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| Suggestions for mapping MQ flows |
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| richer_swe |
 Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:21 am Post subject: Suggestions for mapping MQ flows |
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Newbie
Joined: 01 Sep 2015
Posts: 2
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Sorry if this is in the wrong place, but since it is general and would use the APIs i guess it would be right?
Recently a need has arisen for creating software in our org, to create a graph of the WebSphere MQ and broker networking. This has fallen on me to investigate further.
The idea is to create a software that can use API calls in Java or C, to gain knowledge of how the queues are connected. Basically we want to enter a base input queue, then get the program to logically determine what other queues and flows are visited from start to endpoint and list these.
A bit of an odd requirement, so i need some help in first assessing if it is possible to build such a graph programtically and if so what approach you would recommend, as in what functionality in the APIs could possibly be used?
Another option that struck me was that it may also be possible to run MQSI-commands through Python and compile that to the desired information, but it could be a lot of stuff to sift through.
So, short version is:
I want to build a program that can map the full route taken for all input queues, including the other queues and broker flows associated with that input, and compile it to stats.
Is that possible at all, and do you see any suggested approaches? |
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:33 am Post subject: Re: Suggestions for mapping MQ flows |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| richer_swe wrote: |
| Is that possible at all |
Yes
| richer_swe wrote: |
| and do you see any suggested approaches? |
Buy this (or an equivalent solution, other vendors are available, I am not now nor have I ever been associated with this vendor, no liability express or implied is accepted for loss or damage resulting from this recommendation) and ask if it can be extended to cover broker flows. It's a perfectly serviceable wheel for your MQ requirement and there's no need to invent a new one.
You can certainly extract flow information from the broker CMP. I'd be more inclined to extract it from the source flows (ideally from their properties)
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| smdavies99 |
| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 9:43 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Council
Joined: 10 Feb 2003
Posts: 6076
Location: Somewhere over the Rainbow this side of Never-never land.
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The big problem I see in making an accurate map is that a Broker flow can successfully write to any valid queue (local, local via Alias or remote) on the Queue Manager dynamically.
i.e. the destination queue name can be changes programmatically.
That is the beauty of MQ & Broker the wiring isn't always fixed.
What happens if just as you are finished, someone comes along and deploys a new flow, deleted an old one and changes a third.
Back to square 1.
Would you care to tell us why you have been asked to do this? Does whoever asked you this understand anything about MQ and Broker? It sounds like they don't know very much at all. Please prove me wrong.
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Every time you reinvent the wheel the more square it gets (anon). If in doubt think and investigate before you ask silly questions. |
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| fjb_saper |
| Posted: Tue Sep 01, 2015 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 20756
Location: LI,NY
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I would start with looking at the broker API.
The advantage is that you will be able to get other things as well like what port is being listened to and what URL...
Looking at the MQ pcf messages you can have a look at the queue status (handle) but I doubt if that will be precise enough for what you have in mind...
IIRC MO71 (from Paul Clarke, see http://www.mqgem.com) has a nice MQ Network graph...
Have fun 
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| richer_swe |
| Posted: Wed Sep 02, 2015 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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Newbie
Joined: 01 Sep 2015
Posts: 2
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Good to see that there are in fact options for doing something like this.
Just to be clear on what the purpose would be here:
The input will be a message flow and qm name. From this Point it is desired to list all of the queues used by this flow AND it's subflows within the broker. If possible also how they are connected to each other.
So basically a Picture of the paths a message can take given a spcific entry point.
I can now list the flows so some progress is being made. Right now working in C to get it off the ground a bit faster, but business desire is to switch to C# at a later stage...
As for the requestor, they are familiar with MQ and WMB, but it is stated that this util will be run at regular intervals to create a new map from time to time, so that even if a dev would change a flow or add one, this will reflect in the next run...
On top of this is the visualization framework, that will Crunch this data on cloud services (read: EC2) so data needs to be prepped and sent there. I tried this with just some base data on execution groups and flows and it works fine, so right now the problem lies in figuring out a base architecture for the above information gathering through the APIs.
Also, i spoke to some vendors as suggested above, and it seems that it might also be possible to purchase something off the shelf and customize it to this need.
Will have to weigh the costs on that however.
Any other specific suggestions of the architecture is welcome. |
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| mqjeff |
| Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2015 4:35 am Post subject: |
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Grand Master
Joined: 25 Jun 2008
Posts: 17447
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There's nothing specifically wrong with the architecture. At least IMHO. You will want to put some significant thought into your deployment strategy for this message flow.
There is also still the underlying point about dynamic queue names.
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