Running IBM MQ on AWS using High-performance Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

Many Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers use IBM MQ on-premises and are looking to migrate it to the AWS Cloud. For persistent storage requirements with IBM MQ on AWS, Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) can be used for distributed storage and to provide high availability. The AWS QuickStart to deploy IBM MQ with Amazon EFS is an architecture used for applications where the file system throughput requirements are within the Amazon EFS limits.

However, there are scenarios where customers need increased capacity for their IBM MQ workloads. These could be applications that rely heavily on IBM MQ, which result in a much higher message data throughput. This means that the persistent messages must be written to and read from the shared file system more frequently. IBM MQ facilitates writing log information into the shared file system. These are two such situations where such application requirements translate to a higher number of read/write operations.

For applications using IBM MQ and requiring a higher file system throughput, Amazon provides Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. This is a fully managed shared storage in the AWS Cloud, with the popular data access and management capabilities of ONTAP.

This blog explains how to use Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP for distributed storage and high availability with IBM MQ. Read more about Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP features, and performance details, throughput options, and performance tips.

Overview of IBM MQ architecture on AWS

For recovering queue data upon failure, you can set up IBM MQ with high availability.

The solution architecture is shown in Figure 1. This blog post assumes familiarity with AWS services such as Amazon EC2, VPCs, and subnets. For additional information on these topics, see the AWS documentation.

Figure 1. IBM MQ with Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP

1. IBM MQ is deployed in an Auto Scaling group spanning two Availability Zones.
2. Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP is used for data persistence and high availability of queue message data.
3. Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP is set up in the same Availability Zones as IBM MQ.
4. Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP provides automatic failover that is transparent to the application and completes in 60 seconds.

Considerations for the Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP file system

When creating the Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP file system as in Figure 1, consider the following:

1. The subnets used for the file system should have connectivity with the subnets where your IBM MQ is running. See VPC documentation.
2. Ensure that the security group(s) used by the elastic network interfaces (ENI) for Amazon FSx allow communication with the IBM MQ environment. Read more about limiting access security groups.
3. When choosing the storage capacity, IOPS, and throughput capacity, make sure it aligns to your application requirements.
4. If you choose to use AWS Key Management System (KMS) encryption, configure those details correctly.
5. Be sure to provide an appropriate name for the volume junction, as you will use it to mount the file system onto your IBM MQ instance(s).
6. Choose appropriate backup and maintenance windows according to your application needs.

Mount the Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP file system onto the instance(s) where IBM MQ is running. Use either the DNS name or the IP address for the file system, as well as the correct volume junction name while mounting. Configure IBM MQ to make use of this mount for persisting the queue data.

This mount point must be included when updating fstab for Linux machines. This will allow for the file system to be mounted automatically in case the instance restarts. For Windows, take the appropriate steps to mount the file system automatically upon restart.

Conclusion

In this post, you have learned how to use Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP with IBM MQ to maximize queue data throughput, while continuing to have persistent message storage. You can provision the Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP file system, and mount its volume junction onto the IBM MQ instance(s).

Build a reliable, scalable, and cost-efficient IBM MQ solution on AWS, by using the fully elastic features that Amazon FSx NetApp ONTAP provides.

Related information:

• Getting started with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
• AWS Management Console