Invalid 997 functional acknowledgements are generated in Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2

In a Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006 R2 environment, the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) receive pipeline may generate invalid 997 functional acknowledgements. When this problem occurs, 97 XML messages are stuck in a running state after retry intervals because BizTalk cannot suspend the document.
Additionally, you may receive some Application event logs that resemble the following:

BizTalk Server 2006 R2 generates a 997 functional acknowledgement, and it reuses the values from some fields of the incoming document. If these fields contain invalid characters or spaces, the 997 functional acknowledgement that reuses these characters may be constructed as invalid.

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language.

Prerequisites

You must have BizTalk Server 2006 R2 installed to apply this hotfix.

Restart requirement

You do not have to restart the computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace a previously released hotfix.

Post-installation step

To make sure that the correct assembly is deployed appropriately to the target server after you apply this hotfix, please open a Command Prompt window and execute the following command:

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time item in Control Panel.Note Because of file dependencies, the most recent hotfix that contains these files may also contain additional files.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. Start the BizTalk Server Administration console.
2. Edit the EDI properties of the affected BizTalk parties.
3. In the navigation pane under the X12 Properties section and the Party as Interchange Receiver section, select ACK Processing and Validation Settings.
4. In the right side pane, enable the Allow leading and trailing zeros and spaces check box.
5. Restart all related BizTalk host instances.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

For more information about 997 functional acknowledgements, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

For more information about software update terminology, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: