Please contact me if you have availability this quarter.

I’m three roles away from the SSIS one and one company away from Microsoft. I’m now at Blackbaud and loving the challenge and the focus on helping non-profit companies be more efficient and effective at managing their businesses. If you’d like to contact me directly just to catch up or say hello, please drop me a line at Kirk dot Haselden overat Blackbaud dot com. I’d love to hear from you. I’m also on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/knightreign.

Anyhow, back to the point of this post. Folks have been asking about how to find the samples for the books. They’re still where they were when the book was published, which is to say, unfortunately, not with the actual book as was the original plan but rather on the Sams Publishing website here and then click on the Downloads tab at the bottom.

Well, that’s all for now folks. It’s been great reading all the articles and catching up with what’s happening in SQL Server land. If any of you are interested in helping non-profit companies and are looking for a quality company to join, please drop me a line. We’re always looking for solid SQL Server types, code junkies and especially test engineers.

Happy Holidays!

Universe.Earth.Blackbaud.Enterprise.Kirk 

https://www.msdev.com/Directory/SeriesDescription.aspx?CourseId=155

If you haven’t noticed lately, there is a great set of entries up on the SSIS team blog now. These are quality blog entries that really get into the details of how the product works and how to use it. If you haven’t looked lately and you want to understand master data services, this is definitely a great resource. The entries are created by the engineers that designed, coded and documented the product and peer reviewed before being posted. They are of very high quality, accurate and authoritative.

https://sqlblog.com/blogs/mds_team/default.aspx

The online documentation for MDS has also been updated. The following explains derived hierarchies:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633747(SQL.105).aspx

Finally, Donald Farmer does his usual excellent job at describing Master Data Management and the important elements of making master data management useful and some of the key value propositions of MDS.

https://edge.technet.com/Media/SQL-Server-2008-R2-Master-Data-Services/

Enjoy!

Here’s the first one: https://www.profisee.com/newsevents/tabid/134/Default.aspx

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 https://sqlblog.com/blogs/mds_team/archive/2009/12/14/welcome-to-the-sql-server-master-data-services-team-blog.aspx

Thanks,

Universe.Earth.Software.SQLServer.MDS.Kirk

Here are the staging table error codes thanks to our great support engineer Pam Matthews

ERR210000	OK
ERR210001	Error - duplicate code in source data.
ERR210003	Error - code does not exist or has been deactivated for selected domain attribute.
ERR210004	Error - code does not exist for selected domain attribute.
ERR210006	Error - inactive member code.
ERR210007	Warning - redundant assignment; transaction will not be logged.
ERR210008	Error - may not stage inactive parents.
ERR210009	Error - member code does not exist.
ERR210010	Error - target code does not exist.
ERR210011	Error - target code may not be leaf when staging parent relationships.
ERR210012	OK - new relationship record.
ERR210013	OK - new collection record.
ERR210014	OK - relationship removed (moved to unused).
ERR210015	Error - Children must be unique in Non Mandatory Hierarchy.
ERR210016	Warning - unable to assign relationship or recursive relationship.
ERR210017	Error - user name is invalid.
ERR210018	Error - Model is required or invalid Model.
ERR210019	Error - model administrator privileges are required to stage into the selected model.
ERR210020	Error - Entity is required or  invalid entity name.
ERR210021	Error - member type ID must be 1 (leaf member), 2 (parent member), 3 (collection), or 5 (collection member).
ERR210022	Error - system attributes may not be updated via staging.
ERR210023	Error - file attributes may not be updated via staging.
ERR210024	Error - attribute value exceeds allowed length.
ERR210025	Error - data is the incorrect datatype for requested attribute (must be Numeric).
ERR210026	Error - data is the incorrect datatype for requested attribute (must be DateTime).
ERR210027	Error - data is the incorrect datatype for requested attribute (must be Integer).
ERR210028	Error - invalid attribute name.
ERR210029	Error - attribute value is required.
ERR210030	Warning - attribute value will be unassigned.
ERR210031	Error - Attribute_Value must be either ''Active'' or ''De-Activated'' when attempting to change the member status.
ERR210032	Error - hierarchy is required or invalid hierarchy.
ERR210033	Error - collections may only be staged to entities that have a hierarchy.
ERR210034	Error - selected MemberCode is a reserved word. Please select another code.
ERR210035	Error - code is required without a code generation business rule.
ERR210036	Information - code is not required for a code generation business rule.
ERR210037	Error - member type ID must be 1 (leaf member), 2 (parent member), or 3 (collection).
ERR210038	Error - hierarchy is required if member type is 4; or invalid hierarchy.
ERR210039	Error - member type ID must be 4 (hierarchy) or 5 (collection).
ERR210040	Error - member code is required.
ERR210041	Error - may not use reserved code ''ROOT''.
ERR210042	Error - may not use reserved code ''MDMUNUSED''.
ERR210043	Error - target type ID must be 1 (parent) or 2 (sibling).
ERR210044	Error - target code is required.
ERR210045	Error - may not use reserved code ''MDMUNUSED'' in non-mandatory hierarchies.
ERR210046	Error - may not stage a sibling of the Root node.
ERR210047	Error - may not stage a sibling of the Unused node.
ERR210048	Error - member code and target code may not be the same.
ERR210049	Error - may not stage siblings for collections.
ERR210050	Information - hierarchy is not required for collections.
ERR210052	Error - The member cannot be deactivated because it is referenced by an entity.

