1.1 Glossary

This document uses the following terms:

administration queue: A messaging queue that receives Message Queuing (MSMQ) system-generated acknowledgment messages. An administration queue is available to MSMQ applications for checking message status.

application: A participant that is responsible for beginning, propagating, and completing an atomic transaction. An application communicates with a transaction manager in order to begin and complete transactions. An application communicates with a transaction manager in order to marshal transactions to and from other applications. An application also communicates in application-specific ways with a resource manager in order to submit requests for work on resources.

authentication level: A numeric value indicating the level of authentication or message protection that remote procedure call (RPC) will apply to a specific message exchange. For more information, see [C706] section 13.1.2.1 and [MS-RPCE].

client: A computer on which the remote procedure call (RPC) client is executing.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): A high-precision atomic time standard that approximately tracks Universal Time (UT). It is the basis for legal, civil time all over the Earth. Time zones around the world are expressed as positive and negative offsets from UTC. In this role, it is also referred to as Zulu time (Z) and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In these specifications, all references to UTC refer to the time at UTC-0 (or GMT).

cryptographic service provider (CSP): A software module that implements cryptographic functions for calling applications that generates digital signatures. Multiple CSPs can be installed. A CSP is identified by a name represented by a NULL-terminated Unicode string.

cursor: A data structure providing sequential access over a message queue. A cursor has a current pointer that lies between the head and tail pointer of the queue. The pointer can be moved forward or backward through an operation on the cursor (Next). A message at the current pointer can be accessed through a nondestructive read (Peek) operation or a destructive read (Receive) operation.

dead-letter queue: A queue that contains messages that were sent from a host with a request for negative source journaling and that could not be delivered. Message Queuing provides a transactional dead-letter queue and a non-transactional dead-letter queue.

directory: The database that stores information about objects such as users, groups, computers, printers, and the directory service that makes this information available to users and applications.

dynamic endpoint: A network-specific server address that is requested and assigned at run time. For more information, see [C706].

endpoint: A network-specific address of a remote procedure call (RPC) server process for remote procedure calls. The actual name and type of the endpoint depends on the RPC protocol sequence that is being used. For example, for RPC over TCP (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_ip_tcp), an endpoint might be TCP port 1025. For RPC over Server Message Block (RPC Protocol Sequence ncacn_np), an endpoint might be the name of a named pipe. For more information, see [C706].

external transaction: An atomic transaction context dispensed by a transaction coordinator other than an MSMQ queue manager, such as by a distributed transaction coordinator (DTC), and used by an MSMQ queue manager to coordinate its state changes with state changes in other resource managers. For more information on transactions, see [MS-DTCO].

foreign queue: A messaging queue that resides on a computer that does not run an MSMQ messaging application.

format name: A name that is used to reference a queue when making calls to API functions.

globally unique identifier (GUID): A term used interchangeably with universally unique identifier (UUID) in Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the value. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] have to be used for generating the GUID. See also universally unique identifier (UUID).

Interface Definition Language (IDL): The International Standards Organization (ISO) standard language for specifying the interface for remote procedure calls. For more information, see [C706] section 4.

internal transaction: An atomic transaction context dispensed by an MSMQ Queue Manager instance that can be used to atomically commit or roll back state changes within that MSMQ Queue Manager. The dispensing MSMQ Queue Manager instance is the transaction coordinator and is also the only resource manager participant supported by the transaction context. An internal transaction cannot, therefore, be used to coordinate state changes with other resource managers, including other MSMQ Queue Manager instances.

local queue: For a queue manager, a queue hosted by the queue manager itself. For an application, a queue hosted by the queue manager with which the application communicates.

message: A data structure representing a unit of data transfer between distributed applications. A message has message properties, which can include message header properties, a message body property, and message trailer properties.

message queuing: A communications service that provides asynchronous and reliable message passing between distributed client applications. In message queuing, clients send messages to message queues and consume messages from message queues. The message queues provide persistence of the messages, which enables the sending and receiving client applications to operate asynchronously from each other.

Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ): A communications service that provides asynchronous and reliable message passing between distributed applications. In Message Queuing, applications send messages to queues and consume messages from queues. The queues provide persistence of the messages, enabling the sending and receiving applications to operate asynchronously from one another.

MSMQ 1.0 digital signature: A digital signature based on a hash of the MSMQ 1.0 Digital Signature Properties section in [MS-MQMQ]. This signature type is supported by all versions of Message Queuing.

MSMQ 2.0 digital signature: A digital signature that is more robust than the MSMQ 1.0 digital signature and is based on a hash of the MSMQ 2.0 Digital Signature Properties section in [MS-MQMQ]. This signature type is not supported by MSMQ version 1.

