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CQSA introduces another IBM MQ game-changer

MQ Event Viewer (MQEV)

Johannesburg, 09 Jul 2020

A question: Are you really making the most out of your IBM MQ installed base? Have you at any time asked questions about the actual events that have taken place in MQ, and not been able to get the answers?

That is all about to change!

You can now use the data that the MQ can generate (which many MQ estates do not have enabled) to answer a number of important questions. Questions such as:

  • Did anything unusual happen with my Queue Manager overnight or over the weekend?
  • Is queue or channel XYZ still being used? And, if so, by who/what?
  • Were unauthorised changes made to MQ definitions?
  • How efficient are my channels? What are the response times over a period of time?
  • How many messages are being processed (last four hours, daily, weekly monthly)?
  • Which application/s are processing the most messages?
  • How does the activity/depth of a queue vary over the day? What are my peak traffic times? What is the best time to bounce a machine where MQ runs?
  • How does the activity/depth of a queue vary over the last three months? Am I seeing an increase of traffic? Will my MQ infrastructure be able to cope with future demands?
  • Are any of my applications misbehaving?
  • How is my processing speed varying over time? Am I delivering on my service level agreements (SLA)?
  • What is the maximum depth my queue has reached during a particular period?
  • What types of MQ clients are using my Queue Manager? JMS? C? Java?C++? Which MQ Client versions are being used?
  • How can I 'cross-bill' applications, making use of a shared MQ environment, aka, MQ Appliance?
  • And many more...

Although MQ generates this information, called MQ Events Messages, the events messages are in Program Command Format (PCF) which are not user friendly and complicated to analyse and interrogate. CQSA utilizing MQGem Software, (MO71 & MQEV) can now filter the standard MQ Events Messages. These categories include:

Operational events, such as something "of note", has happened. This could range from something simple, such as “channel starting” to something fairly serious such as a “queue filling up”.

Statistics event messages generated on a regular interval to notify the user of the levels of activity. For example, how many messages have been “put” to or retrieved ("get”) to a queue.

Accounting Event Messages are like statistics messages, however, they are from the point of view of the application. So, it gives information such as how many MQI calls, and which type, have been issued by each application in the system. Again, these messages output at regular intervals

MQEV from MQGem Software can process the MQ event messages, store them, and allow you to search, filter, aggregate and choose how long to retain the information within the messages. MQEV highlights include:

An easy way to store a history of events, statistics and accounting information.

Does not require complicated and expensive databases.

Simple configuration of how long to keep the data.

Fast search and display of all stored data.

Consolidation and summarising of change events.

Fast totalling of statistics and accounting data.

Administration and display of MQEV data either by command line (MQSCX) or a GUI (MO71) or a programming interface.

Write scripts to process and action events as they are issued.

Write scripts to mine the events and statistics data.

Runs in either client or local binding.

Alerts can be generated for any situation that is interesting to you.

Allows storing of events, accounting, and statistics messages on streams with different retention intervals.

Event storms are occasions when deluged with lots of very similar events.

Daisy chaining of event messages using a forwarding queue, and/or read from a different named queue as required.

CQSA has also developed a number of MQEV queries, which are fully automated and ready to be scheduled to extract valuable information.

For more information, please contact Alex@cqsa.co.za.

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Editorial contacts

A.H. (Eric) Sommer
CommerceQuest SA
eric@cqsa.co.za