IBM MQ System Administration Practice Test Certification

This intermediate-level certification is for system administrators who have the extensive product knowledge and are expected to plan, install, configure and maintain the product. It is expected that this system administrator will be generally self-sufficient and be able to perform the tasks involved in the role with limited assistance from peers, product documentation and vendor support services.

Prerequisite for the exam

• Working knowledge of IBM MQ
• Working knowledge of supported operating systems (e.g., AIX, HP-UX, Solaris, IBM i, Linux, z/OS, Windows)
• Working knowledge of security concepts and protocols
• Good understanding of messaging concepts
• Basic knowledge of operating MQ Explorer
• Basic knowledge of networking concepts

Course Outline

Planning, Installation, and Migration

1. Describe the differences between Long Term Support (LTS) and Continuous Delivery (CD)
2. Design an appropriate infrastructure to meet conflicting requirements
3. Identify the pre-requisites for installing and implementing an IBM MQ configuration, including multi-instance queue managers
4. Plan the appropriate backup and recovery strategy
5. Describe the differences between MQ Advanced and MQ
6. Select the appropriate IBM MQ platform for a given workload
7. Outline migration considerations, including impact on existing applications and multi-installation
8. Deploy MQ in a Docker container

Configuration

1. Create the necessary IBM MQ objects to support an application
2. Configure IBM MQ channels based on the network topology
3. Configure IBM MQ objects for triggered applications and channels
4. Create the objects required to enable queue manager clustering and workload distribution
5. Define the objects to support a publish/subscribe topology distribution
6. Configure IBM MQ objects to support JMS
7. Configure channel exits Configure an MQ Client

Security

1. Understand the purpose of Connection Authentication (CONNAUTH)
2. Configure Channel Authentication (CHLAUTH)
3. Control access to IBM MQ objectsConfigure IBM MQ clients and channels with TLS 1.2
4. Describe MQ Appliance features that provide intrusion detection
5. Distinguish between the available security choices
6. Configure end-to-end message security

Administration

1. Administer queue managers and their objects
2. Configure IBM MQ Explorer for remote administration
3. Monitor and alter IBM MQ using the different command tools
4. Define procedures to recover messages and objects in the event of failure
5. Implement dead-letter queue (DLQ) handling
6. Acquire, apply maintenance, or migrate IBM MQ
7. Use the WEB UI and REST interface
8. Configure different types of logs

Availability

1. Configure and manage a multi-instance queue manager
2. Configure IBM MQ for automatic client reconnection
3. Implement backup, restart, and recovery procedures
4. Implement a Queue-Sharing Group for High Availability
5. Manage an MQ cluster
6. Configure and Manage HA/DR for MQ appliance
7. Create a High Availability Replication Data Queue manager (HA RDQM) topology

Monitoring

1. Explain the IBM MQ capabilities for monitoring
2. Enable and Monitor IBM MQ Events
3. Monitor Message and Application Activities
4. Gather and analyze IBM MQ accounting and statistics data
5. Use IBM MQ administration tools or commands to monitor the status of a queue manager, channel or queue

Performance Tuning

1. Identify the tools available to assist in IBM MQ performance
2. Use accounting and statistical data to identify and resolve performance issues
3. Tune IBM MQ object definitions for performance and tune client and server connection channel parameters

Problem Determination

1. Locate problem information such as IBM MQ error logs, FFST files and IBM MQ dumps
2. Produce an IBM MQ trace
3. Identify the steps to evaluate and recover a non-responsive queue manager
4. Determine the route that a message took through a queue manager network
5. Describe how to use the Enhanced Application Activity Trace
6. Predict the final destination of a message given a scenario containing alias or remote definitions