Timer Processing Stops When Using Windows Server 2003 or XP

The information in this article applies to product: e-Work 6 and later

Issue

  • Timer processing stops for no apparent reason. No errors are logged in the Windows event log or the designer log.
  • The RDBMS used is SQL Server, which is located on a separate machine from the e-Work engine. The OS for the engine or database server is Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP.

Resolution

  • This issue may be caused by problems in the Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) configuration.
    1. In order to determine whether this is the case, run the Microsoft DTCTester tool available here: How to Use DTCTester tool.
    2. Download and install the tool on the engine machine.
    3. Run DTCTester as per the instructions. Be sure to specify the same DSN, user id, and password that the engine is using. These can be found in the registry here: HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Metastorm\\e-Work\\Engine\\Database\\Connection. Check the test output against what the article says, to see whether the tool completed successfully or not.
  • If tests with the DTCTester tool yield errors, this indicates problems with the DTC configuration. The Microsoft article lists possible reasons for this.
  • When using Windows Server 2003, check the following:
    1. Ensure that network DTC access is enabled on both the engine and database servers. Step one of the Microsft article HOWTO: Enable DTC Between Web Servers and SQL Servers Running Windows Server 2003 describes how to do this.
    2. It may be necessary to amend the DTC security configuration. The Microsoft article "XACT_E_NOENLIST" error message in DTC and SQL Server describes where these settings may be changed.
    3. The DTCPing tool may be helpful to assist with further diagnosis. It can be found here: How To Troubleshoot MS DTC Firewall Issues
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