Notes from a first brush with MDS.

Installation (2102)

• The ApplicationPool credential should be a member of MDS_Services (?) local user group. (not convinced that setup does this for you).
• The installation is not complete until you get the chance to click Apply on the Web Configuration page of Master Data Services Configuration Manager.   If this button isn’t enabled, it’s not fully installed (for example, the Authentication mode won’t be correctly configured and the WCF Service (which is used by the Data Explorer and the Excel Add-in) won’t work.

{Code} not updating in Excel

Symptom the Code column seems to have become disconnected from the recordset.  The cell is not highlighted when it is changed, and its value is not submitted on Publishing. This causes “The code cannot be empty” errors.

Cause check that the pixel width of Code is not zero.   Pixel width can be set to zero to hide columns in Excel, but for the Code column this causes the column to appear but to be disconnected (non-updateable).

Deploying Models

• Model deployment does not include integration views.  Each view has to be recreated manually on production environment – there are not many settings.
• Model deployment does not include permissions, reasonably since these will often vary between environments.