Managing Core SQL Server 2008 R2 Technologies - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration - page 191

Installing and configuring a Master Data
Services Solution
The administrative control of data is a primary task in any line of business management;
as long as the data-flow is intended to meet enterprise level business needs, it serves the
purpose. The essence of Master Data Management (MDM) is identified when the data is used
for operational and analytical processes; however, those management processes must be
able to clearly define the business concepts, identify different ways the data sets represent
commonly understood concepts, and integrate the data into a consistent view that is available
across the organization.
SQL Server 2008 R2 introduces Master Data Services (MDS), which is designed to provide
hierarchies that can be customized to group and summarize the master data. This kind of
hierarchical representation helps to change the reporting structures and incorporate new
aspects of the business rules by reducing the data-duplication. The best usage of MDS will
help us to maintain a central database of master data, which is managed for reporting and
analysis. In this recipe, we will go through the important steps to install and configure an MDS
solution on an existing data platform. The core components of MDS are MDS configuration
manager, MDS manager, and MDS web service.
Getting ready
There are certain pre-installation tasks required to install Master Data Services (MDS) and the
setup must meet minimum requirements. The installation requirement is divided into MDS
setup, MDM web application services, and MDS database.
The MDS setup prerequisites are as follows:
F The MDS setup is possible only on the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2008
R2 Datacenter, SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, and SQL Server 2008 R2
Developer editions
F The supported operating systems are Enterprise Editions of Windows Server 2008
R2, Windows Server 2008, and Ultimate editions of Windows 7, and Windows Vista
Ultimate. Also, Windows 7 or Vista Professional edition support this feature
F Microsoft .NET framework 3.5 Service Pack1 is required, to downlo ad refer to
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?L inkId=128220
F The user account used to install MDS must be a member of the Administrators
group on the local server