I'm sure these will show up in the documentation at some point, but for now there here for your reference.

Blogs Rolling

First of all, it's good to see some blogging activity around MDS. 

As is the usual case around the first release of a product, it takes some time for blog activity to get momentum. But, we're beginning to see some action now as folks pick up the November CTP of SQL Server R2 and start to put it through it's paces.

This one by Nick Barclay is a series of seven introducing MDS and how to build a model and starts to get into the data model a bit as well.

For those just picking up the product for the first time, this is an excellent quick start guide.

https://nickbarclay.blogspot.com/2009/11/beginning-master-data-services-part-1.html

Intrepid blogger and SSIS/MSBI geek Jamie Thomson has also been digging into the product and started blogging and he promises more to come.

https://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2009/11/21/first-sighting-of-sql-server-master-data-services-mds.aspx

https://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive/2009/11/13/mds-is-x64-only.aspx

Roland Lenz gives a pretty good summary of MDS and talks a little about scenarios in which it can be used.

https://blogs.technet.com/swisseb/archive/2009/05/14/what-s-hot-on-sql-server-2008-r2.aspx

Chris Webb blogged about John McAllister's recent presentation at PASS.

https://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7B84B0F2C239489A!5288.entry

For those that missed it, I have a short entry here that talks at a high level about the product and Master Data Management in general.

https://blogs.technet.com/dataplatforminsider/archive/2009/05/13/master-data-services-what-s-the-big-deal.aspx

Shaun Ryan has also started to blog and has one about creating hierarchies in MDS here.

https://shaun-ryan.spaces.live.com/?_c11_BlogPart_BlogPart=blogview&_c=BlogPart&partqs=cat%3dMDS

The MDS team will be blogging as well. Look for those blogs to show up soon and I'll link here.

Matt Anderson has already created the first entry: Installing and Configuring Master Data Services 2008 R2 November CTP

Hooo, that's a mouth full. Fortunately, it takes about as long to say it as it does to do it! As soon as we can get the blog up and running, he'll be posting that entry with more to follow.

What's New 

There are various comments about what's new in the November CTP MDS relative to the original product Microsoft acquired. Some have said it's basically the same thing. I'd like to give you all some background on that. For the benefit of those who are familiar with the Stratature product or the technology preview we released over a year ago, I'll briefly list some of the more important improvements. Later, I'll drop some hints as to what's coming next. But keep it between me and you.

Performance

The team has been doing some great work around improving the performance of the product. We've improved the schema, optimized stored procedures, and changed the way we manage key elements such as business rules to be more efficient. This work has resulted some great performance improvements. In some cases, the improvements are orders of magnitude faster.

Hygiene

We've done a load of work on security, accessibility, globalization and localization (21 languages), better setup and configuration.

UI Spif

While the user interface is mostly the same, we have done some changes to improve the experience including fixing bugs and swapping the control library for better management.

Model Deployment  

The perenial problem with building models is how to deploy them from the machine where they were developed without a lot of difficulty. And what's more, how do you build a model template and use it over and over without said efforts? Model deployment. With Model Deployment, you can build an entire model, including data on a development machine, deploy it to a test lab for testing and then easily deploy to the live production machines without ever getting your hands dirty. It's also useful for building pre-developed models for solution specialists or for sharing across the enterprise. While competitor products can sometimes take weeks to setup, configure and build the first model, I've done a demo where I setup, configured, deployed a model and built a derived hierarchy in roughly 10 minutes. That's simpler, easier and faster. That's Microsoft software.

