3.6.0 MxDB for SQL Server Installation and Administration Guide (5697-7088, December 2007)

Appendix B: Hosting Configurations for MS DTC 135

MxDB for SQL Server utilizes the PSFS cluster filesystem, in which all

nodes in the cluster can simultaneously read/write to a file on the shared

disk. On failover, the backup node simply starts up SQL Server and

mounts the data on the shared disk. There is relatively little cost in

transition or data movement.

Whether SQL Server is running as stand-alone or clustered, MS DTC is

needed if SQL Server (or Virtual SQL Server) needs to maintain a

transaction spanning across multiple data sources. Although, as shown in

the following section, MxDB for SQL Server can transparently virtualize

DTC service on the active node (this option is enabled by checking the

MSDTC checkbox), only one DTC-enabled Virtual SQL Server can be

active on a node. Other DTC-enabled Virtual SQL Servers will not be able

to fail over to this node.

Set Up Local MS DTC-Enabled Virtual SQL

Servers

This configuration allows the host for the Virtual SQL Server to utilize the

local DTC service for distributed transactions. The DTC service is

attached to the Virtual SQL Server engine and will fail accordingly.