Sad News Regarding Søren Hansen

January 24, 2019 Roger Lacroix

Today, I was trying to reach Søren Hansen of SystemUdvikling. His wife (Birgitte Ryberg) responded and said that Søren had died of cancer in December 2018.

I just thought I should let everyone know and express my sincerest condolences to his family and friends.

Søren ran his own company called SystemUdvikling. SystemUdvikling was a partner of Capitalware selling our products in Denmark, Norway and Iceland. For existing customers in those regions, you can contact us directly at sales@capitalware.com or for technical support at support@capitalware.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Customer Requested Updates to MQMR

January 22, 2019 Roger Lacroix

MQ Message Replication (MQMR) is an MQ API Exit. An MQ API Exit is configured to run within the queue manager’s address space (or the application’s address space if the application connects in bindings mode to the queue manager).

I designed MQMR to be extremely light-weight when replicating messages to target queues. MQMR determines if a queue will have its messages replicated when an application issues an MQOPEN API call. If MQMR determines that the queue name is a match then MQMR hooks into the MQPUT and MQCLOSE API calls, otherwise, everything related to the opened queue is ignored.

My thinking was that the MQAdmin and/or application teams would determine which queues would need to be replicated, the MQMR IniFile would be updated and during the next maintenance window for either the application or queue manager, the changes would be picked up when the application issues the MQOPEN API call after a reconnection.

A couple of weeks ago, a customer said they were making changes MQMR IniFile they were using and the new source queues were not causing MQMR to replicate the messages. I asked if the application(s) were connected to the queue manager (and stayed connected) before (and after) the updates were made to the MQMR IniFile. They said yes. So, I explained that the application needed to be recycled (or the queue manager). They explained that they were constantly making changes to the MQMR IniFile adding/updating/removing source queues. They requested that I make MQMR more dynamic, be able to accept and immediately implement new changes without requiring recycling of either the applications and/or queue manager.

My biggest concern with a more dynamic approach for MQMR is the memory usage. I already have customers using Capitalware products (i.e. MQMR, MQ Auditor, etc.) with queue managers installed and configured in VMs with extremely low memory allocations.

One application may open 1 or 2 queues, no big deal. The issue is that MQMR is an API Exit, so ALL of the applications connecting to a queue manager, opening queues will need to be tracked. There can easily be hundreds (or thousands) of applications connecting to a queue manager, each opening 1 or more queues. Now we are talking about a massive amount of memory being allocated and used by MQMR to track opened queues.

I reviewed the code and went crazy with a fine tooth-comb determining what was the absolute minimum memory MQMR would need to track an opened queue. I got the structure down to 70 bytes (62 bytes for 32-bit) and most of that is the queue name (48 bytes).

So, I have rewritten the internals of MQMR to be truly dynamic when it comes to an MQAdmin making changes to the MQMR IniFile. Any changes to the MQMR InFile will be immediately reflected in ALL instances of MQMR.

There are 2 small disadvantages to this new dynamic MQMR modification:

(1) MQMR will use more memory. Now, I have done my best to absolutely minimize the amount of memory used for each opened queue but MQMR will still use more memory than before.

(2) MQMR will be invoked for MQPUT and MQCLOSE API calls for all applications regardless if a source queue is being replicated or not. I added code at the very beginning of the routine for the MQPUT invocation to check if the source queue if being replicated, otherwise exit immediately.

I have completed a wide variety of tests and everything looks good. The customer is now also testing the latest release of MQMR.

If anyone would like to test out the latest release then send the email to support@capitalware.com

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

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Customer Requested Updates to MQCCI

January 7, 2019 Roger Lacroix

In December, I had a call with a potential customer regarding MQ Channel Connection Inspector (MQCCI). Their security concerns were similar to what I posted several months ago in “So You Secured MQ But How Do You Know It Is Secure?“.

During the discussion, they brought up a couple of interesting comments:

  • How to correlate a disconnection audit record with a connection audit record.
  • How to track how long the connection lasted for.

