Distributed & Global Transaction

[great veera]

Can anyone throw light on the difference between these two.
TIA
Veer

[Byron Estes]

Sure...
You can't compare them, because they aren't competing.
A distributed transaction is one that takes place over multiple containers. These containers may reside on the same or different hosts (...some people maintain that it's not distributed unless it crosses hosts). For example, if you application server is running on one box, your dbms is on a second box and your "MOM" is running on a third box and they need to participate in a single transaction, then it is distributed.
A global transactions are the solution. They are based off a standard developed by OpenGroup (www.opengroup.org) that created interface contracts. The contract between global trasactions and the transaction manager is called the TX interface, while the contract between transaction managers and the resource managers is called the XA interface.
These contracts (formal communication) are what allow these different containers/hosts to participate in a single transaction so they can all commit or rollback as a single entity even though they run in differenct VM's, on different hosts and under different resource managers.
Hope that helps,
Byron Estes

[great veera]

Thanks a lot byron.
I have a follow up question in that regard.
Can i control programmatically the commit or rollback of a global transaction if the scenario is like below,
-For example Iplanet Application Server on one box where one application is deployed and up and running.Another box having weblogic application server where i've another application deployed & running.DB in another box.
TIA
Veer

[Byron Estes]

Originally posted by great veera:
Thanks a lot byron.
I have a follow up question in that regard.
Can i control programmatically the commit or rollback of a global transaction if the scenario is like below,
-For example Iplanet Application Server on one box where one application is deployed and up and running.Another box having weblogic application server where i've another application deployed & running.DB in another box.
TIA
Veer

You bet, as long as they implement the XA interface. Each product may support global transactions to varying degrees (...some may not support them at all). You really need to look at the specification of the software that you want to participate in the global transaction to be sure. This is an enterprise level functionality and is usually only implemented in enterprise level software/middleware, so don't be suprised if some newer or less expensive products don't support it or don't support it to the same degree.
Regards,
Byron Estes