Manage Distributed Transactions

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012

The Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) service coordinates transactions that update transaction-protected resources, such as databases, message queues, file systems, and so on. These transaction-protected resources may be contained on a single system or distributed across a network of systems.

By using the Component Services snap-in, you can configure your computers to support local, remote, and distributed transactions. You can also monitor and manage all transactions with Component Services.

Transaction management

Component Services provides several features that administrators can use to perform basic administration of the DTC transaction manager on a local computer and on remote systems.

When you administer transactions, first configure which DTC will coordinate transactions for applications that are running on your computer. By default, all transactions on a computer are coordinated by the computer’s local DTC transaction manager. You can also configure your computer to direct all transaction-coordination traffic to the DTC transaction manager of a remote computer.

The next major task in administering transactions is to configure the DTC that is coordinating your transactions. You can use Component Services to administer the local DTC transaction manager or the transaction manager on a remote computer. You can access the properties sheet of the local DTC in the console tree of the Component Services snap-in, as follows:

Component Services\Computers\ Computer Name \Distributed Transaction Coordinator

Configuration tasks include starting and stopping tracing, changing log size and location, and changing various security settings for the DTC transaction manager.

Component Services also provides Transaction List and Transaction Statistics utilities for the DTC transaction manager. You can use these utilities to view and change the status of transactions that are governed by the DTC transaction manager.

For information about DTC tasks that are not included here, see the DTC Administration Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=66713).