    • I thought either the MCASecurityId and RemoteSecurityId fields of the MQCD could be used to correlate the connect and disconnection audit records but they pointed out that they were pretty sure that those fields only get populated on Windows platforms only. After the call, I did some testing on non-Windows platforms and I was surprised to see that they were always blank (null/binary zeroes). D’Oh!

    So, I decided to add a new keyword called: IncludeTag. If this keyword’s value is set to ‘Y’, then MQCCI will add a randomly genereted 16 character tag on both the connection and disconnection audit records. Hence, this will allow the MQAdmin or anyone else to correlate the connection and disconnection audit records.

    Since, I was messing around with the code, I also added another new keyword called: IncludeDurationTime. If this keyword’s value is set to ‘Y’, then MQCCI will add the duration time (disconnect time minus connect time) to the disconnection audit record. The time is outputted in seconds and microseconds. i.e. 25.123456

    If the keywords AddDiscMessage, IncludeTag and IncludeDurationTime all have their value set to ‘Y’, then this is an example of the connection and disconnection audit records:

    2019/01/03 13:45:13.445483, CONN, Tag=DxfsTJRFxcEG8dQC, CD_QMgrName=MQWT1, CD_ChannelName=TEST.CHL, CD_ConnectionName=10.10.10.10, , CD_ShortConnectionName=10.10.10.10, CD_MaxMsgLength=4194304, CD_PutAuthority=MQPA_DEFAULT, CD_MCAUserIdentifier=roger, CD_RemoteUserIdentifier=roger, CD_RemotePassword_Length=0, CD_SSLCipherSpec=, CD_SSLClientAuth=MQSCA_REQUIRED, CD_CertificateLabel=, CXP_PartnerName=roger, CXP_SSLCertUserid=, CXP_SecurityParms_AuthenticationType=MQCSP_AUTH_USER_ID_AND_PWD, CXP_SecurityParms_UserId=roger, CXP_SecurityParms_Password_Length=8, CXP_SharingConversations=TRUE, CXP_MCAUserSource=MQUSRC_MAP, CXP_RemoteProduct=MQJB, CXP_RemoteVersion=0800,

2019/01/03 13:45:27.952108, DISC, Tag=DxfsTJRFxcEG8dQC, CD_QMgrName=MQWT1, CD_ChannelName=TEST.CHL, CD_ConnectionName=10.10.10.10, Duration=14.506625,

    The latest release of MQCCI for all platforms including z/OS is available for download. Send the email to support@capitalware.com if you want to try it out.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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    New MQCE and MQCT IniFile GUI Tools

    January 7, 2019 Roger Lacroix

    Since I had a little free time in December, I decided to create IniFile GUI Tools for both MQ Channel Encryption (MQCE) and MQ Channel Throttler (MQCT). Previously, I never bothered creating IniFile GUI Tools for those 2 products because they don’t have many keyword parameters but I figured “why not”, if it makes the MQAdmin’s job easier with an IniFile GUI Tool then fine.

    These IniFile GUI Tool updates are available for download. Send the email to support@capitalware.com if you want to use it.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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    Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

    December 20, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, etc… and a Happy New Year. 🙂

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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    IBM MQ Fix Pack 8.0.0.11 Released

    December 20, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    IBM has just released Fix Pack 8.0.0.11 for IBM MQ
    https://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=ibm10744749

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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    Here We Go Again!

    December 13, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    Capitalware is being forced to change our online shopping cart again. Ugh!

    When Capitalware started selling software in 2003 (yup, a long time ago), I signed up with RegSoft (owned by Digital River) to handle the online shopping cart. Everything worked well and I was happy with the setup.

    In January 2011, Digital River decided that they wanted to shutdown RegSoft and told all vendors that they needed to move to SWReg (another platform owned by Digital River). They made a mess of the migration process and I spent weeks fixing everything. Once everything was fixed, the shopping cart worked well, although the report generation has always been a bit lame.

