IBM MQ Managed File Transfer product options

IBM® MQ Managed File Transfer can be installed as four different options, depending on your operating system and overall setup. These options are IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Logger, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service, or IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Tools.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent
The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent install option installs a file transfer agent. A file transfer agent connects to an IBM MQ queue manager and transfers file data, as messages, to other file transfer agents. These must be installed either as part of the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent or IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service install options.

The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent install option can be installed on systems without the IBM MQ Server install option being present on the system. Some capabilities of the file transfer agent, installed as part of the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent install are only available when the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent install is installed on a system where the IBM MQ Server install option is installed. For example, the capability to perform protocol bridge configurations and operations.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Logger
The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Logger install option installs a file transfer logger. The file transfer logger connects to an IBM MQ queue manager, often the queue manager designated as the coordination queue manager, and logs file transfer audit related data to either a database or a file.

The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Logger install option must be installed on systems where the IBM MQ Server install option is already installed.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service
The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service install option installs a file transfer agent that has additional capabilities beyond those provided by the file transfer agent installed via the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent install option. These additional capabilities are:

  • Create protocol bridge agents which are used to send and receive files with legacy FTP, FTPS or SFTP servers
  • Deploy the Web Gateway feature which provides RESTful interfaces for building web applications that transfer files

The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service install option must be installed on systems where the IBM MQ Server install option is already installed.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Tools
The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Tools install option installs command line tools that are used to interact with file transfer agents. The tools allow you to start file transfers, schedule file transfers and create resource monitors from the command line.

The IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Tools install option can be installed and used on either a system where file transfer agents are installed or on a system where no file transfer agents are installed.

On UNIX platforms there is an additional IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Base install component. This component contains files common to all of the installation options. You must install the IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Base component before installing any of the Agent, Logger, Service, or Tools components.

For more information on the IBM MQ components required for each product option on UNIX platforms, see the following topics:

Capabilities provided by the Service and Agent options

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Service
  • Make client or bindings mode connections to queue managers. When the file transfer agent and the queue manager are located on the same system, we recommend that you use the bindings mode connections.
  • Transfer files to and from other IBM MQ Managed File Transfer agents.
  • Transfer files to and from SFTP, FTP, or FTPS protocol servers.
  • Transfer files to and from Connect:Direct® nodes.
  • Transfer files from HTTP clients through the Web Gateway.

Some capabilities are available on only a subset of supported platforms. For more information, see IBM MQ System Requirements.

IBM MQ Managed File Transfer Agent
  • Make client or bindings mode connections to queue managers. When the file transfer agent and queue manager are located on the same system, we recommend that you use the bindings mode connections.
  • Transfer files to and from other IBM MQ Managed File Transfer agents.
  • Transfer files to and from Connect:Direct nodes.

Using an MQMFT Agent without a queue manager

In the situation where you are going to have hosts without queue managers, but you want to have MQMFT agents, you might want to install the SupportPac MQC8 with the IBM MQ Client Version 8.0.

Note that this SupportPac does not include the MQMFT code.

Therefore, in order to install MFT agents in a host where only the IBM MQ Version 8.0 client is installed, you need to copy the following file sets from the host where you downloaded the IBM MQ server file sets.

For example, on AIX:
  • mqm.ft.agent
  • mqm.ft.base
After copying those file sets, proceed to install them as user root.