Installation
Question 1: How do I install FioranoMQ Server on Windows platform?
In this procedure, you have to run the self-installing executable to unpack and install FioranoMQ. FioranoMQ Installation wizard installs FioranoMQ and adds FioranoMQ in the startup directory. FioranoMQ installer comes bundled with JavaSoft 1.5 version of the JRE. FioranoMQ setup program installs the FioranoMQ daemon into the start-up group on all Windows machines. Subsequent versions of the software install the daemon as a service under Windows NT.
Question 2: How do I install FioranoMQ Server on Solaris and other UNIX platforms?
In this procedure, you have to unpack the archive containing complete installation of FioranoMQ.To install FioranoMQ using this "tar.gz", perform the following steps:
- Extract all the files in "tar.gz" (untar and unzip) to a directory (say /export/ home)
- To run the FioranoMQ scripts without changes, the PATH and CLASSPATH system variables needs to be modified
- To ensure that the changes are valid throughout the system, please make appropriate changes to the System PATH and CLASSPATH variables
- Ensure that $FMQ_DIR points to Fiorano's installation directory. If you have installed FioranoMQ in /export/home/Fiorano, FMQ_DIR must point to / export/home/Fiorano/fmq.
Question 3: How do I launch FioranoMQ server on Solaris and Windows?
On Windows and related platforms
There are multiple ways of launching FioranoMQ Server on a Windows based platform.
Starting FioranoMQ Server from the Windows Start Menu
FioranoMQ can be launched from the Start group of the Windows machine. FioranoMQ can be started by clicking Start > Programs > Fiorano > FioranoMQ > FioranoMQ Server.
Starting FioranoMQ Server from the Windows console window
The FioranoMQ Server can additionally be launched using the script runCon-tainer.bat located in the fmq\bin directory of FioranoMQ installation. FioranoMQ installation for Windows comes bundled with JavaSoft 1.5 JRE and the environment variable %JAVA_HOME% is set for this JRE. Another variable named %FIORANO_HOME% points to the Fiorano directory of FioranoMQ installation. You can edit the batch files in the fmq\bin directory of the installation to point to the appropriate Java run-time environment. Both %FMQ_DIR% and %JAVA_HOME% are set in the batch file, fmq-vars.bat. This batch file is generated during installation to point to the appropriate place and is called automatically from all the startup scripts, including fmq.bat.
FioranoMQ works with any version of JRE that is compliant with JavaSoft JRE 1.2 and higher. To point to a JRE other than the one bundled with FioranoMQ, edit the fmq-vars.bat file in the fmq\bin directory and set %JAVA_HOME% to point to the root directory of the JRE installation (not the bin directory). For example: JAVA_HOME=c:\jre1.2.2.
Please read the comments in the fmq.bat script and ensure that all the environment variables are set correctly.
On Unix and related platforms
The Unix version of the installer does not come bundled with a JRE. It is assumed that the machine, on which FioranoMQ is installed, has a version 1.3 and higher of JRE installed. It is recommended using JRE 1.3 (Hotspot enabled).
"fiorano_vars.sh"
Prior to executing any FioranoMQ script, you need to set environment options FMQ_DIR and JAVA_HOME in the "fiorano_vars.sh" script. FMQ_DIR should point to the installation directory of FioranoMQ and JAVA_HOME should point to a version of jre/jdk 1.2 and above. This script ("fiorano_vars.sh") gets invoked from all FioranoMQ batch scripts.
fmq.sh
The FioranoMQ Server can be started using the fmq.sh script file located in the fmq/bin directory of the FioranoMQ installation directory. The fmq.sh script uses the environment variables ($FMQ_DIR, $JAVA_HOME) that have been set in fiorano_vars.sh to launch an instance of FioranoMQ Server. On Unix and related platforms, it is important that the numbers of file descriptors are set to a high value, typically the highest value allowed. In addition, the fiorano_vars.sh script checks whether the MQServer is started by root user and ensures the number of file descriptors available for this process is set to value greater than 10,000. A directed warning message is displayed if this is not fulfilled. It is recommend either to start the MQServer logged in as super user or make sure the Java process that spawns MQServer can open 10,000 file-descriptors.
The scripts run on the Bourne shell. You must port them to other shells, if required.
Question 4: How do I start the FioranoMQ Server using script files?
FioranoMQ comes bundled with the script files to start the MQ Server, as follows:
On Windows and related platforms
FioranoMQ Server can be started by clicking Start > Programs > Fiorano > FioranoMQ > FioranoMQ Server.
