How to configure Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator on a Windows Server 2003 cluster

This article describes how to install the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) resource on a Windows Server 2003 cluster. Microsoft only supports running MS DTC on cluster nodes as a clustered resource. There are two options for installing MS DTC.

Before you use Cluster Administrator or Cluster.exe to create the MS DTC resource, you must enable Network DTC access. For more information on enabling DTC access, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Notes

• You should not put the MS DTC resource online before you follow the instructions in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) 817064 article to enable Network DTC Access.
  
  For Windows Server 2003-based computers that are running Service Pack 1 or a later service pack, do not follow the steps in the KB817064 article yet. First, you must complete the steps in the following "More information" section to add the MS DTC resource to the cluster. Then, you can follow the steps in the KB817064 article to complete the configuration.
• If this is a Majority Node Set (MNS) cluster, do not use the MNS resource as the storage device for MS DTC. MS DTC requires a storage resource, such as a physical disk.

To install the MS DTC, use one of the following methods.

Method 1: Use Cluster Administrator

This section documents how to install MS DTC through Cluster Administrator on all nodes in a cluster. You only have to install the MS DTC once in Cluster Administrator and MSDTC will be configured on all nodes in the cluster. You do not have to install MS DTC manually on each node.

1. Start Cluster Administrator. To do so:
   1. Click Start, and then point to All Programs
   2. In Administrative Tools, click Cluster Administrator.
2. Create a Group Named "MSDTC Group" that contains a Physical Disk, Network Name, and an IP Address. To do so:
   1. In the File Menu select New, and then click Group. The New Group Wizard is available.
   2. Follow the instructions that the New Group Wizard provides to create the MSDTC Group.
   Note When creating the MS DTC, moving the resource group into a group other than SQL Server or Exchange Server group is highly recommended. Creating the MS DTC resource in its own resource group and assigning it to a separate cluster group keeps the resource highly available.
   
   Note If you create the resource in the same cluster group, and if Resource A has failed over, Resource B will also failover. When you create the resouce in a different cluster group, even when Resource A has failed over, the resource B does not failover. Creating Cluster Resouces in the different cluster groups decreases unnecessary failovers of the Cluster Resouces.
   
   Important After the new group for MS DTC is created you must create the Network Name, IP address and Physical Disk for Msdtc. You may already have the physical disk resource that can be moved into the new group. After the MS DTC Group is created you must create the IP address resource, Network Name resource and the Physical disk resources. You may already have a physical disk resource that must be moved into the new MS DTC group.
3. Create an IP address resource:
   1. Right-click the MS DTC group, and then click New\Resource.
   2. Type a descriptive name such as MSDTC IP Address.
   3. In Resource Type, click IP Address, click to select the MSDTC Group check box, and then click Next.
   4. In Possible Owners, click Next unless you do not want MS DTC to run on a particular node.
   5. In Dependencies, do not add any dependencies, and then click Next.
   6. In TCP/IP Address Parameters, select the public network, type the unique static IP address for MS DTC, and then click Next.
   7. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created.
4. Create a Network Name resource:
   1. Right-click the MS DTC group, and then click New\Resource.
   2. Type a descriptive name such as MSDTC Network name.
   3. In Resource Type, click Network name, click to select the MSDTC Group check box, and then click Next.
   4. In Possible Owners, click Next unless you do not want MS DTC to run on a particular node.
   5. In Dependencies, add the MS DTC IP address as a resource dependency, and then click Next.
   6. In Name, type the network name for the MS DTC resource, and then click Next.
   7. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created.
5. Create a "Physical disk" resource.
   
   Note You may already have a physical disk resource created. If so, you will have to move this physical disk resource into the MS DTC group and go to the next step.
   1. Right-click the MS DTC group, and then click New\Resource.
   2. Type a descriptive name such as MSDTC Physical disk.
   3. In Resource Type, click Physical disk, click to select the MSDTC Group check box, and then click Next.
   4. In Possible Owners, click Next unless you do not want MS DTC to run on a particular node.
   5. In Dependencies, do not add any dependencies, and then click Next.
   6. In Disk Parameters, click the physical disk that you will use for MS DTC.
   7. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created.
6. Right-click the MS DTC Group, and then click New\Resource.
7. Type a name, such as MSDTC Resource.
8. In Resource Type, click to select Distributed Transaction Coordinator, verify that the MSDTC Group is selected, and then click Next.
9. In Possible Owners, click Next unless you do not want MS DTC to run on a particular node.
10. In Dependencies, press and hold the CTRL key on the keyboard, select both the Physical Disk and Network Name that you created in step 2, and then click the Add button.
11. Click Finish, and then click OK to confirm that the resource has been created.
    
    Note You should not put the MS DTC resource online before you follow the instructions in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 817064 to enable Network DTC Access.
12. Complete the steps that are documented in Knowledge Base article 817064.
13. Right-click the MSDTC Resource, and then click Bring Online.

Method 2: Use Cluster.exe

This section documents how to install MSDTC with Cluster.exe. Cluster.exe is optimal for scripting the installation and configuration of MSDTC on several clusters. You only have to configure MS DTC once on a cluster and all nodes in the cluster are updated.

1. Complete the steps that are documented in Knowledge Base article 817064.
   
   Note It is not necessary to enable network DTC access if the cluster is dedicated to Exchange Server.
2. At a command prompt, create a Group named "MSDTC Group" that contains a Physical Disk, Network Name, and an IP Address (or use an existing Group).
   
   Note You can script the creation of Groups and Resources with Cluster.exe. See "Help and Support" and review the Cluster Commands Overview section.
   
   Note We recommend that you create the MS DTC resource in its own resource group, such as you would for Microsoft SQL Server, where you can do so. To do this, follow step 2 to create this new group. If you cannot do this, or if you have a light-use DTC scenario such as a cluster dedicated to Exchange Server, proceed and use the Cluster group. On dedicated Exchange Server clusters, the MS DTC resource should be placed in the default cluster group.
3. Type the following command at a command prompt:
   cluster clustername res "MSDTC Resource" /CREATE /GROUP:"MSDTC Group" /TYPE:"Distributed Transaction Coordinator"
   This command creates the MS DTC Resource.
   
   Note If you are using an existing cluster group, substitute the name of the group with "MSDTC Group."
4. Run the following commands:
   cluster clustername res "MSDTC Resource" /ADDDEP:"Network Name"
   
   cluster clustername res "MSDTC Resource" /ADDDEP:"Disk Q:"
   where Network Name is the proper Network Name resource that you are using, and Disk Q is the physical disk that is located in the MSDTC Group.
   
   These commands add the proper dependencies.
5. Run the following command to bring MS DTC online:
   cluster clustername res "MSDTC Resource" /ON
   This will bring MSDTC online.

Note You cannot install MS DTC in a mixed-mode Cluster. All nodes in the Cluster must run Windows Server 2003 to use these methods. See "Help and Support" for more information.

For more information about how to create a base virtual server that includes information about how to create a Network Name and IP Address resource, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: