Windows: Applying maintenance level server updates

How to apply maintenance level updates to IBM® MQ for Windows.

Before you begin

  1. If you are running on a server with multiple IBM MQ installations, you must identify the installation. Make sure that the commands you enter run against the correct installation; see setmqenv.
  2. Download the maintenance package from the IBM MQ Support website.
  3. If User Account Control (UAC) is enabled, the user who does the installation must have Administrative authority. You must elevate any command or command prompt by selecting Run as Administrator. If you do not, the error AMQ4353 is written in the installation log

Procedure

  1. Log on as an Administrator.
  2. Stop all applications using the IBM MQ installation.

    If you use the MQ Managed File Transfer (MFT) component, ensure that any MFT agents have finished all of the file transfers that they were engaged in. There should be no incomplete transfers associated with the agents, and their SYSTEM.FTE.STATE queues should contain no messages.

  3. End all the activity of queue managers associated with the IBM MQ installation.
    1. Run the dspmq command to list the state of all the queue managers on the system.

      Run either of the following commands from the installation that you are updating: 

      
dspmq -o installation -o status
dspmq -a

      dspmq -o installation -o status displays the installation name and status of queue managers associated with all installations of IBM MQ.

      dspmq -a displays the status of active queue managers associated with the installation from which the command is run.

    2. Run the MQSC command, DISPLAY LSSTATUS(*) STATUS to list the status of listeners associated with a queue manager. 
      
echo DISPLAY LSSTATUS(*) STATUS | runmqsc QmgrName
    3. Run the endmqm command to stop each running queue manager associated with this installation.
      Read syntax diagramSkip visual syntax diagramendmqm -c-w-i-p QmgrName

      The endmqm command informs an application that the queue manager it is connected to is stopping; see Stopping a queue manager.

      • For the maintenance to proceed, applications must respond to an endmqm command by disconnecting from the queue manager and releasing any IBM MQ libraries they have loaded. If they do not, you must find another way to force applications to release IBM MQ resources, such as by stopping the applications.
      • You must also stop applications that are using the client libraries that are part of the installation. Client applications might be connected to a different queue manager, running a different installation of IBM MQ. The application is not informed about queue managers in the current installation being shut down.
      • Any applications that continue to have IBM MQ shared libraries from the installation loaded prevent you applying IBM MQ maintenance. An application might disconnect from a queue manager, or be forcibly disconnected, but keep an IBM MQ shared library loaded.
      Note: The topic, Applying maintenance level updates to multi-instance queue managers, describes how to apply maintenance to a multi-instance queue manager. A multi-instance queue manager can continue to run on one server, while maintenance is applied to another server.
    4. Stop any listeners associated with the queue managers, using the command: 
      
endmqlsr -m QMgrName
  4. Stop the IBM MQ service for the installation.
    1. Right-click the WebSphere MQ icon in the taskbar > click Stop WebSphere MQ.
  5. Load and apply the maintenance files for server installations:
    • Interactively:
      1. Open the folder where the maintenance package has been extracted.
      2. Right-click on the maintenance program and select Run as administrator to start the loading process.
      3. Choose your installation language, and click OK.
      4. Continue to follow the instructions on screen.

        If you choose to load the files without applying them to an installation, you can apply the files later, as described in step 6

    • Silently:
      1. Open the folder where the maintenance package has been extracted.
      2. Modify the response file, silent_install.resp. For details on the properties you can specify in the response file, see Table 1
        Table 1. Properties used to install or uninstall a maintenance update
        Property Value Description
        MQPLOG path\file_name Pass a valid path to specify the log to be used during installation/uninstallation, for example MQPLOG=C:\TEMP\UPDATEINSTALL.LOG

        If MQPLOG is not specified (which is the case if you start maintenance by clicking on the Apply fix pack n.n.n.n icon in the IBM WebSphere® MQ program group) the log name used by default will be amqicsdn.txt in your TEMP directory ( %TEMP% ).

        MQPINSTALLATIONNAME Installation name The name of the installation to maintain. If there is only 1 installation (of any level) on the machine, this argument can be safely omitted.

        If there is more than 1 installation on the machine, amqicsdn.exe checks the value of MQPINSTALLATIONNAME. If one is not supplied, or the one that is supplied is unsuitable, then a GUI selection box appears. This selection box provides a list of installations to which this fix pack is applicable. If none are applicable, then amqicsdn.exe issues error message AMQ4781 and ends.

