Microsoft KB Archive/173338

= INFO: Message Queue Server Requires SQL Server 6.5 =

Article ID: 173338

Article Last Modified on 8/28/1999

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Message Queue Server 1.0

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This article was previously published under Q173338



SUMMARY
Microsoft SQL Server 6.5 Service Pack 2 is not compatible with Microsoft Message Queue Server (MSMQ). If you attempt to run MSMQ with this version of SQL Server, you will receive error messages during the installation, or you will se an error message logged in the Windows NT Event Log when you try to run the MSMQ service.

MSMQ uses SQL Server 6.5 only to maintain the Message Queue Information Store (MQIS), which stores information about the location and configuration of objects in the enterprise. Note that SQL Server is required only on Site Controllers, a subset of MSMQ servers, which use the information for routing and administrative operations.

The requirement to use SQL Server is temporary. It is planned that in the future, the MQIS information will be stored in one of the planned native Windows NT functions, eliminating the SQL Server requirement. As an interim solution, a limited version of SQL Server is provided with Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition, for the purpose of installing Message Queue Server on that platform. You can configure the limited version of SQL Server for automatic failover in a Windows NT Server 4.0 Enterprise Edition Cluster.

NOTE: The limited SQL Server is for installation on Windows NT Server Enterprise Edition only. On the Windows NT Server 4.0 platform, you would need to install a separately purchased copy of SQL Server 6.5 in order to implement a Message Queue Server Site Controller.



MORE INFORMATION
MSMQ uses SQL Server for storage of configuration information, NOT for storage of messages. Express mode and Reliable mode messages are held in RAM or in a memory-mapped file on disk, respectively.

Note also that you cannot replace SQL Server with another relational database management system (RDBMS) to store the MQIS. However, this does not mean that another RDBMS cannot participate in an application that makes use of the queuing system.

MSMQ uses SQL Server replication to perform a bulk copies of the MQIS from an Enterprise Controller during the installation of a Site Controller. SQL Server replication is not used for the periodic replication of the MQIS updates between the Controllers during normal operation.

