An upgrade from WebSphere MQ 5.3 to WebSphere MQ 6.0 on Windows goes fairly smooth. You can run the installer to do an in place upgrade. Here are the things to watch out for:
- You'll probably need to install Eclipse. Don't get Eclipse from the Eclipse web site; use IBM's installer which sets up Eclipse to work with WebSphere MQ. To install Eclipse, click on Software Requirements on the installer launch pad. Then expand the Eclipse node, where you'll find buttons for installing Eclipse.
- WebSphere MQ 6.0 comes with a new Explorer (which is why you need Eclipse). The Microsoft MMC snap-in is no longer supplied and the snap-in won't work on a system with the WebSphere 6.0 client software installed. But, you can use the MMC snap-in on a machine with the 5.3 client software to manage a 6.0 queue manager (which is important, see the next point).
- After upgrading to WebSphere 6.0 the new Explorer doesn't work. When you try to connect to the queue manager you get the following message:
Explorer cannot administer the queue manager because the queue 'SYSTEM.MQEXPLORER.REPLY.MODEL' is not defined. (AMQ4400)
Now you're in a catch 22: Explorer won't work and you need Explorer to fix the problem! The solution is to use a 5.3 client with the Windows MMC snap-in to define the missing model queue. Browse to the queue manager, right click on the Queues folder, and select New -> Model Queue. Create a new model named 'SYSTEM.MQEXPLORER.REPLY.MODEL' (without the quotes) and accept all the default values. Now you'll be able to connect to your upgraded queue manager using the new Explorer.