Trace Individual Transactions

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Applies To: Windows Server 2008

In the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC), you can trace individual transactions. This can be helpful in troubleshooting a failed or unresolved transaction. You can use this procedure to generate log data for an individual transaction.

Membership in Administrators, or equivalent, is the minimum required to complete this procedure. Review details about using the appropriate accounts and group memberships at Local and Domain Default Groups (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=83477).

To generate log data for an individual transaction

  1. Open Component Services.

    To open Component Services, click Start. In the search box, type dcomcnfg, and then press ENTER.

  2. In the console tree, click Transaction List for the selected DTC.

    Double-click Computers, double-click My Computer, double-click Distributed Transaction Coordinator, double-click the DTC that you want to configure, and then click Transaction List.

  3. In the details pane, right-click a transaction, and then click Dump to Trace File.

Tracing an individual transaction does not interrupt or affect background tracing. When you trace an individual transaction, the DTC creates a second binary log file with a maximum size of 1 megabyte (MB) for the trace data. This log file is located in %systemroot%\system32\msdtc\trace\txtrace.log.

Unlike the log file for background tracing, a log file that results from tracing individual transactions is not circular. That is, when the file reaches its maximum size, log file data is not replaced with new data. Users should try to prevent the log file from reaching its maximum size. By default, the DTC log file has a maximum size of 4 megabtyes, but you can adjust this or verify the current capacity on the Logging tab when you view the DTC properties in Component Services.

Because the log file is locked while a DTC tracing session for an individual transaction is in progress, you cannot delete it. When the tracing session finishes, the log file is unlocked and you can delete it.