MQSeries.net :: View topic - Is a qmgr cluster a good alternative

mqnomad · Posted: Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:46 am Post subject:

Need to know - *from actual customer experience*:

(1) if it is a good idea to recommend they go to a clustered set of queue managers with at least two boxes, but *mainly*

(2) need to know if the queue manager clusters have been "delivering" out in the field. Have they solved a situation for high utilization, and if yes

(3) what type of load balancing configuration is used for the cluster.

I was thinking of just a two queue manager cluster to get them past the issues they are having. There are other boxes that could be clustered as well - but I don't want to go there just yet, need to focus on this particular concern.

Details follow -

At a large client who has business critical process running on a single Linux MQ box - they have many other mixed platform boxes, but the problem for this post is the process in the one Linux box. They have HA cluster, but no MQ clusters.

They have a business partner that will send a critical burst of messages. The box in question has been running at about 80% utilization even before the surge in messages, and they blame the queue manager. This is not an easily reproduced situation, and it's production debugging is limited.

I have requested definitions, logs, etc to do some due diligence review. Customer is also upgrading the box where the queue manager resides - it was an older box. Still don't know what caused the utilization - wether normal, due to config, due to inefficient code, etc.

So - should we keep the older box as a fall back to include in the cluster?

Welcome your opinion - but I really need actual customer experience feedback. Thanks, mqnomad