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IBM MQ, IBM MQ for z/OS and IBM MQ Appliance firmware 9.3.3 Continuous Delivery releases are available

By Ian Harwood posted Wed June 21, 2023 04:45 AM

  

IBM MQ 9.3.3 is the next MQ continuous delivery release following MQ 9.3.2 in February 2023. This update delivers enhancements across the portfolio for the MQ Appliance, high availability, security and Java compatibility.

Here are your MQ and MQ Appliance options at this point:


Where can I get IBM MQ 9.3.3 from?

For further information about what each Program entitles you to install check out the MQ license information page.  

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What’s new in the MQ 9.3.3 release?

In addition to the below, there is also a MQ focused Podcast available from www.DoYouMQ.com, Spotify or Apple Podcasts featuring MQ experts, customers and business partners sharing their knowledge and insights about MQ capabilities. If you have suggestions for topics let us know! 

MQ updates

What's new/changed - IBM MQ and IBM MQ for z/OS, including deprecations and removals
What's new/changed - IBM MQ Appliance firmware    

The MQ 9.3.3 announcement letter also contains an overview of the release content.

  • IBM MQ Appliance SSH certificate authentication
    User can now have the option to use a certificate or userid/password when logging in over SSH. This makes it much easier to script access to the MQ Appliance without having to worry about handling password credentials.

  • IBM MQ Appliance disk usage notifications
    A requested feature  for the MQ Appliance is to provide disk usage metrics. A new schedule task called the File System Usage Monitor has been added to write disk usage information into the logs which can then be streamed to monitoring tools that can generate notifications

  • XMS and .NET client enhancements
    9.3.3 includes implementation of a couple of Aha Ideas:
    • MENS-I-460 - Enhancing .NET tracing so that it can be enabled without requiring an application restart
    • MENS-I-147 - Improved error messages are returned when XMS .NET or .NET clients have TLS connection errors to better identify the root cause.

  • Use the MQ messaging REST API to send messages to a remote queue manager
    The messaging REST API ca now be used to connect to remote queue managers for messaging. Remote queue managers can be queue managers within another installation, or on another system. The mqweb server now only needs to be installed and run in a single installation for applications to be able to connect to any queue manager with the messaging REST API.

  • IBM MQ Console enhancements
    Simplified administration through web console updates can provide easier navigation between the configuration and runtime relationships of MQ resources. For example, administrators can view which applications are putting messages on queues and see the relationships between different queues. This enhancement can improve an administrator's ability to rapidly identify and resolve issues.

  • Unlocking events from mission-critical data using Kafka Connect
    Kafka connectors enable data to be passed between your MQ subsystems and your Apache Kafka clusters.  With IBM MQ Advanced for z/OS Value Unit Edition, IBM MQ Advanced, or IBM MQ Appliance entitlement support for Kafka Connect source and sink connectors that can copy data from IBM MQ to Kafka, or Kafka to IBM MQ. For example,  the MQ streaming queues capability can be used to take a copy of existing data and route it into Kafka using the provided connectors. The connectors can be downloaded from http://ibm.biz/mq93kafkaconnectors 

  • Additional SMF queue statistics records for MQ for z/OS
    Over the last few CD releases we have been incrementally adding more data to the SMF queue statistics records. The latest improvements to the queue statistics give insight into what happened with your queue during the last SMF interval. This includes information on message flow, expiry, high and low watermarks and more. For further information see Queue data records IBM MQ 9.3.3 release.

  • Automatic recovery of damaged objects for Native HA queue managers
    If a Native HA queue manager detects damaged objects on start up it will attempt to recover them. For further information see the Recovering damaged objects section of the documentation.

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    Can I get a copy of IBM MQ for development purposes?

    The IBM Developer site for MQ is regularly updated with a mix of learning paths, tutorials, essential getting started information, and patterns for application development.

    There is also the opportunity to obtain recognition for MQ skills you have gained by completing the IBM MQ Developer Essentials badge or the IBM MQ on AWS Cloud Developer Essentials badge.

    The full list of  Developer download options are below.

    		 IBM%2BMQ%2BDeveloper%2BEssentials.png
    IBM MQ on AWS Cloud Developer Essentials badge

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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!

      Main product:


      Fix packs:


      Checksums and Signatures:

      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 Documentation and IBM MQ system requirements


      MQ 9.3 operating system support

      MQ 9.3.1 MQ 9.3 LTS Removed compared to MQ 9.2 LTS
      AIX 7.2 TL5, 7.3 7.1 TL5, 7.2 TL3
      IBM i N/A 7.3, 7.4, 7.5 None
      Linux

      RHEL 9 added
      Ubuntu 22.04 added

      RHEL 7.9+, 8.4+
      SLES 12 SP5, 15 SP2
      Ubuntu 20.04

      		 RHEL 7.6, 7.7, 7.8, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3
      SLES 12 SP4, 15 SP1
      Ubuntu 18.04
      Windows Windows Server 2019, 2022
      Windows 10 20H2 or later
      Windows 11      		 Windows Server 2016
      Windows 10 pre-20H2
      z/OS z/OS 2.4, 2.5 z/OS 2.3


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      What function has released in previous updates?

      IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.3.2 Continuous Delivery Release
      IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.3.1 Continuous Delivery Release
      IBM MQ and IBM MQ Appliance 9.3 Long Term Support Release
      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…

      It's worth reminding you what the Continuous Delivery support model means for MQ.

      • MQ 9.3 LTS is supported for a minimum of 5 years from its availability in June 2022, and will receive fix only updates through fixpacks versioned 9.3.0.1, 9.3.0.2 and so on.
      • MQ CD updates will be delivered with the 3rd digit change – 9.3.1, 9.3.2 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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