Use SSL with IBM® WebSphere® MQ
and WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer to prevent unauthorized
connections between agents and queue managers, and to encrypt message
traffic between agents and queue managers.
Before you begin
SSL encryption encrypts messages only on the channels between
queue managers, and between queue managers and agents.
About this task
For general information about using SSL with IBM WebSphere MQ, see the IBM WebSphere MQ product documentation. In IBM WebSphere MQ terms, WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer is a standard Java client application.
Follow
these steps to use SSL with WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer:
Procedure
- Create a truststore file and optionally a keystore file
(these files can be the same file). If you do not need client-authentication
(that is, SSLCAUTH=OPTIONAL on channels) you do not need to provide
a keystore. You require a truststore only to authenticate the queue
manager's certificate against.
- Set up your IBM WebSphere MQ
queue manager to use SSL.
- Save the truststore file and keystore file (if you have
one) in a suitable location. A suggested location is the config_directory/coordination_qmgr/agents/agent_name directory.
- Set the SSL properties as required for each SSL-enabled
queue manager in the appropriate WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer properties file. Each
set of properties refers to a separate queue manager (agent, coordination,
and command), although one queue manager might perform two or more
of these roles.
One of the CipherSpec or CipherSuite properties
is required, otherwise the client tries to connect without SSL. Both
the CipherSpec or CipherSuite properties
are provided because of the terminology differences between IBM WebSphere MQ and Java. WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer accepts
either property and does the necessary conversion, so you do not need
to set both properties. If you do specify both the CipherSpec or CipherSuite properties, CipherSpec takes
precedence.
The PeerName property is optional.
You can set the property to the Distinguished Name of the queue manager
that you want to connect to. WebSphere MQ Managed File Transfer rejects
connections to an incorrect SSL server with a Distinguished Name
that does not match.
Set the SslTrustStore and SslKeyStore properties
to file names that point to the truststore and keystore files. If
you are setting up these properties for an agent that is already running,
stop and restart the agent to reconnect in SSL mode.
Properties
files contain plain-text passwords so consider setting appropriate
file system permissions.
For more information about SSL properties,
see SSL properties.
- If an agent queue manager uses SSL, you cannot provide
the necessary details when you create the agent. Use the following
steps to create the agent:
- Create the agent by using the fteCreateAgent command.
You receive a warning about being unable to publish the existence
of the agent to the coordination queue manager.
- Edit the agent.properties file
that was created by the previous step to add the SSL information.
When the agent is successfully started, the publish is attempted again.
- If agents or instances of the IBM WebSphere MQ Explorer are running while
the SSL properties in the agent.properties file
or coordination.properties file are changed,
you must restart the agent or IBM WebSphere MQ
Explorer.