Alternatively, FioranoMQ Server can be started using the script, fmq.bat in the fmq\bin directory of Fiorano's installation. FioranoMQ installation for Windows comes bundled with JavaSoft 1.4 jre and the environment variables are set for this jre. You can edit the fmq-vars.bat batch files in fmq\bin directory of the installation to point to the appropriate java run-time environment. You can do this by modifying JAVA_HOME to point to any other JDK/JRE installation.
SET JAVA_HOME=d:\FIORAN~
FioranoMQ works well with any version of jre that is compliant with JavaSoft jre 1.2.2 and higher.
On Unix and related platforms
The Unix version of the installer does not come bundled with a jre. It is assumed that the machine on which FioranoMQ is installed, has a version of java (1.2.2 and higher) installed. FioranoMQ Server can be started using the fmq.sh script file located in the fmq/bin directory of Fiorano's installation. Details of the libraries to include and other environment settings can be found in the batch files. The environment variable $FMQ_DIR should point to the installation directory of FioranoMQ and environment variable $JAVA_HOME should point to java installation directory. On Unix environments, before running this script, it is important to execute the following command on the command-line:
unlimit descriptors
This command is essential since it sets the total number of open file descriptors per process to the highest possible limit. The default value is set to 64, which only allows a maximum of 64 file handles to be opened. This creates a problem at times, since the FioranoMQ server maintains open file handles for offline-cache entries (for performance reasons).
Question 5: How do I modify the port number on which a server listens for requests?
The port number, corresponding to the port on which a server listens for requests, can be modified by modifying the Port value in the Connection Manager module in Fiorano Studio.
For more information, refer to the Connection Management section.
Question 6: How do I modify the transport (HTTP, TCP) that is used by the server?
Transport that is used by a server can be changed using the Fiorano Studio. The underlying protocol in the case of TCP, PHAOS_SSL and SUN_SSL is TCP, where PHAOS_SSL and SUN_SSL provide SSL support with Phaos and JSSE being the security toolkits, respectively. For the case of HTTP, communication is over the HTTP protocol and in case of HTTPS_PHAOS and HTTPS_SUN, communication is over HTTPS. For more information, refer to the Connection Management section.
Question 7: For which versions of JDK does the FioranoMQ's support for SOCKS work?
The support for SOCKS works with JDK versions 1.4 and above. This support might not work for versions below 1.4 due to some bug in Sun's Socket implementation.
Question 8: What are the configurations files read by the server?
FioranoMQ provides a rich set of functionalities that allow enterprise administrators to further fine-tune FioranoMQ, based on application needs. FioranoMQ provides for both static and run-time configuration and debugging utilities.
FioranoMQ provides for extensive set of options that can be set to the server, as a part of server configuration file (configs.xml). All configuration changes made to configs.xml are dynamic.
configs.xml
FioranoMQ's server configuration file, configs.xml is located in the fmq\profiles\FioranoMQ\conf" folder of installation directory, %FMQ_DIR%. FioranoMQ server reads the values of various parameters from this xml file. Once the server is configured, information related to the following components can be read from this file.
Question 9: Are there any changes in the VM parameters to start the MQ Server?
There are no configuration changes required to the JVM. A single Fiorano JMS Server can support 4000 persistent concurrent connections (observed on a 2 processor, 450 MHz each) with Solaris 8 and JDK1.2.2 Solaris VM (build Solaris_JDK_1.2.2_05a, native threads, sunwjit). The number of supported concurrent connection depends on the machine (hardware) on which the server is hosted, the JRE being used on that machine, and the client application.
To increase the number of concurrent connections allowed by the JRE, you should decrease the stack reserve per thread to 256KB (or less). Sun and Microsoft JVMs ship with a default stack reserve of 1 MB/thread. To decrease the stack reserve, start the JVM using the command
java -Xss256k ..... <rest of command line>
By using a smaller stack reserve and running on a reasonably fast machine, you can easily support over 1000 concurrent client connections to the Fiorano JMS Server.
If you wish to scale this to thousands of concurrent client connections, use FioranoMQ's Scalable ConnectionManager. To configure FioranoMQ to use SCM, refer the Connection Management section.
Question 10: How do I know that FioranoMQ is running?
