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| bay hoe san |
 Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:29 am Post subject: z/OS MQ Clustering VS Queue Sharing Group |
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Centurion
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 117
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Hello all,
1. May I know which topology/concept provide more resiliency and high availability for MQ? MQ Clustering or Queue Sharing Group in a z/OS environment.
Say, the z/OS environment comprises of 6 LPARs in a parallel sysplex and CICSes are in CICSPlex.
2. Pls share your expertise and experience.
Thank you.
.Hoe San. |
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| Mr Butcher |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 12:37 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 1716
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MQ Clustering provides workload balancing. But what if messages are assigned / distributed to specific queue and that queuemanager dies before the messages are processed? unless it is a shared queue no other application can process these messages till the queuemanager is restarted......
just one aspect, but IMHO one of the major ones.
So for HA, i'd go for QSG.
Of course a shared queue can be in a cluster too, so the features of a MQ cluster can be combined with the HA of a QSG ..... 
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| bay hoe san |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 117
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Hello Mr Butcher, thank you. BTW, QSG able to do workload balancing? Besides the points u mentioned, any superior of using QSG over clustering?
One thing I noticed during z/OS RSU is that more fixes in QSG than Clustering, am I right?
Thank you.
.Hoe San. |
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| Mr Butcher |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 1:15 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 1716
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well, cant comment on the number of fixes.
For QSG, you need DB2 in data sharing mode. So one dependency more.
If you have a shared queue that is processed e.g. by cics1 on lpar1 and by cics2 on lpar 2, the cics/lpar with the less workload will consume more messages then the other one, so (depending on your environment) you have automatically some workload balancing.
mq clustering out of the box is more a round robin mechanism to distribute messages to different targets, not taking the target system workload into account. but IMHO there are exits for this to connect to workload management on z/OS. Not sure. Better you verify that.
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:07 am Post subject: Re: z/OS MQ Clustering VS Queue Sharing Group |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| bay hoe san wrote: |
| May I know which topology/concept provide more resiliency and high availability for MQ? MQ Clustering or Queue Sharing Group in a z/OS environment. |
QSG. Even on z/OS if a message has been delivered to a queue privately owned by a queue manager, that message is inaccessable unless the queue manager is running. If the queue is in the shared envrinoment, the message is accessable to any running queue manager.
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:11 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| bay hoe san wrote: |
| QSG able to do workload balancing? Besides the points u mentioned, any superior of using QSG over clustering? |
As my worthy associate mentions, a QSG workload balances by the simple fact that each queue manager has the capability to process a given message. IMHO you're better off using QSG for resilience as clustering gives you much more control over workload balancing & distribution.
The resiliency offered by QSG also relies on DB2 so any inappropirate changes or unfortunate maintenance by the DBAs will have an impact.
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| bay hoe san |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:32 am Post subject: |
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Centurion
Joined: 27 Nov 2006
Posts: 117
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Hello,
1. I am wondering is cluster queue in a cluster provide the same resiliency and high availability as QSG?
2. Does clustering has any workload mgmt? If I am not mistaken, we can set the priority on which qmgr in the cluster will always get the msgs for processing?
3. BTW, the workload mgmt in clustering or qsg, does it take into consideration the CICS or it just take care of the qmgrs?
Pls advise. Thank you.
.Hoe San. |
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| bruce2359 |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:42 am Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 9469
Location: US: west coast, almost. Otherwise, enroute.
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| Quote: |
| I. I am wondering is cluster queue in a cluster provide the same resiliency and high availability as QSG? |
No. If a qmgr becomes unavailable, all messages in queues on that qmgr are stranded there until the qmgr is restarted.
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| 2. Does clustering has any workload mgmt? |
Clustering offers workload distribution to queues with the same name on different qmgrs.
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| If I am not mistaken, we can set the priority on which qmgr in the cluster will always get the msgs for processing? |
Yes, as documented in the WMQ Cluster Queue Managers manual.
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| 3. BTW, the workload mgmt in clustering or qsg, does it take into consideration the CICS or it just take care of the qmgrs? |
z/OS has a robust workload management subsystem. Workloads, and their importance, are managed to user-specification, and across multiple z/OS images. Yes, WLM can manage CICS and MQ workloads, in addition to all other workloads.
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| Mr Butcher |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:44 am Post subject: |
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Padawan
Joined: 23 May 2005
Posts: 1716
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something makes me feel you have you read what has already been answered ..... ?!?
1. no (as written before)
2. no (as written before), except you use a workload exit and connect that to your workload management (also already written before).
in addition, priority has nothing to do with workload management.
3. see answer #2
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| Vitor |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:57 am Post subject: |
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Grand High Poobah
Joined: 11 Nov 2005
Posts: 26093
Location: Texas, USA
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| bay hoe san wrote: |
| 1. I am wondering is cluster queue in a cluster provide the same resiliency and high availability as QSG? |
Asking the same question with a different form of words will not materially change the answer. I stand by my comments above, especially regarding stuck messages.
| bay hoe san wrote: |
| 2. Does clustering has any workload mgmt? If I am not mistaken, we can set the priority on which qmgr in the cluster will always get the msgs for processing? |
I don't believe you actually asked this - a cluster is nothing but workload management. Read the clustering manual. 
| bay hoe san wrote: |
3. BTW, the workload mgmt in clustering or qsg, does it take into consideration the CICS or it just take care of the qmgrs?
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Neither technology knows nor cares you're using CICS. It's for you to configure & use CICS in your design.
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
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QSG will give you "pull" load balancing, as the available systems race for the message on the queue.
MQ Clustering will give you "push" load balancing, as the sending QM spreads the incoming messages across available queues and according to the clustering algorithm rules.
The two technologies can be used to great effect for an extremely available topology.
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Peter Potkay
Keep Calm and MQ On |
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| bruce2359 |
| Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 9469
Location: US: west coast, almost. Otherwise, enroute.
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| Quote: |
| 3. BTW, the workload mgmt in clustering or qsg, does it take into consideration the CICS or it just take care of the qmgrs? |
Workload Manager (WLM) in z/OS manages MVS workloads based on the importance of the workload to the organization.
CICS is a workload, as is WMQ. z/OS sysprogs will identify importance values to workloads, and WLM will manage physical resources in an attempt to meet the workload that is identified as important.
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| er_pankajgupta84 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:24 pm Post subject: |
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Master
Joined: 14 Nov 2008
Posts: 203
Location: charlotte,NC, USA
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Do we gain if we use both..
For example: Making all queue manager Clusterred and then making queues shared.
Will this kind of topology would have any benifit? |
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| bruce2359 |
| Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 05 Jan 2008
Posts: 9469
Location: US: west coast, almost. Otherwise, enroute.
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Yes. You can read about the benefits of WMQ clusters and WMQ QSG's in the InfoCenter. The same documentation will describe the topologies.
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Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi, Lex Vivendi. As we Worship, So we Believe, So we Live. |
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