        MQPBACKUPPATH path Specifies the directory to back up into during installation, for example MQPBACKUPPATH=C:\BACKUP

        The directory, and any intermediate directories, you specify must already exist. If any one of the directories does not already exist, the install fails.

        MQPREBOOT 0|1 Specifies what to do when a reboot is required, for example MQPREBOOT=1.
        • If no value is supplied, you are prompted for what to do next.
        • If MQPREBOOT is set to 0, a reboot is suppressed
        • If MQPREBOOT is set to 1, the reboots go ahead without prompting.
        MQPINUSEOK 0|1 Specifies whether to continue even if a file is found to be currently locked by another application. If you choose to continue even if a file is locked by another application, then you must reboot to complete fix pack installation.
        • If no value is supplied, or if MQPINUSEOK is set to 0, the installation fails if files are found to be in use by other applications.
        • If MQPINUSEOK is set to 1, the installation is deferred until you reboot.
      3. Open an elevated command prompt in the directory where the maintenance program was extracted.
      4. Start the silent loading by entering the following command: 
        
executableName -f responseFile
        where:
        • executableName is the name of the maintenance package. For example, for Version 8.0.0, Fix Pack 2: 8.0.0-WS-MQ-Windows-FP0002.exe.
        • responseFile is the full path and name of the response file.
  6. Optional: Apply the maintenance to other server installations on the system:
    • Interactively:
      1. From the Windows start menu, select Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere MQ > Apply Fix Pack <V.R.M.L>
        where
        • V is the version number
        • R is the release number
        • M is the modification number
        • L is the level of modification
      2. Continue to follow the instructions on screen.
    • Silently:
      1. Open an elevated command prompt and navigate to the directory where the maintenance program was loaded. By default, the path is C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\source\WebSphere MQ <V.R.M.L>
        where
        • V is the version number
        • R is the release number
        • M is the modification number
        • L is the level of modification
      2. Enter the following command: 
        
amqicsdn MQPINSTALLATIONNAME= 
name MQPSILENT=1
        where name is the name of the installation that you want to apply maintenance to.
        You can add other properties to the command, as listed in Table 1.
  7. Optional: Uninstall the fix pack files from your machine.
    After installing the fix pack files and applying the maintenance to all the server installations that you want to update, you can either uninstall the fix pack files from your machine or leave them installed for future use.
    Note: Uninstalling these files does NOT remove them from the installations to which you have already applied the maintenance. If that is what you intend, you should instead follow the instructions in Windows: Removing maintenance level server updates.

    If you add any installable features at a later time, you must reapply the maintenance to update the added feature(s).

    • Interactively:
      • To uninstall the fix pack files, on the Control Panel... Programs and Features panel, select WebSphere MQ (fix pack 8.0.0.x) files.
      • Click Uninstall.
    • Silently:
      To silently remove the fix pack files, enter the following command from an admin command prompt:
      fixpack_files_installdir\_IBM WebSphere MQ (fix pack V.R.M.F files)_installation\Change IBM WebSphere MQ (fix pack V.R.M.F files) Installation.exe" -i silent
      where
      • fixpack_files_installdir is the location in which you chose to install the files. For IBM MQ 8.0.0 Fix Pack 16, for example, this might be: C:\Program Files\IBM\source\WebSphere MQ 8.0.0.1.
      • V.R.M.F is the fix pack number. For IBM MQ 8.0.0 Fix Pack 16, for example, this is 8.0.0.1.
    Note: The fix pack files contain a JRE, so if you chose not to install a JRE in your IBM MQ installation for local policy reasons, you may want to uninstall the fix pack files as soon as you have finished applying the update to your installation(s).

What to do next

On a server installation, you must restart the IBM WebSphere MQ taskbar application manually after the maintenance application completes.

If the IBM WebSphere MQ service is manually stopped, it must be manually restarted on the server. If the IBM WebSphere MQ service is not manually stopped, it is restarted automatically on the server.

The taskbar application is not restarted for any logged in sessions. Start the taskbar application in one of three ways:
  1. Start the taskbar application manually from the start menu.
  2. Log off and log back on again.
  3. Run the command: 
    
 MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\bin64\amqmtbrn.exe -Startup