How do I plan and configure brokers?

What do I need to know about brokers?

Use the links in this section to find information that you might find useful before planning and designing your brokers.

• What is an integration node?
  A broker is a set of execution processes that hosts one or more message flows to route, transform, and enrich in-flight messages. Follow this link to get information about brokers, and the resources that you need to create and configure your brokers.
• What is an operation mode?
  The operation mode that you use is determined by the license that you purchased when you bought the product. The mode can either give you the full operating capabilities of your broker, that is, advanced mode, or restrict the operating capabilities of your broker, that is, standard, adapter, scale, or express modes.

  You can set the operation mode when you create a broker, however, brokers are created, or migrated from previous versions, in advanced mode by default. Follow this link to get information about the various modes that are available.

• What do I need to know about databases?
  You can configure your message flows to access data in databases; you can read from, write to, and update the information in a supported database. Follow this link to find out more about databases and how to create connections to them.

What do I need to know about authorization and security?

You must set up access and authorization credentials for some of the resources that you use with IBM Integration Bus; for example, databases. Follow the links in this section to get information about authorization, access control, and security for your broker.

• What authorizations are needed for configuration tasks?
  Authorization is the process of granting or denying access to a system resource. Use this link to get examples of the tasks in IBM Integration Bus that require authorization. Use the following links to get more details about the security requirements for administrative tasks on the different platforms:
  • Security requirements for Linux and UNIX platforms
  • Security requirements for Windows systems
  • Security requirements for z/OS
• What authorizations are required for access to runtime resources?
  If you want to set up administrative authority for the resources managed by the broker (including the broker itself), you must set up WebSphere® MQ authorizations for brokers and integration servers.
• Where can I find out about security for publish/subscribe?
  See the WebSphere MQ information center.

How do I plan brokers and configure prerequisites?

Use the following links to find out how to plan your brokers. You can also find out about tasks you must complete before you can configure your brokers.

• How do I plan brokers?
  Follow this link to find out what you must consider when you plan your brokers, and your WebSphere MQ infrastructure.
• How do I set up broker security?
  Follow this link for information about how to set up security for your brokers. Each link comprises a list of reminders or questions about the security tasks to consider for your broker configuration. The answers to the questions provide the security information that you need to configure your brokers, and also give you further information about other security controls that you might want to deploy.

How do I create and configure brokers?

You can create one or more brokers on one or more computers. The use of multiple brokers can help you to spread the load of the message processing that you want to achieve, or to allocate different functions to different brokers or computers. For example, you might set up a broker to run personnel applications, and another to run financial or order systems. To support each broker, you must create a WebSphere MQ queue manager, and you might need to create a WebSphere MQ infrastructure of channels or a WebSphere MQ cluster to connect the brokers together.

You might also create several integration servers on each broker to manage the message flows that you deploy to the broker.

To create a broker, complete the following tasks in order:

1. How do I create a broker?

   On Windows and Linux on x86, you can create brokers in the IBM Integration Toolkit. On all platforms, you can create the brokers by using the command-line commands. Create as many brokers as you require.

2. How do I verify that the broker has been created successfully?
   You can use the mqsilist command to check that your brokers were created successfully
3. How do I start a broker?
   Follow this link to get instructions on how to start a broker.