Question

How can I use Microsoft's DTCPing tool to verify that the Distributed Transaction Coordinator is communicating correctly?

 

Answer

DTCPing is run between two machines at a time.  If your environment has more than 2 servers, you will need to perform this process multiple times on different servers to test all the network segments.

Machine A and B:

  1. Download DTCPing from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=2868
  2. Run the DTCPing download and tell it where to Unzip its contents
  3. Start "Dtcping.exe" from the unzipped contents

Machine A:

  1. Enter Machine B's netBIOS name into the "Remote Server Name" field
  2. Click "Ping"
  3. If you receive a message similar to the following, DTCPing was successful in this direction and you may proceed

Machine B:

  1. Enter Machine A's netBIOS name into the "Remote Server Name" field
  2. Click "Ping"
  3. If you receive a message similar to the following, DTCPing was successful on this network sergment

 

Overview

Microsoft's Distributed Transaction Coordinator must be able to successfully communicate between all servers for Summation, AD eDiscovery, FTK Central, and FTK Plus to function correctly.