    In August 2018, Digital River decided that they wanted to shutdown SWReg and told all vendors that they needed to move to Share-It (aka MyCommerce, another platform owned by Digital River). Once again, the migration process was less than perfect (not even close). Digital River said that SWReg is shutting down on December 31, 2018, so I have been taking my time fixing the various issues from the migration process for the last few months.

    I think everything has been fixed and I believe everything is ready to go. So, this Sunday (December 16, 2018), I will be publishing Capitalware web pages with the new links for the Share-It shopping cart.

    If anyone has any issues with purchasing any Capitalware products via the Share-It online shopping cart then please let me know ASAP and I will tried to get it resolved.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

    Capitalware, MQ Auditor, MQ Authenticate User Security Exit, MQ Batch Toolkit, MQ Channel Connection Inspector, MQ Channel Encryption, MQ Channel Throttler, MQ Enterprise Security Suite, MQ File Mover, MQ Message Encryption, MQ Message Replication, MQ Standard Security Exit, MQ Technical Conference, MQ Visual Browse, MQ Visual Edit, MQTT Message Viewer, Universal File Mover Comments Off on Here We Go Again!

    FreeBSD v12.0 Released

    December 12, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team has just released FreeBSD v12.0.
    https://www.freebsd.org/releases/12.0R/announce.html

    FreeBSD is an advanced operating system for modern server, desktop, and embedded computer platforms. FreeBSD’s code base has undergone over thirty years of continuous development, improvement, and optimization. It is developed and maintained by a large team of individuals. FreeBSD provides advanced networking, impressive security features, and world class performance and is used by some of the world’s busiest web sites and most pervasive embedded networking and storage devices.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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    Update to Java MQ PCF Code Samples

    December 11, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    Tim Zielke posted a comment to my blog posting of Java MQ Code to List Channel Status about an extra PCF response from a z/OS queue manager that caused the code to throw an exception.

    So, I updated line # 156 in MQListChannelStatus01.java to be:

    if ( ((responses[i]).getCompCode() == CMQC.MQCC_OK) &&
     ((responses[i]).getParameterValue(CMQCFC.MQCACH_CHANNEL_NAME) != null) )

    You can download the updated source code for MQListChannelStatus01.java from here.

    I made the same change for MQ Channel Monitor. Line # 325 of PCFChlStatus.java.

    The same problem will also hit MQListQueueStatus01.java from my blog posting of Java MQ Code to List Queue Status. So, I updated line # 165 to be:

    if ( ((responses[i]).getCompCode() == CMQC.MQCC_OK) &&
     ((responses[i]).getParameterValue(CMQC.MQCA_Q_NAME) != null) )

    You can download the updated source code for MQListQueueStatus01.java from here.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

    IBM i (OS/400), IBM MQ, Java, Linux, macOS (Mac OS X), Open Source, PCF, Programming, Unix, Windows, z/OS 1 Comment

    Static Analysis of Java Code

    December 10, 2018 Roger Lacroix

    A few weeks ago, I was reading Java Magazine and in the current issue, it was reviewing the results of a Java Developer survey. One of the questions in the survey was “Which static quality tools do you use?”. I guess I’m part of the 36% of the people (results of the survey) who don’t use one.

    I decided to try out FindBugs and see what it can do. I figured it would be pointless because I write perfect code (yeah right!).

    I decided to try it out against MQ Visual Edit first. FindBugs is pretty easy to use as everything is on by default and holy cow does it produce a lot of information. I liked how besides the main JAR file and auxiliary JAR files, that the source code can be included. Even better, it supports multiple locations for the source code which is great because I have various components of MQ Visual Edit in different Eclipse projects. By clicking on the listed bug and viewing the source code, FindBugs makes it really easy to decide if it has found a bug or is being overly sensitive to the code. I like some of the category names it uses: “Dodgy Code”, “Dubious method used”, etc..

    The best part of using it, it actually found a couple of bugs and it found a couple of potential bugs. So all in all, it was worth my time using it. I have created FindBugs projects for all of my Java projects (commercial and open source) and I have gone through all of the projects and fixed all of the bugs it found.

    Regards,
    Roger Lacroix
    Capitalware Inc.

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