Installing IBM MQ classes for .NET

IBM® MQ classes for .NET, including samples, are installed with IBM MQ on Windows and Linux®

Prerequisites and installation

[MQ 9.4.0 Jun 2024] IBM MQ 9.4.0 provides an IBM MQ .NET client library built against .NET 6 as the target framework. From IBM MQ 9.4.0, Microsoft .NET 6.0 is the minimum required version for running applications using IBM MQ libraries that are built using .NET 6 as the target framework. The IBM MQ .NET client library built using .NET 6 as the target framework is available under MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH/bin on Windows and under MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH/lib64 on Linux.

[MQ 9.4.0 Jun 2024] From IBM MQ 9.4.0, IBM MQ supports .NET 8 applications using IBM MQ classes for .NET. If you are using a .NET 6 application, you can run this application without any recompilation being required by making a small edit in the runtimeconfig file to set the targetframeworkversion to "net8.0".

[Deprecated] [MQ 9.4.0 Jun 2024] From IBM MQ 9.4.0, in IBM MQ classes for .NET, the methods WriteObject(), ReadObject(), CreateObjectMessage(), and the classes ObjectMessage and XmsObjectMessageImpl used for serialization and deserialization of data are deprecated.

[Removed] [MQ 9.4.0 Jun 2024] The IBM MQ .NET client library built using .NET Standard 2.0, which was deprecated at IBM MQ 9.3.1, has been removed from the product at IBM MQ 9.4.0.

The latest version of IBM MQ classes for .NET is installed by default as part of the standard IBM MQ installation in the Java and .NET Messaging and Web Services feature.

For more information about prerequisites and installation on Windows:

See Requirements for IBM MQ classes for .NET for the prerequisite software to run IBM MQ classes for .NET.
See Installing IBM MQ server on Windows or Installing an IBM MQ client on Windows systems for installation instructions.

For more information about prerequisites and installation on Linux:

See Requirements for IBM MQ classes for .NET for the prerequisite software to run IBM MQ classes for .NET.
For rpm installation instructions, see Installing an IBM MQ client on Linux systems.
For Linux Ubuntu, using Debian packages, see Installing an IBM MQ client on Linux systems.

The IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard library, amqmdnetstd.dll, is available for downloading from the NuGet repository. For more information, see Downloading IBM MQ classes for .NET from the NuGet repository.

amqmdnetstd.dll library

From IBM MQ 9.4.0, the amqmdnetstd.dll library built using .NET 6 as the target framework is available at the following locations:

On Windows: MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\bin. The sample applications are installed in MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH/samp/dotnet/samples/cs/core/base.
On Linux: MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH\lib64. The .NET samples are in MQ_INSTALLATION_PATH/samp/dotnet/samples/cs/core/base.

Attention: [Removed]

From IBM MQ 9.4.0, IBM MQ .NET client libraries built using .NET Standard 2.0 as the target framework are removed. These libraries were deprecated at IBM MQ 9.3.1.

[Stabilized] [Long Term Suppoort] The amqmdnet.dll library for .NET Framework is still supplied, but this library is stabilized; that is, no new features will be introduced into it. For any of the latest features you must migrate to the amqmdnetstd.dll library. However, you can continue to use the amqmdnet.dll library on IBM MQ 9.1 or later Long Term Support or Continuous Delivery releases.

Here are two scenarios that you might encounter following the removal of the netstandard2.0 libraries:

If you are using a IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework application that is built using the netstandard2.0 libraries such as amqmdnetstd.dll, you need to rebuild your application with the Microsoft.NET Framework 4.7.2 libraries such as amqmdnet.dll, in order for your application to run successfully. If you do not rebuild your application, you might get an System.IO.Unexceptionable message:

Exception caught: System.IO.FileLoadException: Could not load file or assembly 'amqmdnetstd, Version=9.3.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=23d6cb914eeaac0e' or one of its dependencies. The located assembly's manifest definition does not match the assembly reference. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80131040)
File name: 'amqmdnetstd, Version=9.3.5.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=23d6cb914eeaac0e'
   at SimplePut.SimplePut.PutMessages()
   at SimplePut.SimplePut.Main(String[] args) in C:\SampleCode\Program.cs:line 132

If you are using a .NET 6 application that is built using netstandard2.0 libraries, then you just need to replace those libraries with the same .NET 6 libraries in the bin folder of the application runtime directory. No rebuild is required.
Note: The replacement .NET 6 library should always be of the same or higher level than the replaced netstandard2.0 library.

dspmqver command

You can use the dspmqver command to display version and build information for the .NET Core component.

