MQ Message Compression Overview
The MQ Message Compression v1.0.0 (MQMC) is a solution that provides compression for MQ message data while it resides in a queue or topic and in the MQ logs (i.e. all data at rest). Data compression is the process of modifying and/or converting the structure of bits of data so that it consumes less space in memory and/or on disk.
Question: Would you trade a little CPU time to drastically reduce the disk I/O time?
- MQMC has implemented 7 lossless compression algorithms:
- LZ4 is a lossless data compression algorithm that is focused on compression and decompression speed. It belongs to the LZ77 family of byte-oriented compression schemes. LZ4 algorithm is incredibly fast. MQMC implemented the LZ4 project.
- LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) encodes sequences of 8-bit data as fixed-length 12-bit codes. MQMC implemented LZW from Michael Dipperstein's lzw project.
- LZMA uses a dictionary compression algorithm, whose output is then encoded with a range encoder, using a complex model to make a probability prediction of each bit (Lempel–Ziv–Markov). MQMC implemented LZMA SDK from 7-Zip.
- LZMA_FAST uses LZMA SDK with a Level set to 4.
- LZMA_BEST uses LZMA SDK with a Level set to 5.
- RLE (Run Length Encoding) encodes sequences of the same data value occurring over many consecutive data elements are stored as a single data value and count.
- zlib only supports one algorithm, called DEFLATE, which uses a combination of a variation of LZ77 (Lempel–Ziv 1977) and Huffman coding. MQMC implemented zlib from Rich Geldreich's miniz project.
- ZLIB_FAST uses zlib with a Level of Z_BEST_SPEED.
- ZLIB_BEST uses zlib with a Level of Z_BEST_COMPRESSION.
Each queue in a queue manager is assigned two buffers to hold messages (one for persistent messages and one for non-persistent messages). The persistent queue buffer size is specified using the tuning parameter DefaultPQBufferSize. The non-persistent queue buffer size is specified using the tuning parameter DefaultQBufferSize.
- DefaultPQBufferSize has a default value of 128KB for 32-bit Queue Managers and 256KB for 64-bit Queue Managers.
- DefaultQBufferSize has a default value of 64KB for 32-bit Queue Managers and 128KB for 64-bit Queue Managers.
Here’s the process of the queue manager handling an application putting a message to a queue:
- The message will be put into the buffer of the waiting application if it can fit.
- If that fails, the queue manager tries to write the message to the queue buffer, if it can fit.
- Otherwise, it is written to the queue file.
Here’s the process of the queue manager handling an application getting a message from a queue:
- When the consumer (non-waiting) gets a message from a queue, the queue manager will retrieve it from the queue buffer, if available, otherwise from the queue file.
- If the consumer was waiting for a message then the queue manager will attempt to write it directly to the applications buffer.
Persistent messages are always written to the recovery log files.
Here is a screen-shot from Chris Frank’s MQ Technical Conference 2016 session called: More Mysteries of the MQ Logger (page 9) that provides a high-level view of disk I/O.
In the picture, the solid line shows the queue manager writing the messages to the recovery log files. The dotted lines mean that the message may or may not be written to the queue file. See the above for the scenarios of when/why the queue manager would write a message to the queue file.
The goal of MQMC is to improve the disk I/O (Input/Output) speed by compressing the message data when the queue manager is writing to the queue buffers, queue backing files and the recovery log files.
MQMC is an MQ API Exit that operates with IBM MQ v7.1, v7.5, v8.0, v9.0, v9.1, v9.2, v9.3 and v9.4 in Windows, Unix, IBM i (OS/400) and Linux platforms.
On AIX, HP-UX, Linux, Solaris and Windows, MQMC can be configured and used with a non-default installation of MQ in a multi-install MQ environment.
MQMC includes an auxiliary program called: testcmprsn. The testcmprsn program allows the end-user to test various types of messages to see which types of messages would benefit from message compression.
Here’s an example of testcmprsn program being run against a 9.17MB XML file (huge file):
~/test> ./testcmprsn very_lrg_msg.xml
testcmprsn version 1.0.0.0 (Linux64) {Oct 3 2020}
very_lrg_msg.xml size is 9614354 (9.17MB)
Time taken to perform memcpy() is 4.8770ms
Algorithm Compressed Compression Compression Decompression
Size Time in ms Ratio Time in ms
LZ4 112253 (109.62KB) 3.4830 85.65 to 1 2.9540
LZMA Fast 32872 (32.10KB) 108.4230 292.48 to 1 11.0730
LZMA Best 27675 (27.03KB) 1152.6960 347.40 to 1 10.6730
LZW 287184 (280.45KB) 203.0840 33.48 to 1 80.8820
RLE 13213500 (12.60MB) 28.1200 0.73 to 1 26.2680
ZLIB Fast 240612 (234.97KB) 28.3140 39.96 to 1 11.2530
ZLIB Best 83375 (81.42KB) 88.5010 115.31 to 1 8.4590
testcmprsn is ending. |
MQMC Summary
- MQMC is available in 3 forms:
- Windows DLL
- Shared library for AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Solaris
- IBM i (OS/400) exit module
- MQMC major features are:
- No application changes required
- All message data written to a selected queue and/or topic will be compressed (nothing missed or forgotten)
- Compression/decompression algorithms used: LZ4, LZW, LZMA_FAST, LZMA_BEST, RLE, ZLIB_FAST & ZLIB_BEST
- Standard MQ feature, GET-with-Convert, is supported
- Provides high-level logging capability for compression / decryption processing
Pricing
- The server-side API Exits are provided in the format of a native DLL / shared library and are currently available for AIX, HP-UX, iSeries (OS/400), Linux, Solaris and Windows. The pricing of Capitalware's MQ Message Compression solution is on a 'per queue manager' basis.
| Operating System | |
| AIX v7.1 or higher | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| IBM i v7.1 or higher | 64-bit |
| HP-UX IA64 v11.23 or higher | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Linux x86 | 32-bit |
| Linux x64 | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Linux on POWER | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Linux on System z (zSeries) | 31-bit & 64-bit |
| Raspberry Pi (ARM) | 32-bit |
| Solaris SPARC v10 & v11 | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Solaris x64 v10 & v11 | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 & 11 | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019 & 2022 | 32-bit & 64-bit |
| Product | Price (USD) * | Ordering |
| MQ Message Compression (per license**) | $299.00 | |
| Yearly maintenance and support fee | 15% | |
| Total | $344.00 |
* Volume discounts available for as low as $199.00 USD per license plus 15% yearly maintenance and support fee.
** MQ Message Compression is licensed on a per queue manager basis.
- Each licensed user will receive:
- Full version of MQ Message Compression
- Free updates / upgrades to any version 1.x release.
- Email/ Help Desk support
| Enterprise License for MQ Message Compression: |
| Enterprise License for MQ Message Compression sells for $55,000 USD plus 15% yearly maintenance and support fee. An enterprise license will allow a company to have unlimited number of queue managers use MQ Message Compression at an unlimited number of locations. |