IBM: MQ PowerPack Release Notes, version 103

Version 103 of the IBM: MQ PowerPack adds a universal credential and guided discovery for IBM: MQ, and addresses an error that occurred during failed discovery.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 11.2.0

Before You Install

Ensure that you are running version 11.2.0 or later of SL1 before installing "IBM: MQ" PowerPack version 103.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Installation Process

To install version 103 of the IBM: MQ PowerPack, perform the following steps:

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Familiarize yourself with the Known Issues for this release.
  2. See the Before You Install or Upgrade section. If you have not done so already, upgrade your system to the 11.2.0 or later release.
  3. Download the "IBM: MQ" version 103PowerPack from the Support Site to a local computer.
  4. Go to the PowerPack Manager page (System > Manage > PowerPacks). Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. When prompted, import "IBM: MQ" version 103.
  5. Click the Install button. For details on installing PowerPacks, see the chapter on Installing a PowerPack in the PowerPacks manual.

See the manual Monitoring IBM MQ for instructions on using the new PowerPack.

Features

This release includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications to discover, model, and monitor performance metrics and collect configuration data for IBM MQ devices
  • Event policies that are triggered when IBM MQ devices meet certain status criteria
  • Example credentials that you can use to connect to IBM MQ devices
  • Device classes for each of the IBM MQ components that the PowerPack can monitor
  • Two device dashboards that display information about Queues and Queue Managers

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included in version 103 of the "IBM: MQ" PowerPack:

  • Added a universal credential for IBM MQ.

  • Added guided discovery workflow for IBM MQ.

  • Added queue filtering to the universal credential editor. If you select include, discovery will only model the queue managers or queues provided in the Queues name field. If you select exclude, queue managers or queues entered will not be discovered.

  • Added the Private Key (PEM Format) field to the credential editor for SSH/Key credentials.

  • Added a function to the "IBM: MQ Queue Discovery" Dynamic Application to split larger requests of queues to be discovered sent to Windows into smaller ones to prevent failure due to the size of the request.

  • Addressed an issue that caused the error message "local variable 'ibm' referenced before assignment" to display when IBM: MQ discovery failed.

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 103 of the IBM: MQ PowerPack:

  • For Windows users, in the "IBM: MQ Cluster Channel Configuration" Dynamic Application, when a channel is configured with a cluster and that cluster is deleted, the status for that cluster cannot be returned.
  • For Windows users, in the "IBM: MQ Cluster Channel Configuration" Dynamic Application, the "CLUSSDRA" and "CLUSSDRB" are shown as "CLUSSDR".
  • For Windows users, the "IBM: MQ Discovery" Dynamic Application currently does not return "Connections", "Parent Queue Manager", or "Start Date" metrics. On some MQ installations, SL1 may be unable to collect the "Standby Host" property.
  • For Windows users, the "IBM: MQ Queue Manager Configuration" Dynamic Application currently does not return "Connections", "Parent Queue Manager", or "Start Date" metrics.