MSMQ Glossary: Q

Applies To: Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server Technical Preview, Windows Vista

queue

Objects that hold messages passed between applications, or messages passed between Message Queuing and applications. In general, applications can send messages to queues and read messages from queues.

Message Queuing uses queues created by applications or manually by users in MMC snap-ins (application queues), and queues created by Message Queuing (system queues, internal private queues, and outgoing queues).

queue alias

An Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) object whose ADs path or user-defined name can be used to reference the format name of a queue that might not be listed in AD DS. The format name referenced can be any public, private, or direct single-element format name. For example, a queue alias can be used to reference a private queue or a URL-named queue in a distribution list.

The following is an example of the ADs path to a queue alias.

"LDAP://MyLdapServer,CN=MyQueueAlias,OU=Domain Controllers,DC=MyDomain,DC=MyComputer,DC=COM"  

queue GUID

A GUID queue identifier returned by Message Queuing when the queue is created.

queue handle

The handle returned when the queue is opened. The queue handle is primarily used when making API function calls to send messages, read messages, create cursors, and to close the queue.

Applications using COM components can access the queue handle through the MSMQQueue.Handle property.

queue identifier

A globally unique identifier (GUID) that uniquely identifies each public queue created by Message Queuing.

queue journal

An automatically created store for messages retrieved from the corresponding destination queue. This is also called a target journal.

queue name

An application-defined name, used to identify the queue, that is specified when the queue is created. Queue names longer than 124 Unicode characters are not supported. Using names longer than 64 Unicode characters for public queue names may cause a slight reduction in performance. Furthermore, they are not easily displayed in the directory service.

Queue names may consist of any character except "\" and ";". In addition, the last character in the name may not be the "$" character (Message Queuing reserves names ending with "$", for example, the token "PRIVATE$" is used to specify a private queue).

Queue names are case-insensitive. For example, "MyQueue" and "myQueue" are treated as the same name.

queue number

An eight-digit, hexadecimal number that identifies the private queue. It is generated by Message Queuing when the queue is created on the local computer.

To find the queue numbers of the private queues on the local computer, use Windows® Explorer to locate the queues in the …\MSMQ\Storage\Lqs folder (by default, %windir%\System32\MSMQ\Storage\Lqs in MSMQ 2.0 and later, and \Program Files\MSMQ\Storage\Lqs in MSMQ 1.0).

queue manager

A Message Queuing service responsible for delivering, receiving, authenticating, and routing messages, as well as maintaining information in the directory service.

See also directory service.