WCF API

We've added a comprehensive API to the product with both bulk and message oriented functions. Then we rewrote the user interface to go through the API instead of directly to the database/stored procedures. Anything you can do through the UI and more, you can now do through the API. It is complete and comprehensive.

So, while the product looks pretty much the same, much of the work we've been doing is to build the MDS platform into something that will support a rich set of experiences, integrations and additional scenarios.

What's Next?

It's a little early to be talking about the next version don't you think? OK, well, let's just say we're going to improve the user interface, integration and out of box experience and a few other goodies.

I’m pleased to say that the SQL Server November CTP with Master Data Services is now available.

https://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx

If you’re interested in simply seeing the MDS documentation, you can find it here:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee633763(SQL.105).aspx

MICROSOFT SQL SERVER 2008 R2 MASTER DATA SERVICES, MONTH COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY PREVIEW (MONTH CTP)

Where MONTH is the actual release month.

Hooo! What a mouthful.

A little history 

To catch everyone up, I thought I'd start by giving a short history of the product and get everyone on the same page. 

In June, 2007 Microsoft acquired a company called Stratature. It was a small but well run company that built an analytical master data management solution. At the time, we were looking for a good solution to augment the PerformancePoint offering as well as a way to pull together various master data management capabilities for Office servers such as CRM and SharePoint. The focus was on bringing the master data to the people who understood it best. Who knows the customers, products, vendors, parts and other key business data better than the business users? MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) seemed the logical ship vehicle and still makes a lot of sense for a business user perspective. Delivering the master data management stewardship experience throughout the enterprise by placing it in the hands of business users continues to be our strategy, however, after feedback from partners, customers and our field, we believed that the ship vehicle needed to change to better align with the sales motions, field expertise, R&D teams, marketing and underlying technologies. We weighed and considered different options and ultimately decided that SQL Server was a better fit. While delivering the master data experience to the business user continues to be a priority, the "master data" piece of MDM, the "management" piece is also important. What happens in the back end management experience is every bit as important as how the stewardship and governance experience is delivered to the business user. As purveyors of a master data platform, we have to provide both.

Project "Bulldog" was a codename for the overall master data management project leading up to shipping as part of SQL Server. When we acquired Stratature, there were a few minor issues with the product, we were a small team, and the number of customers relative to Microsoft's typical customer base was quite small. We made the difficult decision to remove the product from the market so that the small team could focus on shipping a Microsoft quality product. We shipped a technology preview that was picked up by nearly 200 customers and partners. The technology preview was, essentially, a hygiene build of the Stratature bits with a few libraries removed, some simple modifications to improve the product security, and some bug fixes.

The technology preview ran for over a year and was successful at building interest as well as providing an outlet for customers to use the product for initial evaluation purposes and building proofs of concept solutions. A few, we understand, have gone a little further with the product then we expected.

Throughout this time, we've been busy improving the product on multiple dimensions including performance, flexibility, extensibility, localization and feature/function. To date, master data management solutions have been risky, expensive and difficult to implement. Master data management isn't all about technology. In fact, the technology is really about enabling the processes that lead to authoritative master data. But, the technology is important and we believe that we will make master data management technology truly available to enterprise and mid-market companies both from an implementation and affordability perspective.

What now?

We're now closing in on the first Microsoft release of a master data solution. Master Data Management isn't a household name, but as companies struggle with managing one of their most important assets in a consistent way with ever increasing complexity of IT ecosystems, dynamic business environments and stringent regulations the need for a way to manage key business data is critical. There is a lot of information out there about master data management, the need and the solutions. Unfortunately, much of it is confusing, contradictory and unbounded by reality. The space is maturing however, and you'll begin to see more and more about this important problem and the ways to solve it in the coming years. 

Here's what's happening with the product now:

• We're stabilizing and putting the finishing touches on the product for release in SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP3.
• We're finalizing TAP customer selection
• We're working with a number of services partners who are building service lines around MDS
• We're working with a number of ISV partners to build components and integration with MDS
• We're already planning the next release!

Some resources 

For those of you unfamiliar with MDM and Microsoft's forthcoming solution, or if you just want to drill down some more, here's a few links to get you started.

https://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/MDS.aspx - This is the official SQL Server website.

 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb190163.aspx - A brief introduction Roger Wolter and I wrote.

https://mdmbook.com/ - David Loshin's companion site for his excellent MDM book.

Universe.Earth.Software.Microsoft.SQLServer.MDS.KirkHaselden