Today I’m returning to one of my favorite topics … no, not transformations, this time it’s all about Errors and Warnings, Causes and Solutions.
Today I encountered the following issue when I was trying to connect to a remote SQL Server database:
“The local MS DTC detected that the MS DTC on <server name> has the same unique identity as the local MS DTC. This means that the two MS DTC will not be able to communicate with each other. This problem typically occurs if one of the systems were cloned using unsupported cloning tools. MS DTC requires that the systems be cloned using supported cloning tools such as SYSPREP. Running ‘msdtc -uninstall’ and then ‘msdtc -install’ from the command prompt will fix the problem. Note: Running ‘msdtc -uninstall’ will result in the system losing all MS DTC configuration information.”
📝 One-Minute Brief
This post explains how to fix a Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MS DTC) error that occurs when connecting to a remote SQL Server, caused by duplicate MS DTC unique identifiers between servers.
Cause
The error message is quite lucid about the main reason of this error, this normally occurs when the machines are cloned: “…systems be cloned using supported cloning tools such as SYSPREP.”
Solution
This is one of those very few cases where the error message will give us the actual cause of the problem and the solution: Running ‘msdtc -uninstall and then ‘msdtc -install from the command prompt will fix the problem.
So, to solve this problem, you need to:
- Click Start, and then click Command Prompt.
- At the command prompt, type msdtc -uninstall, and then press ENTER.
- At the command prompt, type msdtc -install, and then press ENTER.
Note: To perform this procedure, you must have membership in Administrators, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.
However, after I resolved this condition by uninstalling and then reinstalling the Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator service (MSDTC), when I accessed the BizTalk Administration Console and try to refresh (F5) the Group Hub Page, I got this additional error:
“The Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC) may not be configured correctly. Ensure that the MSDTC service is running and DTC network access is allowed on the BizTalk, SQL and SSO Master servers. For more information, see “MSDTC Configuration settings required for BizTalk Server” in the BizTalk Server Help.”

I tried to restart the MSDTC service or other services like the Enterprise Single Sign-On Service without any success… to avoid spending more time on this issue, and because this was a DEV standalone machine, I decided to restart the server… and that did the trick. After the restart, everything was working without any problem.
Hope you find this helpful! If you liked the content or found it useful and would like to support me in writing more, consider buying (or helping to buy) a Star Wars Lego set for my son.
