Roger's Blog on MQ, Java, C, etc… | A blog about IBM MQ, Java, C and other things developers or MQAdmins need to know.

MQ Resource Adapter and MQ Exits

August 9, 2017 Roger Lacroix

It is always interesting to see what IBM Support thinks of issues and their resolution. 🙂

Case in point: https://developer.ibm.com/messaging/2017/08/01/using-channel-exits-jee-application-servers/

Background: Several months ago, a long-time customer of MQ Authenticate User Security Exit (MQAUSX) was deploying a JBoss V7 server and needed to configure the MQAUSX client-side security exit to be used for authentication to the queue manager where the MQAUSX server-side security exit is located.

I had the customer follow the standard JEE method of updating the CLASSPATH but MQ complained that the client-side security exit could not be found. For days and days, we tried every combination of CLASSPATH, PATH, etc that I could think to get MQ to find the MQAUSXJ.jar file. But it always failed.

The thing that was becoming very clear, when a JEE application uses the MQ Resource Adapter (aka wmq.jmsra.rar), the environment becomes a closed system for MQ related items. I got the bright idea of hacking the MQ Resource Adapter and putting the MQAUSXJ.jar inside it then re-bundling the MQ Resource Adapter. The customer deployed the ‘new and improved’ MQ Resource Adapter and everything worked. 🙂

The only problem, the customer did not liked the idea of hacking the MQ Resource Adapter and inserting the MQAUSXJ.jar file into it. So they opened a PMR with IBM.

As noted in the IBM blog posting, IBM Support came up with 3 solutions. The only viable solution was the first option of setting the JVM environment variable of com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath.

i.e. Windows
com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath=C:/Capitalware/MQAUSX/MQAUSXJ.jar

i.e. Unix/Linux
com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath=/var/mqm/exits64/MQAUSXJ.jar

I have updated the MQAUSX manual to reflect this information.

IBM Support’s description of the 2nd customer isn’t exactly correct (they were using both send and receive exits). This customer was using WAS (WebSphere Application Server) with the MQ Resource Adapter and wanted to use MQ Channel Encryption (MQCE) for both send and receive exits.

At first, my brain did not connect the JBoss V7 channel security exit issues with this new issue of WAS channel send and receive exits not working. I didn’t make the connection that both customers were using the MQ Resource Adapter. So, the customer opened a PMR with IBM and basically received the same response as the other customer received and then the bells went off in my head. (MQ Resource Adapter is a closed system as it relates to MQ items.)

I have updated the MQCE manual to reflect this information.

i.e. Windows
com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath=C:/Capitalware/MQCE/MQCEJ.jar

i.e. Unix/Linux
com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath=/var/mqm/exits64/MQCEJ.jar

So, here’s the bottom-line: if you use the MQ Resource Adapter (aka wmq.jmsra.rar) in your JEE application and want to also use MQ exits then you need to add the JVM environment variable of com.ibm.mq.cfg.ClientExitPath.JavaExitsClasspath with the path and filename of the JAR file that contains the classes for the MQ exits.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Capitalware, IBM MQ, Java, JMS, Linux, MQ Authenticate User Security Exit, MQ Channel Encryption, Unix, Windows Comments Off

DataPower Labs at MQTC v2.0.1.7

August 8, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Lyn Elkins of IBM is allowing Robin Wiley to load his DataPower Labs onto the computers in the MQ Labs at MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7 (MQTC).

So attendees will be able to not only attend Robin Wiley’s ‘MQ-DataPower Connectivity Deep Dive’ session but also run through the DataPower Labs he has.

For more information about MQTC, please go to:
http://www.mqtechconference.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

DataPower, Education, IBM MQ, MQ Technical Conference Comments Off

MQ Visual Edit V2.2.0 Released

August 4, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Capitalware Inc. would like to announce the official release of MQ Visual Edit v2.2.0. This is a FREE upgrade for ALL licensed users of MQ Visual Edit V2. MQ Visual Edit allows users to view, manipulate and manage messages in a queue and/or topic of a IBM MQ queue manager and presents the data in a simplified format similar to a database utility or spreadsheet program.

