Given the wide range of uses for MQe, the product is not installed, configured,
and deployed in the same way as other members of the MQ family. There are
three phases in the adoption of MQe:
- 1. Development and prototyping phase
- MQe is available for installation and use without charge, subject
to the conditions of the MQe development license. MQe applications are developed,
using the functions provided by the JMS API or the MQe Java and
C API. Please note the following regarding the creating and usage
of a MQe queue manager. These issues may affect how you implement your application.
- Only one MQe queue manager may be used at any time in a JVM or
a C process. A check is made within MQe and an error thrown if an
application tries to start more than one queue manager. If more than one
application needs to use a single queue manager, these must reside in the
same JVM. When running multiple applications in a single JVM, the applications
can use the MQeQueueManager.getDefaultQueueManager() method in order to check
if a queue manager is already running. Any number of applications and queue
managers may be used on a single machine, however care needs to be taken with
regard to expected performance and system resources.
- Only one MQe queue manager should be started over a single message store.
When using a graphical user interface, it is relatively easy to start up
more than one instance of an application. It is therefore possible for multiple
instances of the same queue manager running over the same message store to
be started. This may have indeterminate results, especially if asynchronous
queueing is being used.
- C
- The C API provides access to the functionality commensurate with the role
of a client queue manager. The .NET environment may be used by using the
Platform Invocation Services to call out to the MQe C DLLs. The required
DLLs must be downloaded onto the device.
During the prototyping phase, it is strongly suggested that tests
are run over the network intended to be used during production, with production
level data. This will enable you to set correct expectations on performance
and to assess the default communications settings in MQe.
Support
from IBM® is
not included with the development license. However, support during application
development and beyond is provided with the deployment license (see below).
- 2. Deployment phase
- The deployment phase refers to how you use the developed applications
and, therefore, under the terms of the MQe license, capacity units are required
to use the product. The Java™ classes and
C API can only be distributed with the application with agreement
from IBM,
or where the users already have entitlement to use them. Otherwise, in Java,
users must customize the necessary classes themselves and,
in C, copy the MQe to the device.
- 3. Management phase
- Subsequently, when MQe queue managers are active within a network, tools
are needed to inspect and manage them. Support for MQe is provided under the
terms of the International Program License Agreement.
Support levels
This adoption life
cycle explains the variation in level of support with platforms. For the MQe
with capacity units, and Category 3 SupportPacs, IBM distinguishes between:
- Platforms where installation and application development is supported:
- Problem reports on install, application development, and use are accepted
- Platforms where the application deployment is permitted but not directly
supported:
- Problem reports might be required to be reproduced on a supported platform
- Platforms where application deployment is supported:
- Problem reports resulting from application deployment are accepted