Understanding MSDTC in Windows

Question

To use transaction construct(as follows) in Subsonic, MSDTC needs to be running on Windows machine. Right?

        using (TransactionScope ts = new TransactionScope())
        {
            using (SharedDbConnectionScope sharedConnectionScope = new SharedDbConnectionScope())
            {
                // update table 1
                // update table 2

                // ts.commit here

            }
        }

1. Is MS-DTC a default service on Windows systems(XP, Vista, Windows 7, Servers etc)?
2. If it is not enabled, how can I make sure it gets enabled during the installation process of my application?

Answer 1

MSDTC should come installed with windows. If it's not it can be installed with the following command:

msdtc -install

You can configure the MSDTC service using sc.exe. Set the service to start automatically and start the service:

sc config msdtc start= auto
sc start msdtc

Note you will need administrator privilege to perform the above.

Answer 2

I use:

private bool InitMsdtc()
{
    System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController control = new System.ServiceProcess.ServiceController("MSDTC");
    if (control.Status == System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped)
        control.Start();
    else if (control.Status == System.ServiceProcess.ServiceControllerStatus.Paused)
        control.Continue();
    return true;
}