QCLUSTER; SUSPEND QMGR; RESUME QMGR; REFRESH CLUSTER; RESET CLUSTER; Cluster management tasks; Removing a cluster queue from the cluster; Moving a full repository; Removing a Queue Manager from the cluster.

• Troubleshooting

Common symptoms and problems; Retrying CLUSSDR channel; SYSTEM.TEMP CLUSQMGR names; Unknown Object Name (RC 2085); Cluster resolution error (RC 2189); DISPLAY CLUSQMGR displays a Queue Manager twice.

• Workload management

Workload management before Version 6; Workload management options since V6; CLWLUSEQ(ANY); CLWLRANK; CLWLPRTY; CLWLMRUC; CLWLWGHT; NETPRTY; The workload management algorithm; What happens when a target queue is unavailable?; BIND Options; DEFBIND, DEFPRTY and DEFPSIST.

• Clustering and distributed queuing

Aliases revisited: Queue Manager aliases, queue aliases; Using queue aliases in clusters; Gateways; Accessing an individual queue outside the cluster; Accessing all queues owned by an external Queue Manager; Accessing external predefined queues via a QM alias; Accessing an individual queue inside the cluster; Accessing all of a cluster Queue Managers' queues; Workload management from outside the cluster.

• Overlapping clusters

What are overlapping clusters?; Definitions for overlapping clusters; Putting across the cluster boundary.

• Publish/subscribe clusters

MQ Publish/Subscribe; Distributed publish/subscribe; Hierarchies and clusters; Proxy subscriptions in clusters; Publish/Subscribe clusters: recommendations.

• Security

Stopping unauthorized Queue Managers connecting to your Queue Manager; Stopping unauthorized Queue Managers putting messages on your queues; Authorizing putting messages to remote cluster queues; Preventing Queue Managers joining a cluster; Forcing unwanted Queue Managers to leave a cluster; SSL and clusters.

• Recommendations, best practices and hints

Ten tips for a healthy MQ cluster; Why exactly two full repositories?; Dedicated servers for full repositories; Only one manually defined CLUSSDR; Naming channels.

Training method

A significant feature of this course is the time devoted to extensive practical exercises. The exercises are conducted in a Windows environment, but the principles learned are relevant to all MQ implementations, including z/OS.

Duration

3 days.

Course leader

RSM Technology.