During the past few years I’ve come across a number of instances where customers have wanted to script the build and deployment of WebSphere Message Broker solutions. I’ve actually spoken about this a few times at conferences. The most common approach that customers have adopted has been to use Ant to tie in with the rest of their application build processes.
In an earlier developerWorks article, I included an example plugin node that could invoke an Ant task. There should be a build.xml file included with the sample code for this article that could help you to get started. I’ve also helped customers to write their own automated build and deployment processes using Ant.
Now, a new developerWorks article from Zhongming Chen, Ida Leung and Dave Spriet covers the use of Ant to drive the mqsicreatebar command for scripting the creation of broker archives. It’s a great article and well worth a look.
This isn’t the end of the story. Often, the overall process will also include checking out of source control, apply version tags, and deploying the BAR file. However, this article introduces the topic and should be a good starting point. You could also use the Configuration Manager Proxy API to control other broker tasks, as Matt Lucas describes in another developerWorks article.
Incidentally, if you want to know more about Ant, I personally really like the book Java Development with Ant by Erik Hatcher and Steve Loughran.
April 23, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I need WebSphere Message Broker deployment scripts
July 3, 2009 at 8:48 am
Good luck with that!
Scripting broker deployments should be done with caution, it is very easy to get into a situation whereby your project will require major development expertise to maintain deployment scripts. Bearing in mind that deployment can and usually is done on a variety of platforms (aix, windows) these scripts need to be fairly robust.
We currently have scripted broker build and deployments, but part of me slightly laments the ignorance of the Keep It Simple Stupid approach. Yes our broker (and MQ) source can be compiled into a single distribution which is then deployed via scripts contained in the same distribution, but will it continue to be maintained when I have left…?