MSDTC and SQL Server on a cluster - Microsoft SQL Server Support Blog - Site Home

Through this blog, we will try to address commonly asked questions about MSDTC and SQL Server on a cluster. All this information is available in BOL and KB articles, but we will summarize it here for your convenience.

Do I need to install MSDTC on my SQL Server 2005 cluster?
Before installing SQL Server 2005 on a failover cluster, Microsoft strongly recommends that you install and configure Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) on Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Failure to cluster MS DTC will not block SQL Server 2005 Setup, but SQL Server 2005 application functionality may be affected if MS DTC is not properly configured.
What is MSDTC used for?
SQL Server 2005 requires MS DTC in the cluster for distributed queries and two-phase commit transactions, as well as for some replication functionality.
Should MSDTC be a clustered resource?
Microsoft only supports running MSDTC on cluster nodes as a clustered resource. We do not recommend or support running MSDTC in stand-alone mode on a cluster. Using MSDTC as a non-clustered resource on a Windows cluster is problematic. This configuration is problematic because transactions could be orphaned and you may experience data corruption if a cluster failover occurs.
Should MSDTC be in its own resource group?
To help ensure availability between multiple clustered applications, Microsoft highly recommends that the MS DTC have its own resource group and resources. If MS DTC cannot be configured to have its own resource group, the recommended alternate choice is to use the Cluster group and Quorum drive.