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Change Tracking Tasks (Modeling Services)

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There are several scenarios that require different types of change tracking strategies for the SQL Server Modeling Services database. In one scenario, an administrator wants to troubleshoot a problem by analyzing the exact sequence of database changes along with the changed values for each of those changes. In another scenario, an application uses change tracking to keep an in-memory cache of data synchronized with recent changes to the underlying data in the Modeling Services database. This section explains how to install and use the various change tracking options for the Modeling Services database.

Operational Auditing and Change Tracking Overview

Modeling Services supports two types of change tracking:

  • Operational auditing with SQL Server 2008 Change Data Capture (CDC).

  • Synchronization with SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking.

The Change Data Capture feature is available only in SQL Server 2008 Evaluation, Developer, and Enterprise editions. It tracks detailed change history information on targeted tables. This includes a bit mask that indicates which fields changed, a value to indicate the operation that changed the fields, and the values of those changed fields. The Change Tracking feature tracks only the change event for a row in a targeted table. The user or application is then responsible for reading the table to obtain updated values for that row.

Change tracking features in the Modeling Services database must be chosen when creating the Modeling Services database. Modeling Services does not support adding or removing change tracking features to an existing Modeling Services database instance. By default, installing the SQL Server Modeling CTP creates a Modeling Services database named Repository. This default database has both Change Tracking features disabled. To get change tracking features, you must install a new Modeling Services database with the Mx.exe utility. This utility installs with the SQL Server Modeling CTP. For more information about using Mx.exe, see Mx.exe Command Line Reference. This topic explains what Mx.exe options to use to enable specific change tracking features in a new Modeling Services database instance.

In This Section

The following topics explain how to enable and use the various types of change tracking features in the Modeling Services database:

For more information about the Modeling Services database design that supports these features, see SQL Server Metadata Services Change Tracking.

See Also

Concepts

SQL Server Modeling Services Administration
SQL Server Modeling Services Architecture

Other Resources

SQL Server 2008 Change Data Capture
SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking