How to use DTCPing and DTCTester? Difference between “DTCTester and DTCPing”. “How DTCPing and DTCTester work”

 The basic difference between DTCPing and DTCTester is as follows:

1. DTCPing need to be started on both the machines for testing communication between them.

2. You don’t need to give password in DTCPing whereas you type password on DTCTester. The password is visible to others on DTCTester so be careful.

3. You need to configure ODBC connection while using DTCTester whereas there is no need to configure ODBC connection while using DTCTester.

4) DTC Ping tests connectivity issues due to firewall and RPC, where as DTCTester can even connect to the DTC and commit transactions to test its working. So DTCTester can also find configuration and Authentication problems

DTCPing Download Link: http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/8/8/b8841bfc-8bd3-4fea-a5f5-06e1f162bd9a/dtctest.exe

DTCTester Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2868 

How to run DTCPing:

1. Login to m\c A and run DTCPing.exe.

2. Login to m\c B and run DTCPing.exe.

Screen Shot:1

3. On m\c A, type the NetBIOS name of m\c B, and then click Ping.

4. On m\c B, type the NetBIOS name of m\c A, and then click Ping.

5. The log is created and the file name is displayed on the DTCPing screen as follows:

The DTCPing performs following functions:

1. Tests name resolution.

2. Tests Remote Procedure Call (RPC) communication.

3. Detects and display all the registry key settings touched by MS DTC.

4. DTCPing Tests DTC communication between the hosts.

5. Logs the connection communication in the log file.

How to use DTCTester:

This is explained as follows using screenshots. To use DTCTester you need to configure ODBC and then run a simple command. Go through the screenshots step by step.

1.         Screen Shot:1

2.        User 'User DSN' click Add and then select SQL Server- Finish.

Screen Shot:2

3.        Type in a Name for the DSN, Tuition for Example.. a description

             Now, most importent: Type in your SQL Server name / Instance name

In the scrren shot below, TuitionSQL is my SQL server name and SQL2008 is the instance name. 
Click here for SQL Script that will display Instance name.

Screen Shot:3

4.       Use Below mentioned settings if you are using Windows Authentication in SQL, else you can set it to SQL authentication.

        Screen Shot:4

5.        Screen Shot:5

6.         Screen Shot:6

7.        Once the ODBC connection is configured and tested, you can use DTCTester tool for testing the connectivity to MSDTC.

Command: dtctester <dsn name><user name><password>

If you are extracting DTCTester tool to C:\Dtc folder, and using SQL authentication with SA with password Welcome@123 , you need to run the following command

C:\Documents and Settings>c:

C:\Documents and Settings>cd\

C:\>cd Dtc

C:\Dtc> dtctester Tution sa Welcome@123

Screen Shot:7