Defining a NetBIOS connection on Windows

IBM® MQ uses three types of NetBIOS resource when establishing a NetBIOS connection to another IBM MQ product: sessions, commands, and names. Each of these resources has a limit, which is established either by default or by choice during the installation of NetBIOS.

Each running channel, regardless of type, uses one NetBIOS session and one NetBIOS command. The IBM NetBIOS implementation allows multiple processes to use the same local NetBIOS name. Therefore, only one NetBIOS name needs to be available for use by IBM MQ. Other vendors' implementations, for example Novell's NetBIOS emulation, require a different local name per process. Verify your requirements from the documentation for the NetBIOS product you are using.

In all cases, ensure that sufficient resources of each type are already available, or increase the maximums specified in the configuration. Any changes to the values require a system restart.

During system startup, the NetBIOS device driver displays the number of sessions, commands, and names available for use by applications. These resources are available to any NetBIOS-based application that is running on the same system. Therefore, it is possible for other applications to consume these resources before IBM MQ needs to acquire them. Your LAN network administrator should be able to clarify this for you.