Using the Client Runtime Ping Feature

Message Queue defines a connection factory attribute for a ping interval. This attribute specifies the interval at which the client runtime should check the client’s connection to the broker. The ping feature is especially useful to Message Queue clients that exclusively receive messages and might therefore not be aware that the absence of messages is due to a connection failure. This feature could also be useful to producers who don’t send messages frequently and who would want notification that a connection they’re planning to use is not available.

The connection factory attribute used to specify this interval is called imqPingInterval. Its default value is 30 seconds. A value of -1 or 0, specifies that the client runtime should not check the client connection.

Developers should set (or have the administrator set) ping intervals that are slightly more frequent than they need to send or receive messages, to allow time to recover the connection in case the ping discovers a connection failure. Note also that the ping may not occur at the exact time specified by the value you supply for interval; the underlying operating system’s use of i/o buffers may affect the amount of time needed to detect a connection failure and trigger an exception.

A failed ping operation results in a JMSException on the subsequent method call that uses the connection. If an exception listener is registered on the connection, it will be called when a ping operation fails.