# Before you begin

Before using the JMS Producer step, be aware of the following conditions:

* You must be familiar with JMS messaging to use this step. Additionally, you must have a message broker, such as Apache ActiveMQ or IBM MQ, available before you configure this step.
* This step supports JMS 2.0 and requires [Apache ActiveMQ Artemis](https://activemq.apache.org/artemis/).
* If you need to use JMS 1.1 with ActiveMQ or Artemis, use the previous versions of the JMS Consumer and JMS Producer steps, also available in Pentaho version 8.1 and earlier.
* Place IBM MQ client JARs for the IBM MQ middleware in the following directories:
  * On the PDI client: `data-integration/system/karaf/deploy`
  * On the Pentaho Server: `server/pentaho-server/pentaho-solutions/system/karaf/deploy`\
    You need to locate the Websphere® MQ classes for JMS Java libraries from your IBM Websphere® MQ installation. You can also find these libraries in your [IBM Websphere MQ Client SupportPac](https://idaas.iam.ibm.com/idaas/mtfim/sps/authsvc?PolicyId=urn:ibm:security:authentication:asf:basicldapuser). The Websphere® MQ Java libraries version that the PDI plugin steps were built against is 9.0.0.3.The libraries that you must have available for distribution into the PDI JMS plugin are:
  * `ocom.ibm.mq.osgi.allclientprereqs_9.0.0.3.jar`
  * `ocom.ibm.mq.osgi.allclient_9.0.0.3.jar`
  * `ocom.ibm.mq.jmqi.jar`
  * `odhbcore.jar`\
    Because IBM licensing prevents us from distributing these libraries directly, you will need to add them to your PDI directories.
* Place JMS Library jars for the **ConnectionFactory** and other supporting classes in the following directories:
  * On the PDI client: `data-integration/system/karaf/deploy`
  * On the Pentaho Server: `server/pentaho-server/pentaho-solutions/system/karaf/deploy`