MSMQ 3.0 digital signature: A digital signature that is used only for messages sent to distribution lists or multiple-element format names and is based on a hash of the MSMQ 3.0 Digital Signature Properties section in [MS-MQMQ]. This signature type is not supported by MSMQ version 1 nor MSMQ version 2.

MSMQ queue manager: An MSMQ service hosted on a machine that provides queued messaging services. Queue managers manage queues deployed on the local computer and provide asynchronous transfer of messages to queues located on other computers. A queue manager is identified by a globally unique identifier (GUID).

MSMQ supporting server: A role played by an MSMQ queue manager. An MSMQ supporting server supports applications to send and receive messages through the Message Queuing (MSMQ): Queue Manager Client Protocol [MS-MQMP].

Network Data Representation (NDR): A specification that defines a mapping from Interface Definition Language (IDL) data types onto octet streams. NDR also refers to the runtime environment that implements the mapping facilities (for example, data provided to NDR). For more information, see [MS-RPCE] and [C706] section 14.

opnum: An operation number or numeric identifier that is used to identify a specific remote procedure call (RPC) method or a method in an interface. For more information, see [C706] section 12.5.2.12 or [MS-RPCE].

order queue: A messaging queue that is used to monitor the arrival order of messages that are sent as part of a transaction.

outgoing queue: A temporary internal queue that holds messages for a remote destination queue. The path name of an outgoing queue is identical to the path name of the corresponding destination queue. An outgoing queue is distinguished from its corresponding destination queue by the fact that the outgoing queue is located on the sending computer. The format name of an outgoing queue is identical to the format name used by the messages to reference the destination queue. Messages that reference the destination queue using a different format name are placed in a different outgoing queue.

path name: The name of the receiving computer where the messages for a particular  queue are stored, and an optional PRIVATE$ key word indicating whether the queue is private, followed by the name of the queue. Path names can also refer to subqueues; for more information, see [MS-MQMQ] section 2.1.

private queue: An application-defined message queue that is not registered in the MSMQ Directory Service. A private queue is deployed on a particular queue manager.

queue: An object that holds 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.

queue journal: A queue that contains copies of the messages sent from a host when positive source journaling is requested.

queue manager (QM): A message queuing service that manages queues deployed on a computer. A queue manager can also provide asynchronous transfer of messages to queues deployed on other queue managers.

queue property: A data structure that contains a property identifier and a value, and is associated with a message queue.

remote procedure call (RPC): A communication protocol used primarily between client and server. The term has three definitions that are often used interchangeably: a runtime environment providing for communication facilities between computers (the RPC runtime); a set of request-and-response message exchanges between computers (the RPC exchange); and the single message from an RPC exchange (the RPC message).  For more information, see [C706].

remote queue: For a queue manager, a queue that is hosted by a remote queue manager. For an application, a queue hosted by a queue manager other than the one with which the application communicates.

remote read: The act of reading (receiving) messages from a remote queue.

resource manager (RM): The participant that is responsible for coordinating the state of a resource with the outcome of atomic transactions. For a specified transaction, a resource manager enlists with exactly one transaction manager to vote on that transaction outcome and to obtain the final outcome. A resource manager is either durable or volatile, depending on its resource.

RPC protocol sequence: A character string that represents a valid combination of a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol, a network layer protocol, and a transport layer protocol, as described in [C706] and [MS-RPCE].

server: A computer on which the remote procedure call (RPC) server is executing.

session: An authenticated communication channel between the client and server correlating a group of messages into a conversation.

supporting server: See MSMQ supporting server.

transaction: A unit of interaction that guarantees the ACID properties— atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability—as specified by the MSDTC Connection Manager: OleTx Transaction Protocol ([MS-DTCO])

transaction manager: The party that is responsible for managing and distributing the outcome of atomic transactions. A transaction manager is either a root transaction manager or a subordinate transaction manager for a specified transaction.

unit of work: A set of individual operations that MSMQ has to successfully complete before any of the individual MSMQ operations can be considered complete.

universally unique identifier (UUID): A 128-bit value. UUIDs can be used for multiple purposes, from tagging objects with an extremely short lifetime, to reliably identifying very persistent objects in cross-process communication such as client and server interfaces, manager entry-point vectors, and RPC objects. UUIDs are highly likely to be unique. UUIDs are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) and these terms are used interchangeably in the Microsoft protocol technical documents (TDs). Interchanging the usage of these terms does not imply or require a specific algorithm or mechanism to generate the UUID. Specifically, the use of this term does not imply or require that the algorithms described in [RFC4122] or [C706] has to be used for generating the UUID.

XML digital signature: A digital signature that is designed for use in XML operations.

MAY, SHOULD, MUST, SHOULD NOT, MUST NOT: These terms (in all caps) are used as defined in [RFC2119]. All statements of optional behavior use either MAY, SHOULD, or SHOULD NOT.