Introduction to Administering Distributed Transactions

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

This guide explains how to administer distributed transactions. These administration activities are part of the operations phase of the information technology (IT) life cycle.

If you are not familiar with this guide, review the following sections of this introduction.

When to use this guide

Use this guide when:

  • You need to configure the Distributed Transaction Coordinator service (MSDTC).

  • You need to administer certain aspects of distributed transactions, such as security or support for a Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) resource on a failover cluster.

  • You need to monitor or trace distributed transactions activity in your deployment.

This guide assumes a basic understanding of what distributed transactions are, how they work, and why your organization uses them. It also assumes a thorough understanding of how distributed transactions are deployed and managed in your organization. This includes an understanding of the mechanisms that your organization uses to configure and manage distributed transactions settings.

This guide includes information that is relevant to different roles in an IT organization, including IT operations managers, administrators, and operators. This information includes management-level information about distributed transactions and administrator-level information about the IT processes that are required to operate it.

Although the procedures provide operator guidance from start to finish, operators must have a basic proficiency with Microsoft Management Console (MMC) and MMC snap-ins. Operators must also know how to start administrative programs and access the command line. If operators are not familiar with distributed transactions, it might be necessary for IT planners, managers, or administrators to review the relevant operations in this guide and provide the operators with the parameters or data that they must enter when they perform the operations.

How to use this guide

This guide includes, but is not limited to, the following types of topics:

If you are an IT manager who is delegating tasks to operators in your organization:

  • Read through the objectives and tasks to determine how to delegate permissions.

  • Determine whether you need to install tools before operators perform the procedures for each task. Before you assign tasks to individual operators, ensure that all the tools are installed where operators can use them.

  • When necessary, create "tear sheets" for each task that operators perform in your organization. Cut and paste the task and its related procedures into a separate document. Then, you can either print this document or store it online