Message Descriptor workspace

Use the Message Descriptor workspace to view the contents of message header fields.

If multiple headers are generated, subsequent headers are prefixed with the IBM® MQ (WebSphere® MQ) ID of the associated header. For example, subsequent dead letter queue headers are prefixed with DLH and subsequent transmit queue headers are prefixed with XQH.

Predefined views

The Message Descriptor workspace includes the following predefined views:

  • Message Descriptor This view lists the parameters in the message descriptor (MQMD) header of the MQ message and additional MQ headers that are available in the message. Not all MQ headers are supported; the IBM MQ Monitoring agent currently supports the following MQ headers:

    • MQMD (message descriptor)
    • MQMDE (message descriptor extension)
    • MQDLH (dead-letter header)
    • MQXQH (transmission-queue header)
    • MQRMH (reference message header)
    • MQDH (distribution header)
    Note: The distribution header (MQDH) is supported only on distributed systems.

    The message descriptor (MQMD) is always present in an MQ message. An MQ message might contain zero, one, or more of the other headers. Therefore, you might not see all of the above headers for a given message.

    The following fields are displayed for the message descriptor (MQMD) of the MQ message:

    • The name and type of the application that created the message
    • The backout count. If this is high it might indicate a problem.
    • The correlation and message IDs
    • The message expiration time
    • The message length
    • The message type. Possible message types are request, reply, report and datagram
    • The message persistence, which indicates whether or not the message is recoverable
    • The message priority, which can be used for selective retrieval of messages from queues
    • The date and time at which the message was created (relative to GMT). This is also known as the put data and time.
    • The reply-to queue and queue manager names

    The following fields are displayed for the message descriptor extension (MQMDE) if it exists in the MQ message:

    • The numeric encoding, character set identifier, and format name of the data that follows the MQMDE
    • The group ID and the sequence number of logical message within the group

    The following fields are displayed for the dead letter header (MQDLH) if it exists in the MQ message:

    • The original destination queue and queue manager names
    • The name and type of the application that created the message
    • The date and time when the message was put on dead-letter queue (relative to GMT).
    • The numeric encoding, character set identifier, and format name of the data that follows the MQDLH

    The following fields are displayed for the transmission-queue header (MQXQH) if it exists in the MQ message:

    • The destination queue and queue manager names
    • Information of the original message descriptor (MQMD)

    The following fields are displayed for the message reference header (MQRMH) if it exists in the MQ message:

    • The object type and object instance identifier
    • The length and offset of source environment data
    • The length and offset of source object name
    • The length and offset of destination environment data
    • The length and offset of destination object name
    • The numeric encoding, character set identifier, and format name of the bulk data
    • The length, low and high offset of the bulk data

    The following fields are displayed for the distribution header (MQDH) if it exists in the MQ message:

    • The numeric encoding, character set identifier, and format name of the data that follows the array of put-message record (MQPMR) records
    • The object name and object queue manager name if present
    • The attributes of the MQPMR if present
    Remember: The put date and time value in this table is relative to GMT. It is different from the Queue Messages table view, which displays the put date and time in local time relative to the location of your monitored system.
  • Message Log The message log gives you an overview of changes in the status of your monitored system. It also provides information about the status of monitoring agents and other system events. For more information on this view, see Tivoli® Enterprise Portal Help.

For more information on the attributes listed in the tables of this workspace, see Message Details attributes.

Predefined links

No other workspaces can be linked to from the Message Descriptor workspace.