Configuring MDS
As
I said before you need to configure two different components of Master Data
Services; you can install both of these components on the same machine or on
separate machines. Once installed, launch Master Data Services Configuration
Manager (START -> All Programs -> SQL Server 2008 R2 -> Master Data
Services -> Configuration Manager) as you can see below. This screen will
let you know if the required prerequisites are available or not. On the left
side you can see “Databases” and “Web Configuration” pages; configure them
respectively.
Figure 7 - Master Data Services Configuration
Click
on the Databases Page to configure the database for storage of MDS objects. As
you can see in the next screen you can either create a new database or can use an
existing database for storage; this database must be on SQL Server 2008 R2.
Figure 8 - Master Data Services Database Configuration
As
we are working for the first time, let me show you how to create a new
database. Simply click on the “Create Database” button to launch the Create
Database Wizard.
Figure 9 - Master Data Services Database Configuration -
Create Database 1
On
the next screen, specify the name of the SQL Server instance and type of
authentication to be used to connect to that instance. You can verify the
connection by clicking on the “Test Connection” button.
Figure 10 - Master Data Services Database Configuration -
Create Database 2
On
the next screen, specify the name of the database that you want to create for
storage of MDS objects and also specify whether do you want to use SQL Serve
default collation for your MDS database or you want to use Windows collation.
Figure 11 - Master Data Services Database Configuration -
Create Database 3
On
the next screen you need to specify the service account and the Administrator
account that will have administrative privilege on the MDS database, including
access to the all the models created in MDS. (I will be talking about model and
other types of MDS objects in the next article.)
Figure 12 - Master Data Services Database Configuration -
Create Database 4
On
the next screen, you can review your selection and click on the Next button to
start configuration of database component of Master Data Services.
Figure 13 - Master Data Services Database Configuration -
Create Database 5
Once
the MDS database is configured, you can see the default system wide setting,
which you can change as per your need if you want. If you scroll down the page
shown below, you will get an option to specify a Database Mail Profile, which
will be used to send notification by Master Data Services. You can also create
MDS database using a PowerShell script, for more details click
here.
Figure 14 - Master Data Services Database Configuration Done
Once
the MDS database component is configured, you need to configure the web
component. Click on the Web Configuration page in the left pane and you will
see a screen as shown below. Click on the Create Site and follow the
instructions to create the web application. Then you need to associate this web
application to use the MDS database that you created earlier; for this click on
the Select button to select the SQL Server instance and database.
Figure 15 - Master Data Services Web Application
Configuration 1
The web application provides an UI (User Interface) to access
all of the features of MDS. This UI is called Master Data Manager. This is not
the only way to access to MDS features; you can enable WCF (Windows
Communication Foundation) services to access these features programmatically.
Figure 16 - Master Data Services Web Application
Configuration 2
Conclusion
Master
Data Services is a great feature of SQL Server 2008 R2 to remove master data
duplicity across the line of businesses of an enterprise and allowing you to
create a centralized hub for your master data. This centralized master data hub
acts as a single authoritive source for all master data for an enterprise. This
feature is not installed with regular SQL Server
installation like you do for SSIS, SSRS and SSAS; you need to install and
configure it separately, which is quite simple and easy as demonstrated above.
In my next article, I am going to talk more in detail about what master data are,
Master Data Management and Master Data Services.
References
MSDN:
Installing
and Configuring Master Data Services
MSDN:
Web
Application Requirements (Master Data Services)
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