Non-Default Decimal Separator Causes MTS Transaction Enlistment to Fail on Non-U.S. Platforms

When using the Microsoft Oracle ODBC driver, and when using a non-U.S. platform or when the decimal separator character is not a period ("."), enlistment in a distributed transaction may fail.

The Oracle ODBC driver header files have inadvertently defined both DBCINFO_FLGS_SPECIALDECIMAL and DBCINFO_FLGS_DISTRIBTX to have the same value (0x10).

When a connection is made to the data source, the connection attributes are set to include the DBCINFO_FLGS_SPECIALDECIMAL flag. Later, when attempting to enlist in a distributed transaction, the connection attributes are checked for DBCINFO_FLGS_DISTRIBTX, which comes back TRUE because the values are the same. The resulting attempt to enlist with DTC fails.

This circumstance is likely to occur most often when using the Microsoft Oracle ODBC driver under Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), and when using a non-U.S. platform (such as Japanese) where the decimal separator is not a period.

A supported fix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to computers that are experiencing this specific problem. This fix may receive additional testing. Therefore, if you are not severely affected by this problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Data Access Components Service Pack 2 that contains this hotfix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:NOTE: In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The typical support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

Manual Installation

1. Close or stop any applications or services that are using Msorcl32.dll, including Internet Information Server (IIS), Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS), Microsoft Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC), or any ADO or ODBC applications.
2. Download the hotfix (DupBitFlag.exe) into a temporary directory and run it to extract the following files:
   
   
   • Msorcl32.dll
   • Readme.txt
3. Locate and rename the current version of Msorcl32.dll, which should be in the \winnt\system32 folder for Windows NT machines, and in the \windows\system folder for Windows 9x machines.
4. Copy the hotfix version of Msorcl32.dll into the same location, and restart your services and applications.

Important Notice for Microsoft Windows 95/98 Users

If you are installing this fix onto a computer running Windows 95 or a computer with the original release of Windows 98, you may need to install the Windows 98 Migration DLL included with this fix. Please carefully read the Migrate_qfe.txt file that is included with the Migration.exe file, included with the download.