For more information about MQ Visual Edit go to:
https://www.capitalware.com/mqve_overview.html

Added Prompt for Password on the UserId panel of the Queue Manager Access Profile window
Added a JSON Viewer for JSON data on the Message Edit window
Added back ‘Open Read Only’ feature on the Open Queue Window
Added ‘Open Read Only’ feature on the Open Topic Window
Added checks for Proxy Host and Port when Proxy Server is enabled
Added ‘Automatically scroll the table to the new message’ to the ‘MQ Topic’ window panel of the Preferences popup window
Added the ‘Follow New Message’ menu item under View menu item (it toggles on/off the auto scrolling for Topic messages)
Added Topic Name to the Open Topic window.
Added Cut and Delete Message to the main window for Topic Messages (Note: Messages are only removed from the table and not from the topic).
Added 2 new Topic Stress Testing Tools: Subscribe Server and Publish Server.
Added support on ‘Forward Message’ feature to remove MQRFH2 wrapped MQDEAD messages if ‘Remove Dead Letter Header’ is specified.
Added support for more internal MQ headers: MQDH, MQRMH, MQTM and MQWIH
Added support for delimiters to parse file(s) for ‘Import File’ feature.
Added support for 30 new languages: Amharic, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Cebuano, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Igbo, Javanese, Kannada, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Pashto, Persian, Shona, Sindhi, Sundanese, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Xhosa, Yoruba & Zulu
Changed the location of the ‘MQVE_error.log’ file to be the same directory as the ‘CommProfileDB.properties’ file.
Fixed an issue with ‘Forward Message’ feature
Fixed an issue when Reset View was invoked and the subscriptions were not stopped.
Fixed an issue with not being able to select a message when it does not have payload (message data)
Fixed an issue with MQMD columns not showing when a message does not have payload (message data)
Fixed an issue with PutApplType being shown when MQMD columns are being displayed.
Fixed an issue with MQMD columns not honoring column alignment.
Fixed an issue with the Cut Message on the main screen.
Fixed an issue with PutDate & PutTime on the MQXQH panel.
Fixed an issue with acquiring the ‘i’th Access Code.
Fixed an issue with the Button Bar on Mac OS X.
Fixed button selection coloring on Mac OS X.
Fixed an issue with coloring the main table when the topic string contains either ‘#’ or ‘+’.
Fixed an issue with sort columns on List of Topics window.
Made sure Favorites and MQ Monitoring Tools store the settings/information in the ‘User Directory’.
Switched to JVM v1.8
Updated docs (English only)

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Capitalware, IBM MQ, IBM MQ Appliance, Linux, macOS (Mac OS X), MQ Visual Edit, Windows Comments Off

MQ Visual Browse V2.2.0 Released

August 4, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Capitalware Inc. would like to announce the official release of MQ Visual Browse v2.2.0. This is a FREE upgrade for ALL licensed users of MQ Visual Browse V2. MQ Visual Browse allows users to view messages in a queue and/or topic of a IBM MQ queue manager and presents the data in a simplified format similar to a database utility or spreadsheet program.

For more information about MQ Visual Browse go to:
https://www.capitalware.com/mqvb_overview.html

Added Prompt for Password on the UserId panel of the Queue Manager Access Profile window
Added a JSON Viewer for JSON data on the Message Edit window
Added checks for Proxy Host and Port when Proxy Server is enabled
Added ‘Automatically scroll the table to the new message’ to the ‘MQ Topic’ window panel of the Preferences popup window
Added the ‘Follow New Message’ menu item under View menu item (it toggles on/off the auto scrolling for Topic messages)
Added Topic Name to the Open Topic window.
Added support for more internal MQ headers: MQDH, MQRMH, MQTM and MQWIH
Added support for 30 new languages: Amharic, Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Cebuano, Gujarati, Hausa, Hebrew, Igbo, Javanese, Kannada, Malay, Malayalam, Mandarin, Marathi, Pashto, Persian, Shona, Sindhi, Sundanese, Swahili, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Xhosa, Yoruba & Zulu
Changed the location of the ‘MQVB_error.log’ file to be the same directory as the ‘CommProfileDB.properties’ file.
Fixed an issue when Reset View was invoked and the subscriptions were not stopped.
Fixed an issue with not being able to select a message when it does not have payload (message data)
Fixed an issue with MQMD columns not showing when a message does not have payload (message data)
Fixed an issue with PutApplType being shown when MQMD columns are being displayed.
Fixed an issue with MQMD columns not honoring column alignment.
Fixed an issue with PutDate & PutTime on the MQXQH panel.
Fixed an issue with acquiring the ‘i’th Access Code.
Fixed an issue with the Button Bar on Mac OS X.
Fixed button selection coloring on Mac OS X.
Fixed an issue with coloring the main table when the topic string contains either ‘#’ or ‘+’.
Fixed an issue with sort columns on List of Topics window.
Made sure Favorites settings are stored in the ‘User Directory’.
Switched to JVM v1.8
Updated docs (English only)

