dale lane

Just heard that we’ve (finally!) released refresh pack 6.0.2.0 for WebSphere MQ V6.

As a service engineer for WMQ, this is something that I’d be interested in anyway. But 6.0.2.0 isn’t just any old bunch of fixes. Refresh Pack is the new-ish term that we use when referring to maintenance which is not only bug fixes, but also some new functionality. And one of the biggest bits of functionality in 6.0.2.0 is the inclusion of my WMQ Healthcheck (now called ‘Tests’, I think) – into the product for everyone!

Healthcheck was originally something I wrote as a SupportPac (downloadable freeware add-ons that we give away on ibm.com) last year. The idea was to extend the ability of the graphical toolset provided with WebSphere MQ by adding the ability to examine a customer’s WMQ configuration – looking for potential problems and making recommendations.

As a SupportPac, customers will have had to go to www.ibm.com and download and install it manually. From today, it is automatically included and installed with the latest recommended updates. This sorta thing – enhancements to the usability of WMQ – is generally well-received by customers, and I’m really pleased to see that my spare time that went into writing the SupportPac will make a difference.

Although there’s a fair amount of my code still in there, I can’t take all the credit for what is going out in 6.0.2.0. WMQ Development have done a great job overhauling my (admittedly fairly clunky) interface, producing a much more Eclipse-centric approach which is very sweet. I think they’ve also rearranged how new tests can be added, so if I get a chance next week, I’ll have to have a go at writing a new custom test and see how it works.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 11:54 pm and is filed under ibm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.