Architecture Prerequisites for the MSMQ-MQSeries Bridge

The MSMQ-MQSeries bridge has a number of architectural prerequisites that must be in place before installation. One of the main prerequisites and dependencies is an installation of Microsoft Active Directory directory service. The MSMQ-MQSeries bridge picks up messages from queues defined in a foreign site (in Active Directory) and delivers them to a nominated queue on the WebSphere MQ server. Working the other way, the bridge picks up messages from a nominated WebSphere MQ queue and delivers them to a public MSMQ queue. The use of foreign sites and public queues generates this dependency on an Active Directory installation.

To ensure that the setup and operation of the bridge is correctly described in this chapter, we'll use the environment shown in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1: Example environment required to run the MSMQ- MQSeries bridge sample.

The figure shows an instance of Active Directory and two servers. In this example, the Active Directory Domain Name System (DNS) name is mqad.microsoft.com. (Its NetBIOS name is MQAD.) The requirements of the two servers in this example setup are listed in Table 10.1; these names will change depending on the details of your actual setup.

Table 10.1: Server Requirements

Server Name	Function	Operating System
MQBRIDGE1	The machine that will run the MSMQ- MQSeries bridge. This machine should be a domain controller (DC) for Active Directory.	Microsoft Windows Server 2003
WMQ1	The machine that will run the instance of WebSphere MQ.	Microsoft Windows Server 2003

In Table 10.1, MQBRIDGE1 is nominated as a domain controller. This is because we'll use only two machines to show this sample. One of the features of MSMQ 3.0 is that it can participate in Active Directory MSMQ routing without being installed on a domain controller. (In a production environment, this would be the recommended approach.)

If you want to follow the samples and setup in this chapter, you should use the server layout described in Table 10.1. Feel free to use different names for the servers, but remember to replace the machine names as you work through the installation wherever appropriate. The two servers should be in the same Active Directory forest to ensure that authentication between them works correctly. Although it's possible to install both the MSMQ-MQSeries bridge and WebSphere MQ on the same machine, it's not recommended.

Note

To follow the sample, it's highly recommended that you perform this installation with a staging or development implementation of Active Directory. We'll install and configure MSMQ Routing Support, which will make modifications to the Active Directory tree. Thus, this setup should be thoroughly tested before deploying in a production environment.

To run this sample, configure the servers and instance of Active Directory as discussed earlier in this section. For additional information on planning and designing an Active Directory installation, see http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/technologies/ activedirectory /default.mspx . Once this is complete, you can start installing the software required for the bridge.