Feature comparison between IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework and IBM MQ classes for .NET

The following table lists the features for IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework compared with the features for IBM MQ classes for .NET

Table 1. Differences between IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework and IBM MQ classes for .NET .
Feature	IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework	IBM MQ classes for .NET
Class Names (APIs)	All classes remain the same in each network.	All classes remain the same in each network.
Operating System	Windows	Windows Dockerized containers Linux macOS
app.config file (Configuration file to enable Trace in redistributable client)	app.config file is used to enable trace for the redistributable package and stand-alone IBM MQ .NET client. See Tracing an IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework client using an application configuration file for more information on the variables you use for trace, including MQTRACEPATH and MQTRACELEVEL.	app.config is not supported. Use environment variables.
Trace	For a full client installation of IBM MQ, you can use the strmqtrc command to enable trace for IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework. For redistributable clients, the app.config file is also used to enable trace. For more information, see Tracing IBM MQ .NET applications. From IBM MQ 9.4.0, you can enable and disable trace by using the mqclient.ini file and setting the appropriate properties of the Trace stanza. You can also enable and disable tracing dynamically with the mqclient.ini file. For more information, see Tracing IBM MQ .NET applications with mqclient.ini.	The environment variable MQDOTNET_TRACE_ON is used to enable trace for redistributable clients. Values equal to and less than 0 do not enable trace. A value of 1 enables default level tracing. A value greater than 1, enables detailed tracing. Setting this environment variable to any other value like string does not enable trace. See Tracing IBM MQ .NET applications using environment variables. The MQDOTNET_TRACE_ON environment variable checks whether the IBM MQ trace directory is available or not. If the trace directory is available, the trace file is generated in the trace directory. However, if IBM MQ is not installed, the trace file is copied to the current working directory. Other environment variables including MQERRORPATH, MQLOGLEVEL, MQSERVER, and so on, that are used for IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework, can be used and work in the same way. From IBM MQ 9.4.0, you can enable and disable trace by using the mqclient.ini file and setting the appropriate properties of the Trace stanza. You can also enable and disable tracing dynamically with the mqclient.ini file. For more information, see Tracing IBM MQ .NET applications with mqclient.ini.
Transport Modes	Managed, Unmanaged, and Bindings	Managed
TLS	The Windows keystore is used for storing the certificates.	On Windows, the keystore must be used for storing the certificates. Permitted values are USER or SYSTEM. Based on the input, the IBM MQ .NET client looks at the Windows key store of the current user, or System wide. On Linux, it is recommended to use the X509Store class to install certificates and .NET Core installs certificates to the following location: ".dotnet/corefx/cryptography/x509stores".
CCDT	Supported	Supported, and the settings of the CCDT path are the same as for .NET Framework classes.
Client auto reconnect	Supported	Supported
Distributed transactions	Supported	Not supported
Installation of dynamic linked libraries (dll's) into the global assembly cache (GAC)	Dll's are installed into the GAC as part of the IBM MQ installation.	Dll's are not installed into the GAC as part of the IBM MQ installation.

Note: Windows security identifiers (SIDs):

Domain level authentication is not supported for IBM MQ classes for .NET (.NET Standard and .NET 6 libraries). The logged-in user ID is used for authentication.

Developing IBM MQ .NET Core applications on macOS

IBM MQ .NET Core applications can be developed on macOS.

The IBM MQ .NET libraries are not packaged with the macOS toolkit so you must copy them from a Windows or Linux IBM MQ client on to macOS. You can then use these libraries to develop IBM MQ .NET Core applications on macOS.

Once developed, these applications can be run supported on either Windows or Linux environments.