Configuring cross-platform messaging

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

Configuring cross-platform messaging

For cross-platform messaging to communicate with foreign computers, you must first create a foreign site, add the foreign computers to the foreign site, and create queues on the foreign computers. All of these entities are Message Queuing objects in Active Directory. Then you must create a routing link between the foreign site and a Windows Server 2003 site that contains a Message Queuing server running a connector application, define this Message Queuing server as a site gate for the routing link, and add the foreign site to the list of sites where this computer resides.

Note that for Windows Server 2003 family computers running a connector application, after adding the foreign site to the list of sites, the foreign site will not appear in the list until you restart the Message Queuing service on the domain controller of the domain to which the Message Queuing server running the connector application belongs.

Foreign computers can be assigned to the same foreign site if the computers are all serviced by the same connector application. Connector applications run on Message Queuing servers and enable foreign computers to communicate with other Message Queuing computers in your network. A common Message Queuing connector application is Microsoft MSMQ-MQSeries Bridge. When a Message Queuing computer sends a message to a foreign computer, the message is routed to the Message Queuing server running the connector application in the foreign site because this server is also a site gate in the routing link connecting to the foreign site. When the server identifies the message destination as a queue on a foreign computer, it places it in a connector queue. The message is subsequently processed by the connector application, which communicates with the foreign computer.

You must create a routing link between the foreign site and each Windows Server 2003 family or Windows 2000 site that will communicate with the foreign site. The Message Queuing routing server that runs the connector application in the foreign site must also function as a site gate in each routing link connecting to the foreign site. Site gates are always associated with a particular routing link. Note that if the routing server running the connector application, and functioning as a site gate, is unavailable, site gates in other sites cannot route messages to the applicable connector queue for transmission to computers in the foreign site.

For information on how to create a foreign site, see Create foreign sites.

For information on how to add foreign computers to a foreign site and how to add a Message Queuing server running a connector application to a foreign site, see Add foreign computers to a site.

For information on how to create and configure a routing link, see Routing links.