Backing up queue manager data
Backing up queue manager data can help you to guard against possible loss of data caused by hardware errors.
Before you begin
Ensure that the queue manager is not running. If you try to take a backup of a running queue manager, the backup might not be consistent because of updates in progress when the files were copied. If possible, stop your queue manager by running the endmqm -w command (a wait shutdown), only if that fails, use the endmqm -i command (an immediate shutdown).
About this task
- Search for the directories under which the queue manager places
its data and its log files, by using the information in the configuration
files. For more information, see Changing IBM WebSphere MQ and queue manager configuration information.
Note: You might have some difficulty in understanding the names that appear in the directory. The names are transformed to ensure that they are compatible with the platform on which you are using WebSphere MQ. For more information about name transformations, see Understanding WebSphere MQ file names.
- Take copies of all the queue manager's data and log file directories,
including all subdirectories.
Make sure that you do not miss any files, especially the log control file, as described in What logs look like, and the configuration files as described in Initialization and configuration files. Some of the directories might be empty, but you need them all to restore the backup at a later date.
- Preserve the ownerships of the files. For WebSphere MQ
for UNIX and Linux® systems,
you can do this with the tar command. (If
you have queues larger than 2 GB, you cannot use the tar command.
For more information, see Enabling large
queues.Note: When you upgrade to WebSphere MQ Version 7.5 and later, ensure to take a backup of the .ini file and the registry entries. The queue manager information is stored in the .ini file and can be used to revert to a previous version of WebSphere MQ.