What is the Distributed Transaction Coordinator?

  • Probably a dumb question, but I'm having trouble understanding some basics about MSDTC. Google shows me lots of pages regarding troubleshooting, I just need a basic understanding of what it is and why it's used.

    I have a vendor requirement to turn it on and allow it thru the firewall, need to provide analysis of risk.

    Anyone have links they can provide that would give me an understanding of what this service does? I found some good stuff here, regarding security:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/madhuponduru/archive/2005/12/16/504925.aspx

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/florinlazar/archive/2004/06/18/159127.aspx

    but I'd really like to understand what a 'distributed transaction' is (beyond the basic definition found in BOL), how the service interacts with SQL Server and why it's used.

    TIA

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Sacramento SQL Server users group - http://sac.sqlpass.org
    Follow me on Twitter - @SQLDCH
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Yeah, well...The Dude abides.
  • Denny Cherry[/url] has a great little explanation of DTC.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 1 (of 1 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply