I have a few questions on VB code for COM+ and the Component Services in Windows 2000.

1. In Component Services, there is an option to refresh the components, but it never seems to work. If I have a new version of my dll, I need to delete the component from within COM+ and 'Add a New Component' to put it back. Of course I lose my configuration/security within it every time and need to re-key it in. When does the 'Refresh' work or is it necessary to always delete and re-add them?

2. What is the procedure to replace a dll which is already running in COM+ services. Do you manually un-register the dll, and manually re-register the new one. It seems to work differently all the time and I don't understand why. I can actually unregister and remove the old dll / relace it and try to refresh the components in COM+, but it still references the old one. Is there a specific procedure or documentation anywhere on the real correct way to do this. I also always need to restart the web services before replacing a dll in COM+ due to a sharing violation.

3. If a VB ActiveX dll is not using transactions but is going to be in a COM+ application, is it necessary to code in the 'SetComplete' even though not using transactions. I heard it was a good idea in MTS 2.0 for memory reasons but I was thinking that with the JIT activation/deactivation that it wouldn't be necessary. Does anyone know if this is correct? I've already realized that if I don't update the VB code properties to indicate 'MTS-1. Doesn't support transactions', that the ROLES will not work within COM+. I'm assuming that if I just want to throw vendor DLL's into a COM+ application, since I don't have the source code, that I won't be able to use the ROLE security. Is this right.

4. Finally, if I have about 30 dlls, being used within an intranet site, is it better to group them to similar functions in their own COM+ application, or to throw all 30 dll's into 1 COM+ app? I know that it is more efficient within 1 dll but a bad thing about putting all in the same COM+ app, would be if something happened to 1 of them, it would bring down and effect all of them. Any ideas?

Any good books or documentation on the subject. I'm sorry this is such a long email with various questions, it's just that I haven't been able to find the specific answers anywhere on the right way to do this stuff and how it's really suppossed to work.

Thanks in advance for any comments that may help me out. I can basically get things working, but I want to be sure I'm doing it in the most efficient manner and proper manner. Thank You!