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IBM MQ, IBM MQ for z/OS and IBM MQ Appliance firmware 9.3.4 Continuous Delivery releases are available

By Ian Harwood posted Fri October 13, 2023 12:00 AM

  

IBM MQ 9.3.4 is the next MQ continuous delivery release following MQ 9.3.3 in June 2023. This update delivers enhancements across the portfolio for the MQ Appliance, MQ Console, high availability, security and Java compatibility.

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


Where can I get IBM MQ 9.3.4 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 9.3.4 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

The Announcement letter can be found here. Please take note of the deprecation statement and statement of general direction which are relevant for MQ Java applications.

  • CMS Key Stores for Java components are deperecated and should be migrated to PKCS#12
  • The release cadence of Java has changed. From the next MQ LTS release MQ will need to adapt to that so if you run application on the JRE included with IBM MQ the statement of direction has guidance for how to protect your applications from breaking when MQ updates Java and still retain full support for the JRE when used for MQ client applications.

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


  • IBM MQ for multiplatforms
    • Token based authentication
      Queue managers running on Linux, AIX and in container images can be configured to us tokens for authentication. IBM MQ client applications present the token on connection to be authenticated.
    • MQ Console overview tab
      A new overview tab has been added to the MQ Console to give a view of the overall state of a queue manager, such as applications connected, deep queues, message throughput and aged messages, and stats on CPU, memory and storage resource consumption.
    • New environment variables AMQ_IODELAY, AMQ_IODELAY_INMS and AMQ_IODELAY_FFST
      These can be  to increase or decrease the threshold at which a warning message is written to the queue manager log if a slow read/write time is detected and aid diagnosing operating system or storage system issues.
    • MQ Advanced Container read-only file system
      The pre-built MQ container images have been further hardened by giving administrators the option to make the container filesystem immutable. Once enabled files can only be written or modified on a mounted file system.
    • JMS application rebalancing support with Uniform Clusters
      The capability for queue managers to rebalance application connections within a uniform cluster has been extended to include applications connecting via the JMS API.

  • IBM MQ Advanced
    • New IBM MQ Kafka Connector quality of service
      IBM MQ Kafka Connectors now offer assured bi-directional delivery with the assured IBM MQ ‘once-and-only-once’ quality of service without data loss or duplication.

    • Native HA and linear logging smarter media imaging
      The MQ automatic media imaging has been updated to optimize the frequency at which media images are taken by taking into account the amount of work that has occurred since the last media image was taken. For Native HA this will reduce the network load between the systems in the HA group.
      See a recent article on Can IBM MQ Native HA provide me with 99.999% availability? by our Native HA architect, Jon Rumsey.

  • IBM MQ for z/OS
    • Improved recovery of messages from active/archive logs
      The CSQ1LOGP EXTRACT utility has been enhanced to be able to recover to a data set MQ messages with message properties set. The CSQ4LOGS sample application can then be used to replay the message to a queue.

    • MQ Console enhancements as described for MQ for multiplatforms

  • IBM Advanced for z/OS
    • New IBM MQ Kafka Connector quality of service as described for IBm MQ Advanced

    • Improved Java client connectivity
      MQ Classes for JMS/Jakarta Messaging and MQ Classes for Java applications running in a batch environment are now able to use client connectivity to connect to a queue manager running in any z/OS LPAR.

  • IBM MQ Appliance
    • SSH service new SHA256 and SHA 512 signature algorithms
      These are added in addition to the existing SHA-1 support.
    • Capabilities inherited from the IBM MQ software product:
      • Token based authentication
      • MQ Console enhancements
      • New MQ Kafka Connectors

  • Other updates

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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 9.3 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 9.3.3 Continuous Delivery Release
    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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