Maybe I just overlooked something ... but I'm a bit surprised and confused about my observations when "moving" (copying) messages from a QMgr in Windows to one on z/OS:
Exploring a codepage-related customer problem, I received a "queue offload file" with eight messages created by dmpmqmsg -o from a customer test installation.
Half of the eight messages contained in the file, display "ENC 785 - CCS 500", and the other four come with "ENC 273 - CCS 1208".
After loading the file to a queue on my QMgr on Windows using the dmpmqmsg -i <queuename> -f <filename> command, the same CCSID/ENC settings can be displayed for the messages on the queue, using the MQ Explorer Browse Messages option.
Now I copied these messages to a queue on a z/OS Qmgr, after defining to the Windows QMgr a Remote Queue definition for the local queue on z/OS.
I did the "copy" running
1) dmpmqmsg -i <WinQlocal> -o <WinQRemote>, and also
2) dmpmqmsg -o >WinQRemote> -f <filename>
A SDR-RCVR channel pair between the QMgrs on Windows and z/OS is in place, and the messages all end up in the z/OS target queue.
But here, on z/OS, MQMDs for all eight messages display ENC 785 - CCSID 500.
Thus, messages initially (and correctly) specifying "ENC 273 - CCS 1208" cannot be displayed in readable format by the MQ Explorer on the z/OS side -- on Windows, they so, as long as the MQMD specified the correct ENC/CCS. And I assume that if it would come to real processing of these messages, that would probably fail based on wrong ENC/CCSID setting ...
I cannot explain this. I assume it has to do with the z/OS QMgr's CCSID=500 qmgr attribute- but as to my understanding, message CCSIDs must not be changed when messages are moved ...
The SDR channel used to transfer the messages clearly specifies CONVERT=(NO).
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Marcel Amrein
IBM Germany - IT Specialist for CICS and MQ
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