Troubleshooting in BAM Alerts Configuration

Q01. I cannot configure BAM Alerts because the page is disabled. Why?
A01. One of the following dependencies is missing on the local machine:
• Aggregation Event Provider: This is installed with the “Server Runtime”, “Administration Tools”, “Developer Tools and SDK”, and “BAM Alert Provider for SQL Notification Services” BizTalk features.
• Engine Components of SQL NS 2000 and .NET Framework 1.1
• Engine Components of SQL NS 2005

Q02. Why is the BAM Alerts page disabled even though I have configured BAM Alerts for the group?
A02. One of the following dependencies is missing:
• Aggregation Event Provider: This is installed on the local machine with the “Server Runtime”, “Administration Tools”, “Developer Tools and SDK”, and “BAM Alert Provider for SQL Notification Services” BizTalk features.
• If the “SQL Server for Alerts Databases” was configured for SQL 2000: Engine Components of SQL NS 2000 and .Net Framework 1.1 on the local machine; DB Components of SQL NS 2000 on the SQL server’s machine
• If the “SQL Server for Alerts Databases” was configured for SQL 2005: Engine Components of SQL NS 2005

Q03. What does the error message “Change the BAM Notification Services User directly with nscontrol.exe.” mean?
A03. Bm.exe and BAM Configuration do not support changing the BAM Notification Services User’s domain/user name. Instead, use nscontrol.exe, which is provided by Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services. It is commonly found in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services\v<version number>\Bin.

Q04. What does the warning “Change the password of the BAM Notification Services User directly with nscontrol.exe.” mean?
A04. Bm.exe and BAM Configuration do not support changing the password of the BAM Notification Services User. Instead, use nscontrol.exe, which is provided by Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services. It is commonly found in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services\v<version number>\Bin.

Q05. I un-configured BizTalk using the “configuration.exe /u” command, but the NS$BAMAlerts service is left behind. Why?
A05. BAM Alerts can only be disabled by deselecting the “Enable SQL Notification Services for BAM alerts” checkbox and then clicking “Apply Configuration”. This behavior is necessary because BAM Alerts is a group-level feature and can be shared across multiple groups. The “Actions > Unconfigure Features” menu item and “configuration.exe /u” command allow BizTalk to be un-configured on a machine without un-configuring BAM Alerts for the entire group or for other groups using the same BAM feature. See A03 for removing the NS$BAMAlerts service manually.

Q06. How do I remove the NS$BAMAlerts service manually?
A06. Open a command window and navigate to the Microsoft SQL Server Notifications Services bin directory, e.g. “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Notification Services\v<version>\Bin”. Type
net stop NS$BAMAlerts
nscontrol.exe unregister –name BAMAlerts