SOLVED: What is MSMQ & How To Manage MSMQ

I recently worked on a client system which was reporting this alert:

MessagesInQueue: The MSMQ queue depth on APX-P01 for queue apx-p01\private$ \apxjobrequest is now 5205.0.

and the tech assigned to it was not familiar with MSMQ.

What is MSMQ?

I explained that MSMQ is the acronym for Microsoft Messaging Queuing which, put simply, is a way for programs to talk to each other.  It is just like email, but for programs not people.

MSMQ is used when programs need to talk to each other in unstable environments (i.e. perhaps a system is offline periodically) or across different networks that don’t naturally allow for communication.

MSMQ is secured by encrypted, honors priorities (i.e. one message may have a higher priority than another) and verifies that messages have been received.

For more details on MSMQ read THIS Microsoft article.

How To Monitor MSMQ?

If you are working on a Windows Server the MSMQ interface will already be installed and you can get to it by simply RIGHT clicking on the START button, selecting COMPUTER MANAGEMENT > SERVICES & APPLICATIONS > MESSAGE QUEUING

If you are on a Windows PC, MSMQ is not installed but that is easy to fix.  To install MSMQ monitor, just right click on the START button, select APPS, then scroll to the bottom and click MORE WINDOWS FEATURES, then put check marks beside whatever Microsoft Message Queue MSMQ Server Core settings you want:

After you have MSMQ installed on your machine, and you launch COMPUTER MANAGEMENT you can right click on COMPUTER MANAGEMENT (LOCAL COMPUTER) and select CONNECT TO ANOTHER COMPUTER), if you want to see it;s MSMQ queue.

 

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