MSDTC Cluster, Is this really Neccesary

  • We are planning for a 4 node multi subnet SQL cluster. My question is do i need to have MSDTC clustered? what i i dont have MSDTC. Application using DB is web based and also we have Biztalk.

    Any help is highly appreciated:-)

  • No need to cluster, unless you're running Windows Server 2003. It was re-written in Server 2008 to avoid the need for the clustered aspect, although some people still prefer to cluster it anyway.

  • David Rich (11/12/2015)


    We are planning for a 4 node multi subnet SQL cluster. My question is do i need to have MSDTC clustered? what i i dont have MSDTC. Application using DB is web based and also we have Biztalk.

    Any help is highly appreciated:-)

    If you have BizTalk then remote\distributed transactions will be in use, you should have a clustered DTC resource in your cluster

    dwall 30994 (11/12/2015)


    No need to cluster, unless you're running Windows Server 2003. It was re-written in Server 2008 to avoid the need for the clustered aspect, although some people still prefer to cluster it anyway.

    No, this is not the case. DTC was rewritten in 2008 to allow multiple instances of clustered DTC, it does not remove the need for it.

    Also, the sql server 2008 installer no longer has a direct dependency on DTC whereas the 2005 installer would halt during the install of a clustered instance if no DTC was found. Now the 2008 installer simply warns DTC is not present

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    "Ya can't make an omelette without breaking just a few eggs" 😉

  • Perry Whittle (11/13/2015)


    David Rich (11/12/2015)


    We are planning for a 4 node multi subnet SQL cluster. My question is do i need to have MSDTC clustered? what i i dont have MSDTC. Application using DB is web based and also we have Biztalk.

    Any help is highly appreciated:-)

    If you have BizTalk then remote\distributed transactions will be in use, you should have a clustered DTC resource in your cluster

    dwall 30994 (11/12/2015)


    No need to cluster, unless you're running Windows Server 2003. It was re-written in Server 2008 to avoid the need for the clustered aspect, although some people still prefer to cluster it anyway.

    No, this is not the case. DTC was rewritten in 2008 to allow multiple instances of clustered DTC, it does not remove the need for it.

    Also, the sql server 2008 installer no longer has a direct dependency on DTC whereas the 2005 installer would halt during the install of a clustered instance if no DTC was found. Now the 2008 installer simply warns DTC is not present

    Thanks a lot Perry and Dwall.

    Yes Perry we have Biztalk servers which uses SQL Server .

  • MSDTC is an acronym for Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator. It is a separate Windows service which coordinates distributed transactions across SQL Server instances and only needed for transactions etc.

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