WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration MMC Snap-in

The WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration MMC Snap-in is used to configure a portion of the WS-AtomicTransaction settings on both local and remote machines.

Remarks

If you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, the MMC snap-in can be found by navigating to Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Component Services/, right-clicking My Computer, and selecting Properties. This is the same location where you can configure the MSDTC. Options available for configuration are grouped under the WS-AT tab.

If you are running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, MMC snap-in can be found by clicking the Start button, and typing in dcomcnfg.exe in the Search box. When the MMC is opened, navigate to the My Computer\Distributed Transaction Coordinator\Local DTC node, right click and select Properties. Options available for configuration are grouped under the WS-AT tab.

The previous steps are used to launch the snap-in for configuring a local machine. If you want to configure a remote machine, you should locate the remote machine's name in Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Component Services/, and perform similar steps if you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003. If you are running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008, follow the previous steps for Vista and Windows Server 2008, but use the Distributed Transaction Coordinator\Local DTC node under the remote computer's node.

To use the user interface provided by the tool, you have to register the WsatUI.dll file, which is located at the following path,

%PROGRAMFILES%\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin\WsatUI.dll

The registration can be done by the following command.

regasm.exe /codebase WsatUI.dll

You can use this tool to modify the basic WS-AtomicTransaction settings. For example, you can enable and disable the WS-AtomicTransaction protocol support, configure the HTTP ports for WS-AT, bind an SSL Certificate to the HTTP port, configure certificates by specifying certificate subject names, select the Tracing mode and set default and maximum timeouts.

If you must configure WS-AtomicTransaction support on the local machine only, you can use the command line version of this tool. For more information about the command line tool, see the WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration Utility (wsatConfig.exe) topic.

You should be aware that both the MMC Snap-in and the command-line tool do not support configuring all WS-AT settings. These settings can be edited only by modifying the registry directly. For more information about these registry settings, see Configuring WS-Atomic Transaction Support.

User Interface Description

Enable WS-Atomic Transaction Network Support:

Toggling this checkbox enables or disables all the GUI components of this snap-in.

Before you check this box, you should make sure that Network DTC Access is enabled with inbound or outbound communication, or both. This value can be verified in the Security Tab of the MSDTC snap-in.

Network Group Box

You can specify the HTTPS port and additional security settings such as SSL encryption in the Network group. This group is disabled (grayed out) if DTC Network Transactions are not enabled.

HTTPS Port

This is the value of the HTTPS port used for WS-AT. The value must be a number in the range 1-65535 (as to represent a valid port). Changing the HTTP Port modifies the HTTP Service Configuration, which means that the previously used WS-AT Service Address is released, and a new WS-AT Service Address is registered based on the new port. In addition, the newly selected port is encrypted with the currently selected certificate for SSL Encryption.

If you enable the firewall after configuring WS-AT, you must run this tool again and supply the port number using this parameter. If you disable the firewall after configuring, WS-AT continues to work without additional input.

Endpoint Certificate

Clicking the Select button displays a list with the currently available certificates on the Local Machine, allowing the user to select the certificate that can be used for SSL encryption. The certificates must have a private key. Otherwise, you receive an error message.

Authorized Accounts

Clicking the Select button invokes the Windows Access Control List editor, where you can specify the user or group that can participate in WS-Atomic transactions by checking the Allow or Deny box in the Participate permission group.

Authorized Certificates

Clicking the Select button displays a list of currently available certificates on the LocalMachine. You can then select which certificate identities are allowed to participate in WS-Atomic transactions.

Timeout Group Box

The Timeout group box allows you to specify the default and maximum timeout for a WS-Atomic transaction. A valid value for outgoing timeout is between 1 and 3600. A valid value for incoming timeout is between 0 and 3600.

Tracing and Logging Group Box

The Tracing and Logging group Box allows you to configure the desired tracing and logging level.

Clicking the Options button invokes a page where you can specify additional settings.

The Trace Level combination box allows you to choose from any valid value of the TraceLevel enumeration. You can also use the checkboxes to specify if you want to perform activity tracing, activity propagation or collect personal identifiable information.

You can also specify logging sessions in the Logging Session group box.

For more information about tracing and logging, see Administration and Diagnostics.

See Also

Reference

WS-AtomicTransaction Configuration Utility (wsatConfig.exe)

Concepts

Configuring WS-Atomic Transaction Support
Administration and Diagnostics