Installing IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard

Prerequisites and installation

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

At IBM MQ 9.1.1, the IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard are available on Windows only.

From IBM MQ 9.1.2, the IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard are available on Linux platforms as well as Windows.

To run IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard, you must install Microsoft .NET Core.

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 Standard.
• 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 Standard.
• 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.

From IBM MQ 9.1.4, 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 Standard from the NuGet repository.

amqmdnetstd.dll library

From IBM MQ 9.1.1, the amqmdnetstd.dll library is available for .NET Standard support on Windows. Sample applications, including source files, are also supplied; see Sample applications for .NET.

From IBM MQ 9.1.2, the amqmdnetstd.dll library is also available on Linux. The library is installed into /&MQINSTALL_PATH&/lib64 path when an IBM MQ client is installed on Linux. The .NET samples are located in &MQINSTALL_PATH&/samp/dotnet/samples/cs/core/base.

Any library built against the Microsoft .NET Standard specification can be used for developing .NET Framework applications as well as .NET Core applications.

dspmqver command

From IBM MQ 9.1.1, you can use the dspmqver command to display version and build information for the .NET Core component.

IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework and IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard features

The following table lists the features applicable from IBM MQ 9.1.1 for IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework and IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard.

Table 1. Differences between IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework and IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard features

Feature	IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework	IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard
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	app.config is not supported in .NET Standard. You have to use environment variables in place of app.config.
Trace	The strmqtrc command and, for redistributable clients, the app.config file, are used to enable trace.	The strmqtrc command. To enable trace for the redistributable package, environment variables must be used. For IBM MQ .NET, 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.
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 .NET Standard classes. The logged-in user ID is used for authentication.

In addition to the environment variable MQDOTNET_TRACE_ON used to enable trace on IBM MQ .NET Standard, other environment variables including MQERRORPATH, MQLOGLEVEL, MQSERVER, and so on, that are used for IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework, can be used for IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard as well. These variables work in the same way for both IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard and IBM MQ classes for .NET Framework.

In IBM MQ classes for .NET Standard, 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.

See Using the stand-alone IBM MQ .NET client for more information on the variables you use for trace, including MQTRACEPATH and MQTRACELEVEL.

Developing IBM MQ .NET Core applications on MacOS

From IBM MQ 9.1.3, 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.