IBM MQ 9.2.1 is our first Continuous Delivery update following the 9.2 Long Term Support release. This starts the ball rolling on the next series of Continuous Delivery updates for IBM MQ product offerings. Here are your MQ and MQ Appliance options at this point:
- IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.2
- IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.1
- IBM MQ 9.0 (There is no MQ Appliance 9.0 LTS firmware level)
- IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 8.0
- IBM MQ Appliance M2001 hardware
New MQ Appliance M2002 models will ship with the 9.2 LTS firmware onboard by default, but you can move at any time to the CD firmware if there is function of interest.
Where can I get IBM MQ 9.2.1 from?
MQ 9.2.1 delivers concurrently on distributed platforms, MQ for z/OS, MQ Appliance and IBM MQ on IBM Cloud managed service platforms. For any queries about what each Program entitles you to install check out the MQ license information page.
- Distributed platforms: Download instructions for AIX, Linux and Windows
- z/OS: shopZ for z/OS - will be available on 11th Dec 2020
Note that on z/OS there are CD and LTS orderable features in shopZ. They are functionally identical at 9.2 but you must ensure you install the one that matches the upgrade path you wish to follow - LTS or CD. MQ 9.2.1 PTFs are PH31298 (MQ base), PH31299 (MQ Advanced for z/OS VUE).
- z/OS offerings are:
- 5655-MQ9 – IBM MQ for z/OS
- 5655-VU9 – IBM MQ for z/OS Value Unit Edition
- 5655-AV9 – IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS
This is a bundle of MQ Advanced Message Security and MQ Managed File Transfer capability (no MQ entitlement included)
- 5655-AV1 – IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS Value Unit Edition
This is a bundle of MQ Advanced Message Security, MQ Managed File Transfer and MQ for z/OS Value Unit Edition capability
- MQ Appliance: On Fix Central and applied to the M2002 and M2001 hardware models.
- IBM MQ Advanced certified container: Deployment instructions. This will be available on 18th December 2020.
- IBM MQ on IBM Cloud: IBM MQ on IBM Cloud managed service, which has different T-shirt size plans and options for placing the queue manager in an IBM Cloud or AWS data center.
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What’s new in the MQ 9.2.1 CD release?
IBM MQ and MQ Appliance 9.2 announcement letters:
Updates in this release of IBM MQ include:
MQ updates across all platforms
IBM MQ 9.2.1 is the first CD update following the MQ 9.2 LTS release back in July.
- Administration
- The IBM MQ Console improves the getting started experience for new users with step-by-step setup for connecting applications and auto generation of the CCDT.
- IBM MQ install process on Windows and through silent install informs users if they are installing any MQ Advanced capabilities that require one of our MQ Advanced entitlements.
- Object deletion can be made idempotent with the IGNSTATE attribute so that a consistent result is returned if delete is run multiple times. An example use case is for containers where repeatability is important.
- From MQ 9.2.1 a MQ on Linux installation can be upgraded in place without needed to uninstall the previous release.
- Security
- It is now possible to define permissions for users without users having to be defined in a LDAP repository. This is driven by the OpenShift security best practices.
- A custom hostname instead of a channel name can now be set in the TLS SNI (Server Name Indicator) header. This makes it easier to route through third-party network layers. This change improves the experience of configuring MQ with OpenShift network routing.
- MQ Java clients will now support long passwords by default. Previously the default was limited to 12 characters.
- MQ Managed File Transfer (MFT) enhancements
- The MFT protocol bridge adds an option to limit transfers per FTP and SFTP endpoints to reduce the risk of bottlenecks and effectively prioritize file transfers.
- The MFT file logger component has been added to the redistributable MQ MFT Agent package to enable actions to be captured for analysis and auditing purposes.
- Applications
- Support for point-to-point messaging with the AMQP 1.0 (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) wire protocol.
- An open source scaler for MQ has been contributed to the Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaler (KEDA) project. It provides a mechanism for scaling IBM MQ resources based on queue depth. For more information see the Introduction to KEDA article.
- The IBM MQ macOS Toolkit for Developers is now delivered as a signed package (.pkg)
MQ Appliance
- New capabilities of MQ 9.2.1 base.
- Synchronous disaster recovery (DR).
- Data can be replicated synchronously between a pair of appliances to protect against data loss or inconsistency in the event of a disaster. HA failover is an automated process, whilst DR is manual. DR can now be configured to be synchronous or asynchronous.
- Ad hoc recreation of a DR secondary node.
- Users can now re-establish a DR pair after a disaster has been resolved without recreating the DR configuration
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Can I get a copy of IBM MQ for development purposes?
The LearnMQ site is regularly updated with a mix of tutorials and essential getting started information, and offers you the opportunity to earn an IBM MQ Developer Essentials badge.
The full list of Developer download options are below.
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Downloadable resources
A number of MQ components are made available on IBM Fix Central and elsewhere for ease of download. Below are the links to the available components. Where applicable, they will show the latest 9.2 Continuous Delivery (CD) and Long Term Support (LTS) updates for each component. Be sure to know which you require!
Fix packs:
Clients:
Components:
Containers:
Development:
Tip: Try opening the links in a private browsing tab if they don’t correctly resolve.
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MQ System Requirements and documentation
The system requirements are documented at the links below. IBM MQ Continuous Delivery releases are being made available on z/OS, Microsoft Windows, Linux on x86-64, Linux on IBM z Systems, Linux on Little Endian Power (RHEL, SLES and Ubuntu) and AIX.
Further information can be found in the
IBM MQ Knowledge Center and the
IBM MQ Appliance Knowledge CenterMQ 9.2 operating system support
|
MQ 9.2 LTS |
Removed compared to MQ 9.1 |
| AIX |
7.1 TL5, 7.2 TL3 |
7.2 TL2 |
| IBM i |
7.3, 7.4 |
7.2 |
| Linux |
RHEL 7.6+, 8.0+
SLES 12 SP4, 15 SP1
Ubuntu 18.04
|
RHEL 7.3, 7.4, 7.5
SLES 12 SP2, SP3, 15 SP0
Ubuntu 16.04 |
| Windows |
Windows Server 2016, 2019
Windows 10 |
Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 8.1 |
| z/OS |
2.3, 2.4 |
2.2 |
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What function has released in previous updates?
IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.2 Long Term Support Release
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Remind me how the Continuous Delivery support model works…
Its worth reminding you what the Continuous Delivery support model means for MQ.
- MQ 9.2 LTS is supported for a minimum of 5 years from its availability in July 2020, and will receive fix only updates through fixpacks versioned 9.2.0.1, 9.2.0.2 and so on.
- MQ CD updates will be delivered with the 3rd digit change – 9.2.1, 9.2.2 and so on. Defect support for a CD release is available for 12 months from the availability of the release or while it remains one of the two most recent CD releases, whichever is longer, so you need to keep moving forward with the MQ CD releases.
- MQ CD updates will be delivered with new function enabled by default.
- The IBM MQ FAQ for Long Term Support and Continuous Delivery Releases will hopefully answer most of your questions.
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