Choosing an installation location

You can install IBM® WebSphere® MQ to a custom location during the installation process. Alternatively, you can install to the default location. The location where IBM WebSphere MQ is installed is known as the MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH.

The default location for the IBM WebSphere MQ product code is shown in the following table:
Table 1. Installation location of IBM WebSphere MQ
Platform Installation Location
Linux®, HP-UX, and Solaris /opt/mqm
AIX® /usr/mqm
Windows 32-bit C:\Program Files\IBM\WebSphere MQ
Windows 64-bit C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\WebSphere MQ

On UNIX and Linux systems, working data is stored in /var/mqm, but you cannot change this location; for more information about the directory structure of UNIX and Linux systems, see Directory structure on UNIX and Linux systems .

Custom location installation

For an installation into a custom location, the path specified must either be an empty directory, the root of an unused file system, or a path that does not exist. The length of the path is limited to 256 bytes. On UNIX and Linux systems, the path must not contain spaces.

  • On AIX, the product is installed into a User Specified Install Location (USIL), which can be either an existing USIL or a new USIL that is automatically created by the installation process. If a custom location is specified, the product location is the path specified during installation, plus /usr/mqm.

    For example, the path specified is /usr/custom_location. The MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH is /usr/custom_location/usr/mqm.

    Access permissions for the USIL directory should be set to rwx for user and r-x for group and others (755).

  • On Windows, Linux, HP-UX, and Solaris, the product location is the same path as specified during installation.

    For example, on Linux, the path specified is /opt/custom_location. The MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH is /opt/custom_location.

For each installation, all of the IBM WebSphere MQ components that you require must be installed in the same location.

For more information about how to install to a custom location, see the installation topics for the appropriate platform.

Additional location restrictions

New WebSphere MQ installations should not be located in the following paths:
  • In a path that is a subdirectory of another existing installation.
  • In a path that is part of the direct path to an existing installation.
  • In a path that is a subdirectory of the default location, for example:
    • /usr/mqm on AIX
    • /opt/mqm on Linux, Solaris and HP-UX platforms
  • In a directory or subdirectory that is, or might later be used by another product, for example, an IBM DB2® installation, or operating system component.

An installation should not be located in /opt/mqm/v80, /opt/mqm/v75, /opt/mqm/inst2/mq71, or other directory located under /opt/mqm on Linux, Solaris and HP-UX platforms.

If WebSphere MQ is installed in /opt/IBM/MQ/installations/1, you can not install in /opt/IBM/MQ/installations/1/a. Additionally, you should not install a new installation to /opt/IBM/MQ. However, you can install a new installation in /opt/IBM/MQ/installations/2 or /opt/IBM/MQnew because neither of these is a part of the direct path /opt/IBM/MQ/installations/1.

You must not install to any directory located under /opt/IBM/db2.

The reason an installation should not be located in a path that is a subdirectory of the default location is to avoid the risk if you later decide to install WebSphere MQ into the default location, and cannot then do so. If you do subsequently install into the default location, because WebSphere MQ has full access rights over the installation directory, existing files might be replaced or deleted. Scripts that you might subsequently run to uninstall WebSphere MQ might remove the installation directory at the end of the script.