Preparing the environment for WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition nodes

Prepare the file system and queue managers, and determine the name of the integration node agent.

About this task

Information about file transfers is held on storage queues that are controlled by WebSphere® MQ, so you must install WebSphere MQ on the same computer as your integration node if you want to use the capabilities provided by the FTEInput and FTEOutput nodes. For information about installing and using WebSphere MQ with IBM® Integration Bus, see Installing WebSphere MQ.

Preparing the file system

IBM Integration Bus uses a location in its work path to store transfers to remote agents. It uses another location as the default directory for received files. The high-level directory path for both locations is:
  • workpath/common/FTE
Ensure that enough space is available here for files that you will transfer to and from the integration node by WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition.

Preparing the queue manager

Storage queues that hold file transfer information are owned by the queue manager that is specified on the integration node, and you specify this queue manager by using the -q property of the mqsicreatebroker command; see Creating an integration node and mqsicreatebroker command.

You must also create the system queues required by the FTEInput and FTEOutput nodes; see Creating the default IBM Integration Bus queues on a WebSphere MQ queue manager. A set of WebSphere MQ script (MQSC) commands is also provided, to enable you to create artifacts that are required by the agent and coordination manager; for more information, see Scripts to create artifacts required for WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition.

Setting the coordination queue manager

When a message flow that contains a WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition node is deployed to an integration server, an agent is automatically created and started in that integration server. By default, the agent uses the queue manager that is specified on the integration node as the coordination queue manager.
  • If the queue manager specified on the integration node is being used as the coordination queue manager, the integration node configures it as a coordination queue manager.
  • If you are using a different queue manager as the coordination queue manager, refer to the WebSphere File Transfer Edition product documentation for information about how to configure it as a coordination queue manager.
Unless you have previously defined the coordination queue manager, the agent is temporary; it is deleted when the flow is undeployed or the integration node is stopped. This behavior is acceptable in a test environment. However, for production, the administrator must specify the coordination queue manager for the integration server. Specifying a coordination queue manager has the following effects:
  • Ensures that the correct queue manager is used when the agent is created.
  • Makes the agent permanent. If a coordination queue manager has been defined, the agent is deleted only after you undefine the coordination queue manager (for example, by setting it to an empty string), and restart the integration server.
A warning is written to the log if the coordination queue manager is not changed from the default.
The following state diagram illustrates how the presence of nodes and a defined coordination queue manager affect the state of the agent.
State machine diagram showing how the presence of nodes and a defined coordination queue manager affect the state of the agent. This diagram summarizes the information in the preceding paragraph.

About this task

Use one of the following methods to set the coordination queue manager.

Procedure

  1. Optional: Use the mqsichangeproperties command.
    For example, to set the coordination queue manager to QM2 for integration server myExecutionGroup in integration node IBNODE:
    mqsichangeproperties IBNODE -e myExecutionGroup
-o FTEAgent -n coordinationQMgr -v QM2
    After running this command, you must reload the integration server for the change to take effect.
  2. Optional: Use the IBM Integration Bus web user interface.
    1. In the IBM Integration Bus web user interface, click the integration server to display the integration server properties..
    2. Select Edit to open the properties edit panel.
    3. Select the appropriate options from the pop-up menu.
    4. Scroll down to FTE Agent - Coordination Queue Manager name entry and select the ... icon on the right side.
    5. Enter the name of the coordination queue manager and click OK
    6. Select Save to apply the change.
    You must then reload the integration server for the change to take effect.

What to do next

If you configure your integration server to use a different coordination queue manager from the default queue manager that is configured for your integration node, you must define sender and receiver channels between the default queue manager and coordination queue manager. You must also define transmission queues on the default queue manager and coordination queue manager.

Naming integration servers

About this task

The integration server name is used to form the queue name for WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition queues. Consequently, the names of your integration servers must conform to the rules for naming WebSphere MQ objects. You cannot deploy a flow that contains a WebSphere MQ File Transfer Edition node unless this requirement is met. Permitted characters are:
  • Uppercase A-Z
  • Lowercase a-z (but there are restrictions on the use of lowercase letters for z/OS® console support)

    On systems using EBCDIC Katakana you cannot use lowercase characters.

  • Numerics 0-9
  • Period (.)
  • Forward slash (/)
  • Underscore (_)
  • Percent sign (%)
See the WebSphere MQ Version 7.5 product documentation online for full details of naming requirements.

Determining the agent name

About this task

To send a file to a given integration server, users need to know the name of the agent that the integration node creates. The agent name is derived from IntegrationNode.IntegrationServer, and is not configurable. The total name length is limited to 28 characters, with a maximum 12 characters for the integration node name, and 15 characters for the integration server. Integration node and integration server names longer than these limits are truncated to form the agent name. The name must be a valid format for generating MQ Series queue name. Ensure that:
  • The integration node name is 12 characters or fewer (or at least unique in the first 12 characters).
  • The integration server names are 15 characters or fewer (or at least unique in the first 15 characters).
  • The integration node and integration servers do not contain any characters that are invalid for queue names.
  • The integrationnode.integrationserver tuples are all unique, even if case is ignored.
The value used is written to the event log in message BIP3358. Use one of the following methods to determine the agent name.

Procedure

Optional: Use the mqsireportproperties command.
For example, to display the FTE agent name for integration server FTESAMPLE in integration node IBNODE:
mqsireportproperties IBNODE -e FTESAMPLE -o FTEAgent -n agentName
If the agent has been created, the command returns the agent name. If the agent has not been created, the command returns an empty string.