MSDTC exception

Question

I got the following exception in my application once,

Unable to get the address of the distributed transaction coordinator for the server, from the server. Is DTC enabled on the server?

Now I need to catch and handle the exception, but not able to reproduce the exception. could any one provide me inputs on how to reproduce the exception or provide the exception type/error code.

Since I didn't get the exception log, I was not able to get the exception type/error code.

EDIT

I tried the following scenarios,

1. Scenario - when the DTC service is stopped Error Message

   "MSDTC on server 'MyServ\SQL2005' is unavailable." -

2. Scenario - When the network access is disabled for the DTC in DATABASE SERVER Error Message

   "The partner transaction manager has disabled its support for remote/network transactions."

3. Scenario - When the network access is disabled for the DTC in the application server Error Message

   "The transaction manager has disabled its support for remote/network transactions."

4. Also tried by stopping the netbios in app server/webserver, then i get the following error,

   The MSDTC transaction manager was unable to pull the transaction from the source transaction manager due to communication problems. Possible causes are: a firewall is present and it doesn't have an exception for the MSDTC process, the two machines cannot find each other by their NetBIOS names, or the support for network transactions is not enabled for one of the two transaction managers.

Also tried by Stoppin the SQL server and MSDTC services. And then started the SQL server before starting the MSDTC. But couldn't reproduce the error message I required.

Privy

Have you tried disabling MSDTC on your test server? – Twocolor

yes, i tried disabling in the server, following are the observations,(i didn't get the actual error i required) 1. Scenario - when the DTC service is stopped Message = "MSDTC on server 'DORADO\SQL2005' is unavailable." - 2. Scenario - When the network access is disabled for the DTC in DATABASE SERVER Message = "The partner transaction manager has disabled its support for remote/network transactions." 3. Scenario - When the network access is disabled for the DTC in the application server Message = "The transaction manager has disabled its support for remote/network transactions." – Privy

+1 for trying to recreate the error – Sweeny

You could try and explicitly disable traffic into the server on the port that MSDTC uses in the firewall on that box - I forget its number at the moment but you can google it. – Twocolor

I tried by blocking the traffic on the port 135, no success yet... – Privy

Here are some more registry settings you can try turning on and off to reproduce the issue and narrow it down. technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759136(v=ws.10).aspx – Tyr

Answer 1

This can happen if the IP address of the server gets renewed during the processing of a transaction.

It can also happen if the DTC service is started after the SQL service but you have tried that so i am assuming this is not the case.

Source: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/windowstransactionsprogramming/thread/c13d076d-e20c-421c-821f-a26bbae97a6a/

Malatya