FioranoMQ provides monitoring capability for its main port using the telnet facility. With this, you can check if FioranoMQ server is running or not. FioranoMQ can be configured in monitorable mode, wherein external applications such as Telnet can connect to the server and retrieve versioning information. In order to do this, the first key pressed after the telnet window has connected to the FioranoMQ server should have it's ASCII value equal to the MonitoringRequest set in the FioranoMQ server.
Run the following command:
telnet <server IP> <server port>
If telnet client is able to connect, it indicates server is running.
In addition, as a check, try running a sample Publisher and Subscriber(s) Application and check if data being sent by the publisher is being received by the subscriber(s).
Question 11: How many ports does FioranoMQ use?
FioranoMQ, by default, creates an instance of Server Socket on port 1856 to receive client connections and another on 1858 for RMI connector. For details on starting MQServer on different ports, refer to the Connection Management section.
Question 12: How do I clear the database of a server?
To clear the FioranoMQ database, run the script ClearDB.bat/ClearDB.sh, located in %FMQ_DIR%\fmq\bin folder. This script accepts profile name & DB Path in the following format:
ClearDB.bat/ClearDB.sh [profile name] [DB Path]
(%FMQ_DIR%\fmq\bin). You, need to modify the batch file in case, the database is created at a separate location.
This script clears all persistent information relating to security, subscribers and messages from the FioranoMQ server. It should be used only when the FioranoMQ server is not running.
Question 13: How do I modify the location of the database that gets created by FioranoMQ?
By default, the database is created in FioranoMQ installation directory. For example, \Program Files\Fiorano\FioranoMQ200xxx\fmq\profiles\FioranoMQ\run.
You can change the path of database directory, by assigning complete path of desired location, while running the server with the parameter "-dbPath <dir>" thorugh script fmq.bat/fmq.sh.
For example, fmq.bat/fmq.sh -dbPath C:\db
To change the database directory path, do the following steps:
- Invoke the Fiorano Admin Studio.
- Select Tools > Configure FioranoMQ from the menu bar, select the deployments.lst file in the resulting Browse Deployment.lst dialog box and click the Open button. This shifts the FioranoMQ environment to the offline mode.
- Now, navigate to FioranoMQ > Core > FileDBs > PUBSUB in the Server Explorer. The properties of the PUBSUB are displayed in the Properties pane.
- Change the path of database directory to the desired location.
- Right-click the FioranoMQ domain in the Server Explorer and select the Save option from the resulting shortcut menu.
- Save changes to the Configs.xml file and click the Save button.
The FioranoMQ server needs to be re-started, for this change, to take effect.
Question 14: Do I need to change the VM options to run my client Applications?
Normally there would not be a need to change JVM options for a JMS client application with FioranoMQ. For applications where many transacted sessions are being used per application and the maximum size of the transaction buffer is large (default is 1 MB), the JVM heap size might have to be changed.
Changing the JVM parameters would also depend on any non-JMS work being performed by a client application.
Applications creating large number of connections, sessions and other JMS objects in a single JVM might also need an increase in the JVM heap size, though loading a single client application to that extent is not recommended.
Question 15: Does FioranoMQ support jdk1.4?
FioranoMQ server and clients can be run on jdk1.4 without any problems.
Question 16: Can the FioranoMQ server be started as a child process that is a part of another process?
On Windows platforms there is no problem in running the FioranoMQ server as a child process within another process but on Unix based systems it is recommended, that the FioranoMQ server be run as a standalone process.
This is because the FioranoMQ server requires a high value of FDs (file descriptors), for its proper functioning and in Unix based systems; there is a restriction on the number of FDs that can be used by a child process.
Stopping FioranoMQ Server
Question 17: What happens if the FioranoMQ Server is abruptly shut down?
FioranoMQ Server has been designed to take care of abrupt shutdowns like Ctrl+C.
In the eventuality of shutting down the server abruptly, on restart, MQServer automatically recovers and starts off in the most recent stable mode.
It is recommended using shutdown script to stop the MQServer. "Shutdown"script can be located in the fmq\bin directory of Fiorano's installation on Windows-based machines and in fmq\bin directory of Fiorano's installation on Unix based machines.
Licensing
Question 18: How do I upgrade from the developer version of FioranoMQ to Deployment version?
After the purchase of FioranoMQ, you need to receive your FioranoMQ deployment license keys through e-mail. Download the full version of the software from www.fiorano.com. The instructions for installing the developer as well deployment version of the software is sent to you as a part of the e-mail.