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Capitalware, IBM MQ, IBM MQ Appliance, Linux, macOS (Mac OS X), MQ Visual Browse, Windows Comments Off

Why isn’t my queue manager shutting down?

August 4, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Here’s a good write up by Colin Paice on issues and handling of them when your queue manager won’t shutdown.
https://developer.ibm.com/messaging/2017/07/28/isnt-queue-manager-shutting/

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

IBM i (OS/400), IBM MQ, Linux, Unix, Windows Comments Off

Windows 10 Creators Update causing Java to Crash

August 4, 2017 Roger Lacroix

The following applies to Capitalware Java products and any other program that uses Java (JVM) on Windows 10 with a recent Creators Update. Microsoft has changed something in Windows 10 that causes Java (JVM) to crash for some users (not all) when accessing a file.

For those IBM MQ users, just to refresh your memory, the following are MQ Java programs: MQ Explorer, JMSAdmin, Postcard, IVT (Verification), MQTT Listener, AMQP Listener, Java and Java/JMS sample applications, etc..

If you are using a Java program on Windows 10 that requires Java (JVM) and you get EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION with [MSVCR100.dll+0x121f4] then you may have the issue.

Microsoft has it documented here: Creators Update causing Java crashes

This issue appears to happen with most JVM’s. i.e. Oracle JRE, Excelsior Jet, OpenJDK, etc.. I cannot find a report of it with IBM JRE but it mostly likely has the issue too.

Capitalware’s Java products are desktop GUI programs, so if you see a popup box like the following then you have been hit with the issue:

Solution? Yes, sir, there is a solution and it is even stranger than the issue. It is a very simple solution: create a GodMode folder on your desktop and the issue goes away. I’m not kidding. Don’t ask me how many backdoors there are in Windows!!!

Here is a write up of the solution: Create a ‘God Mode’ Folder in Windows 10.

Right-click on your desktop and select New Folder
Type in or copy and paste the following as the name:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Hit Enter and the folder icon will change to GodMode
Once it has been created, you can delete it if you wish. Whatever was changed in the system is done and the GodMode folder is no longer required.

If you scroll further down on the GodMode link, you will see a comment that the word ‘GodMode’ can be anything (i.e. BudaMode, YahwahMode, etc..).

So there you go, when dealing with Windows, you just have entered the Twilight Zone. 🙂

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Capitalware, IBM MQ, Java, JMS, Windows Comments Off

Avada Software’s Session at MQTC v2.0.1.7

August 2, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Rob Sordillo of Avada Software will be doing the following vendor session at MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7 (MQTC):

Rob Sordillo’s Vendor Sessions:

What’s Up DOCker

For more information about MQTC, please go to:
http://www.mqtechconference.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Education, IBM MQ, MQ Technical Conference Comments Off

MQTC v2.0.1.7 Gold Sponsor: TxMQ

August 2, 2017 Roger Lacroix

Capitalware would like to announce that TxMQ is a Gold Sponsor of MQ Technical Conference v2.0.1.7 (MQTC).

For more information, please go to: http://www.mqtechconference.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

Education, IBM MQ, MQ Technical Conference Comments Off

SQLite v3.20.0 Released

August 1, 2017 Roger Lacroix

D. Richard Hipp has just released SQLite v3.20.0.
http://www.sqlite.org/news.html

SQLite is a software library that implements a self-contained, serverless, zero-configuration, transactional SQL database engine. SQLite is the most widely deployed SQL database engine in the world. The source code for SQLite is in the public domain.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.