Abstract: To differentiate between alias instances of a resource, rank values are assigned to message queues or their respective queue managers to enable differentiation between a highest-ranked message storage location and its lower-ranked alias. This allows a message routing process to make an appropriate selection between a target message queue and an alias for the queue, avoiding the potential problem of messages being delayed by repeated passing between alias queues of gateway queue managers. The potential problem may arise where alias queues are provided for workload sharing and the routing process does not inherently differentiate between a target queue, an alias, and a backup. The solution is to define which queues can be selected on rank values assigned to the queues or their queue managers, and set selection preferences as priority attribute values assigned to the queues or queue managers.