IBM MQ (Message Queue) is a robust messaging middleware platform designed to facilitate the reliable, secure and scalable communication between applications and services in an enterprise environment.
Let us see the key capabilities of IBM MQ
IBM MQ entities are the core components used to enable the communication between the systems and applications.
1. Queue Manager: It’s central component of IBM MQ that manages queues, channels and Listeners. Each Queue Manger is a separate instance and has its own queues and logs.
2. Channels: The communication links between queue managers or between a queue manager and an application.
3. The IBM MQ Listeners are responsible for the port’s incoming connection requests to the queue manager. They facilitate the communication by establishing connections between applications and the queue manager. The Listeners operates on specific protocols (e.g., TCP) and can be configured with parameters such as port number and SSL settings to ensure the secure and reliable message delivery.
The “BizTalk Server” is an integration platform widely used to connect diverse systems, endpoints and message processing with IBM MQ, SFTP, Azure Services. The Integration with IBM MQ facilitates the reliable and secure messaging between the distributed systems. The BizTalk Server leveraging the transactional and queuing capabilities of IBM MQ.
The BizTalk Server IBM MQ Adapter is a key component for integrating the BizTalk Server with IBM MQ, enabling communication between BizTalk Applications using message queues.
In earlier versions of BizTalk360, IBM MQ Queues monitoring was implemented, enabling users to monitor queue states and various metrics such as queue size, queue depth and message age effectively to detect the potential bottlenecks. With version 11.3, BizTalk360 has expanded its IBM MQ monitoring capabilities to include:
These MQ entities are now consolidated under the new IBM MQ section, streamlining management, monitoring, and notifications within the mapping configuration, monitoring dashboard, and alerting system.
Starting with this version, configuring Queue Managers is a critical step to enable monitoring of IBM MQ entities such as Queues, Channels, and Listeners.
In the Environment Settings -> Mapping Configuration, users must provide the following details for Queue Managers:
In an insurance claim processing system, IBM MQ plays a crucial role in ensuring reliable message communication between various components, such as policy management systems, claim assessment services, and payment gateways. The “Claim Processing Channel” is a dedicated MQ channel that facilitates the seamless transfer of claim-related data.
Channel Availability: It’s critical in the case of claim channel’s connectivity to ensure the smooth process of the claims efficiently without any interruptions.
The user can set the expected states of channel to Running (Active), Stopped. When the monitoring services detects the threshold violation of channel status, it will notify the recipients.
Auto Healing: Users can enable the Autocorrect configuration to allow the monitoring service to automatically adjust the channel status to the expected state. When the channel’s expected state is set to Running and if the channel status is detected as Stopped, the monitoring service will take corrective action to activate the channel.
Listeners is the vital component that act as bridge between the client and queue managers. Its availability is critical for smooth processing of the messages in the queues.
Same as channel monitoring, user can monitor Listener’s by setting the expected state. When BizTalk360 monitoring service detects a threshold violation, it sends notifications to alert users. If the AutoCorrect option is enabled, the system can automatically take corrective action to restore the Listener to its expected state (Running).
IBM MQ monitoring dashboard reflects the hierarchy of Queue Manager under this Channels, Listeners and Queues.
When an issue is detected in the IBM MQ monitoring, users can promptly visualize detailed Errors and Warnings through the BizTalk360 dashboard, offering immediate insights into the root cause. Simultaneously, real-time notifications are automatically pushed to configured email addresses and other integrated notification channels, such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, or ServiceNow, ensuring key stakeholders are alerted without delay.
Currently, BizTalk360 supports monitoring the following IBM MQ entities:
Enhancements for monitoring Channels and Listeners metrics are in development and will be addressed in the next couple of quarters. These updates will further enhance BizTalk360’s IBM MQ monitoring capabilities.
The extended monitoring capabilities in BizTalk360 further enhance operational efficiency by enabling proactive monitoring of IBM MQ entities, including channels and listeners.
These advanced monitoring features address real-world use cases, such as ensuring channel connectivity and listener availability, helping businesses minimize downtime and maintain smooth operations.
To know more about the BizTalk360 features, try out the free trial or book a demo.
