MSMQ from the plumber's mate

MSMQ and Silverlight - pardon?

2009-11-04T13:25:00Z

I was stalking the MSMQ topic on Twitter and found someone bemoaning the absence of MSMQ in Silverlight. This did cause me to reassess my (very limited) concept of what Silverlight actually was - a system for generating pretty graphical apps that competes with Adobe's Flash . Basically I found I had no idea what Silverlight could, or could not, do. According to the Microsoft site, "Silverlight helps you create rich web applications that run on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux. Welcome to a new level of...(read more)

Which editions have full 64-bit support in BizTalk?

2009-11-04T10:52:00Z

There are times when a table explains things so much better than just text. From BizTalk Server 64-Bit Support : Which versions of 64-bit Windows are supported? All versions of BizTalk Server 2006 support 32-bit execution on Windows Server 2003 x64 (including R2) and Windows XP Professional x64 by using WOW64. Additionally, BizTalk Server 2006 Enterprise, Developer, Branch, and Evaluation Editions support native 64-bit execution on Windows Server 2003 x64 (including R2) and Windows XP Professional...(read more)

Message Queuing Downlevel Client Support won't work with MSMQ error code 0xC00E1001

2009-11-03T16:26:00Z

To test out a problem for a customer, I had to add a Windows 2000 server and MSMQ 2.0 to one of my domains. The installation of the Active Directory Integration portion failed as it could not contact the domain controller. The DC was definitely running but the "Message Queuing Downlevel Client Support" service, although set to Automatic, was failing to start which meant MSMQ was deaf to any 2.0 clients. Event Type: Error Event Source: MSMQ Event Category: None Event ID: 2035 Date: 02/11/2009 Time:...(read more)

How much load does MSMQ put on Active Directory?

2009-11-03T14:13:00Z

I recently had a request from a customer who is planning on changing his MSMQ servers from workgroup mode to AD Integrated mode. They were looking for information and guidance on what kind of stress this would place on their AD Infrastructure. They have 20 queues, processing a total of 100,000 messages/day, with a 1MB average message size. I thought I would share my thoughts on this migration. The first point to cover is what MSMQ uses Active Directory for and how it doesn't have to relate to delivering...(read more)

TechEd Europe 2009 - Berlin here we come!

2009-11-03T11:05:00Z

Only a few days to go before I'll be helping out on the "Ask The Experts" booths in Berlin. If you are at the event then please pop by and say "hello" - you don't even need to have a question. :-) During my free time I’ll be catching up on the BizTalk (plus WCF and Azure) sessions or trying out the Hands-On Labs. The BizTalk sessions are as follows – ESB seems to be a subject that has been appearing a lot lately so INT306 should be worth at least an hour of your time. Tuesday morning INT205 Introducing...(read more)

Host Integration Server 2009 Management Pack for SCOM 2007 is now available in the Management Pack catalogue

2009-10-30T23:19:00Z

The Host Integration Server 2009 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007 provides the capabilities for Operations Manager to discover and monitor the availability of Host Integration Server 2009 server components and applications. It includes availability monitors for the SNA Gateway, Application Integration, Data Integration, and Message Integration features. In addition to health monitoring capabilities, this management pack includes rules to generate alerts for critical conditions and views...(read more)

MSMQ messages using HTTP just won't get delivered #17

2009-10-29T10:07:00Z

If you are having trouble sending transactional messages from a Windows XP client, bear in mind that the format of the Mapping file you have created is going to be different from that used in later operating systems. The differences are discussed in Message Queuing HTTP Deployment Scenarios for Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 and Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional and I've highlighted the particular content in a table as follows: Scenario 1: External Client Sending Transactional and Nontransactional...(read more)

Troubleshooting MSMQ over HTTP - nothing in the web server log files?

2009-10-21T16:22:00Z

If you are scratching your head because the files in the %windir%\system32\LogFiles\W3SVC1 directory have no entries for the incoming MSMQ messages then you need to tick two boxes: Open up Computer Management Navigate to: Services and Applications Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager Web Sites Default Web Site Right-click the web site and choose Properties On the Web Site tab, tick "Enable Logging" and press OK Right-click the MSMQ application underneath the web site and choose Properties...(read more)

Error 0xC00E0033 when you try and install MSMQ with Active Directory Integration

2009-10-21T11:47:00Z

As is the way, when I set up various tests with my trusty servers I bump into problems that haven't been documented before. The machines are used for many scenarios so have changed domain a few times and been upgraded every now and then. I know I should build fresh ones but the old virtual machies are handy... Most recent issue arose when I tried to get a Windows 2008 client to install MSMQ with Active Directory Integration. The client would install in workgroup mode fine but could not create the...(read more)

Setting storage quotas for multiple instances of MSMQ on a cluster

2009-10-20T17:19:00Z

Microsoft Message Queuing is capable of handling a large volume of messages at any one time but this ability is not limitless. The performance of any machine, no matter the specification, will degrade eventually and to prevent this it is recommended to make use of storage limits (also known as system quotas). Default values are usually 1GB but it is advisable to review your needs and raise (or lower) the value as appropriate. There are two ways of setting the storage limit, depending on how MSMQ...(read more)

Dependent clients still good past their sell-by dates

2009-10-16T14:37:00Z

Sharing an interesting support case that I resolved today. Dependent clients are not a common MSMQ installation type for a number of reasons. Mainly people don't know they exist but also support for them has been reduced in recent versions of MSMQ). An example scenario where dependent clients are useful could be as follows: A dangerous environment has computerised sensors which use MSMQ for data handling. Independent clients would not be a good choice as messages on the local hard disk could be lost...(read more)

How often does MSMQ crawl your forest?

2009-10-12T14:52:00Z

MSMQ comes in two parts: The moving of messages from one place to another The mapping of where messages can be sent For this blog post, I'm concentrating on the second. If you have Active Directory-integrated clients then you will have a lot of information stored on the domain controllers to make them work. For example, you may want to route messages from one side of your enterprise (or forest) to the other. This requires an understanding of the site topology and availability of routing servers between...(read more)

Today's favourite command line (#4 in a series)

2009-10-07T15:27:00Z

I'm currently struggling with some massive text files that contain error logging from MSMQ. Unfortunately a lot of the content is noise - entries that are of no use in the troubleshooting process but can't be switched off beforehand. I've just worked out that the command line utility FIND has what I need. For example, I know (for the problem I'm looking at) that I can ignore any log entry containing the error code "0xC00E001B" (timeout). The following will take the original log file and create a...(read more)

Use Windows security sparingly for MSMQ messages

2009-10-02T14:11:00Z

Looking for help on an (unrelated) MSMQ issue, I found this footnote to one of the posts on Peter Bromberg's blog which I thought was worth sharing: And here is a performance issue I didn't know before: Use Windows Security Sparingly MSMQ uses the standard Windows security model. You can configure queues to permit only senders and receivers with appropriate security privileges. The tradeoff for including Windows security in messaging is that it takes about 2.5 times as long to send the same messages....(read more)

"Insufficient Resources" update for troubleshooting MSMQ on Windows 2000 machines

2009-09-29T20:03:00Z

Back in September 2006 , I posted some copious instructions for troubleshooting " Insufficient Resources " problems. One thing I discovered this week is that the steps for measuring kernel memory will not work on Windows 2000. If you try to use WinDbg for local kernel debugging, you'll get an error saying: "The system does not support local kernel debugging. Local kernel debugging requires Windows XP, Administrative privileges, and is not supported by WOW64" The solution is to launch WinDbg using...(read more)