The COM+ Catalog

The COM+ catalog is the underlying data store that holds all COM+ configuration data. Whenever you perform any administration tasks either through the Component Services snap-in or through the COMAdmin objects that will be introduced shortly, you are actually reading and writing data stored in the catalog.

The Registration Database and the COM+ Catalog

Internally, COM+ stores all configuration data in the COM+ class registration database, or RegDB. The RegDB holds data for all configured components installed in COM+ applications. The COM+ runtime uses the data stored in the RegDB to properly activate the objects in an appropriate context and determine what kinds of services should be provided according to its declarative attributes. All the changes you make to the configurations are transactional because the RegDB is a consumer of the Compensating Resource Manager (CRM). It can participate in DTC transactions.