Service Broker external activator... activate on 2 queues? - sql-server-2008

Question

I have 2 queues and more to come... I want to have those queues externally activated using the external activator.
When I edit the EAService.config to activate queue#1 it works just fine.
When I edit the EAService.config to activate queue#2 it works just fine.
If I put both in the config only the one listed first gets activated.
Both queues are actually getting processed by the same exe... and example of what doesn't work is this...
<NotificationServiceList>
<NotificationService name="my_notif_svc1" id="100" enabled="true">
<Description>my notification service 1</Description>
<ConnectionString>
<Unencrypted>server=my_pc01;database=my_db;Application Name=External Activator;Integrated Security=true;</Unencrypted>
</ConnectionString>
</NotificationService>
<NotificationService name="my_notif_svc2" id="100" enabled="true">
<Description>my notification service 2</Description>
<ConnectionString>
<Unencrypted>server=my_pc01;database=my_db;Application Name=External Activator;Integrated Security=true;</Unencrypted>
</ConnectionString>
</NotificationService>
</NotificationServiceList>
<ApplicationServiceList>
<ApplicationService name="myMessageApp1" enabled="true">
<OnNotification>
<ServerName>my_pc01</ServerName>
<DatabaseName>my_db</DatabaseName>
<SchemaName>dbo</SchemaName>
<QueueName>my_user_queue1</QueueName>
</OnNotification>
<LaunchInfo>
<ImagePath>c:\test\myMessageReceiver.exe</ImagePath>
<CmdLineArgs>whatever cmd-line arguments you need to pass to your receiver application</CmdLineArgs>
<WorkDir>c:\test</WorkDir>
</LaunchInfo>
<Concurrency min="1" max="4" />
</ApplicationService>
<ApplicationService name="myMessageApp2" enabled="true">
<OnNotification>
<ServerName>my_pc01</ServerName>
<DatabaseName>my_db</DatabaseName>
<SchemaName>dbo</SchemaName>
<QueueName>my_user_queue2</QueueName>
</OnNotification>
<LaunchInfo>
<ImagePath>c:\test\myMessageReceiver.exe</ImagePath>
<CmdLineArgs>whatever cmd-line arguments you need to pass to your receiver application</CmdLineArgs>
<WorkDir>c:\test</WorkDir>
</LaunchInfo>
<Concurrency min="1" max="4" />
</ApplicationService>
</ApplicationServiceList>
additionally I don't understand what the id="100" is doing... I tried having same # and different #... ie 100 & 101 but it didn't make a difference. The activator service only works for the first one listed in the "ApplicationServiceList"
help!

Answer 1

I figured out my problem...
From the documentation
Systems can use external activation
for multiple Service Broker
application queues. There is a
many-to-one relationship between
application queues and activation
notification services. There is a
one-to-one relationship between the
Activation Notification service and
the External Activation service.
I was two notification services (my_notif_svc1 & my_notif_svc2) listed above. I switched my event notifications (create event notivation ... ) to utilize the same "TO SERVICE" and now it works.
So you have to utilize one "service" for external activator but you can create multiple Event Notifications for multiple queues which point to that service.
I still think the way I had it set up it should work but this definitely works...

Answer 2

I also ran into this same problem and it would be nice to have an official response from Microsoft as to why and if they will honor multiple notification services listed in SSBEA and not just the first one in the list. In the end we went with the same solution, and here is a helpful snippet to use to dynamically to get the Guid and setup the queue activation event to a SINGLE service (ServiceBrokerNotification.NotificationService).
DECLARE #sbn nvarchar(100) = 'servicebrokernotification'
DECLARE #sbnid nvarchar(60)
SELECT #sbnid = ''''+CAST(service_broker_guid AS nvarchar(60))+'''' FROM sys.databases WHERE name = #sbn
SELECT #sbnid
DECLARE #Str nvarchar(max)
DECLARE #createEventSql nvarchar(max)
Set #Str = 'CREATE EVENT NOTIFICATION NotificationEvent ON QUEUE [TargetQueue]
FOR QUEUE_ACTIVATION TO SERVICE ''NotificationService'' ,' + #sbnid;
Select #Str
EXECUTE (#Str)