Use SSL or TLS with IBM® MQ and IBM MQ Managed File Transfer to prevent unauthorized connections between agents and
queue managers, and to encrypt message traffic between agents and queue managers.
About this task
For general information about using SSL with IBM MQ, see Working with SSL or TLS. In IBM MQ terms, IBM MQ Managed File Transfer is a
standard Java client application.
Follow
these steps to use SSL with IBM 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.
-
Set up your IBM 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 IBM 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 MQ and Java. IBM 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. IBM 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 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 MQ Explorer.