Importing Data (Master Data Services)

Article
04/01/2012

You can populate the Master Data Services database with data from your organization's disparate data sources. For data to be in the appropriate Master Data Services database tables, you must import data into staging tables and then process the staged data as a batch.

You can use the staging process to:

Create, update, deactivate, and delete leaf and consolidated members.
Update attribute values.
Designate relationships in explicit hierarchies.

Note

The staging process has changed since SQL Server 2008 R2. You can continue to use the SQL Server 2008 R2 process; however, the staging process is now more flexible and has better performance. For more information on the changes, see Deprecated Master Data Services Features in SQL Server 2012 and Discontinued Master Data Services Features in SQL Server 2012.

Staging Tables

The Master Data Services database includes three staging tables that you can populate with your organization’s data. After you populate these tables, initiate the staging process to load the data from the staging tables into the appropriate MDS tables.

The name of each table is specified when an entity is created and cannot be changed. If the staging table name contains a _1 or other number, another table of that name already existed when the entity was created.

Table Name	Description
stg.name_Leaf	Create, update, and delete leaf members and their attributes.
stg.name_Consolidated	Create, update, and delete consolidated members and their attributes.
stg.name_Relationship	Move members in an explicit hierarchy.

Initiating the Staging Process

You can initiate the staging process by using stored procedures or by using the Master Data Manager web application.

Using Stored Procedures to Initiate the Staging Process

The Master Data Services database includes stored procedures associated with the staging tables. Use these stored procedures to load data from the staging tables into the appropriate MDS tables. The stored procedures are named similarly to the associated tables:

stg.udp_name_Leaf
stg.udp_name_Consolidated
stg.udp_name_Relationship

For more information on these stored procedures, see Staging Stored Procedure (Master Data Services).

Using the Web Application to Initiate the Staging Process

You can use the web application’s Integration Management functional area to start the staging process. The staging process in the UI is started at intervals determined by the Staging batch interval setting in Master Data Services Configuration Manager.

Logging Transactions

All transactions that occur when data or relationships are imported or updated can be logged. An option in the stored procedure allows this logging. If you initiate the staging process from the Master Data Manager web application, no logging occurs.

In Master Data Services Configuration Manager, the Log staging transactions setting does not apply to this method of staging data.

Validating Data

When you load data by using the staging process, the data is not automatically validated against business rules. You must validate the data manually or by using a stored procedure.

For information on validating manually, see Validate a Version against Business Rules (Master Data Services).
For information on using a stored procedure, see Validation Stored Procedure (Master Data Services).

For more information on what validation is and when it occurs, see Validation (Master Data Services).

Task Description	Topic
Create, update, and delete members and their attributes.	Load or Update Members in Master Data Services by Using the Staging Process
Move members in an explicit hierarchy.	Move Explicit Hierarchy Members by Using the Staging Process (Master Data Services)
Troubleshoot the staging process.	Troubleshooting the Staging Process (Master Data Services)