Create an Entity (Master Data Services)

Applies to: SQL Server - Windows only Azure SQL Managed Instance

In Master Data Services, create an entity to contain members and their attributes.

Prerequisites

To perform this procedure:

• You must have permission to access the System Administration functional area.

• You must be a model administrator. For more information, see Administrators (Master Data Services).

• A model must exist. For more information, see Create a Model (Master Data Services).

To create an entity

1. In Master Data Manager, click System Administration.

2. On the Manage Model page, from the grid, select the model that you want to create entity for and then click Entities.

3. On the Manage Entity page, click Add.

4. In the Name box, type the name of the entity.

5. Optionally, in the Description field, type the entity description.

6. Optionally, in the Name for staging tables box, type a name for the staging table.

   If you do not complete this field, the entity name is used.

   Tip

   Use the model name as part of the staging table name, for example Modelname_Entityname. This makes the tables easier to find in the database. For more information about the staging tables, see Overview: Importing Data from Tables (Master Data Services).

   Tip

   If using the default naming for Staging tables, MDS will automatically append identifiers (e.g. _1, _2) to the staging table names if an entity with same name exists in another Model.

7. For the Transaction Log Type field, choose the transaction log type in the drop-down list.

   For more information, see Change the Entity Transaction Log Type (Master Data Services)

8. Optional. Select the Create Code values automatically check box. For more information, see Automatic Code Creation (Master Data Services).

9. Optional. Select the Enable data Compression checkbox. By default the row compression is turned on. For more information , see Data Compression.

10. Click Save.

Grid Columns

For each created entity, a row with thirteen columns is added to the grid. The following are the columns.

Name	Description
Status	The entity status. When you click Save the following image is displayed that indicates that the entity is updating. If there are errors when creating or editing an entity, the following image is displayed. If the status is OK, then the following image is displayed.
Name	The entity name.
Description	The entity description.
Staging Table	The prefix name of the table that is used for storing data.
Transaction Log Type	The transaction log type of the entity.
Automatic Code Creation	Specifies whether automatic code creation is enabled.
Data Compression	Specifies whether data compression is enabled for the entity.
Is Sync Target	Specifies if the entity is the target of a sync relationship.
Is Hierarchy Enabled	Specifies if the entity is enabled for explicit hierarchies. This column shows Yes if at least one explicit hierarchy is created for the entity.
Created By	The username of the user who created the entity.
Created On	The date and time when the entity was created.
Updated By	The username of the user who last updated the entity.
Updated On	The date and time when the entity was last updated.

Next Steps

• Create a Text Attribute (Master Data Services)

• Create a Domain-Based Attribute (Master Data Services)

• Create a File Attribute (Master Data Services)

See Also

Entities (Master Data Services)
Explicit Hierarchies (Master Data Services)
Edit an Entity (Master Data Services)
Delete an Entity (Master Data Services)