Part 4: The OS/DB Product Availability Matrix for MDM 5.5 SP4

Note: The latest release-specific version of the MDM PAM should always be downloaded from SAP Service Marketplace. The matrix below is relevant only to SP4 Patch 1.

The current Product Availability Matrix (PAM) for MDM 5.5 is available at www.service.sap.com/pam (SAP Netweaver – SAP MDM – SAP MDM 5.5)

The MDM Server at SP4, is available for Windows 2003, HP-UX, AIX, Solaris and Linux (see PAM to verify compatibility with specific versions of each platform). It also supports use of Oracle 9.2, Oracle 10.2, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and DB2/UDB 8 as the DBMS container.

The first set of decisions typically required of the MDM installer are:

1. Selecting the Operating System that will host the Master Data Server (MDS), Import Server (MDIS) and Syndicator Server (MDSS). Your choices are Windows, HP-UX, Solaris and Linux.

   Tip: The MDM server scales very well to its host. Developers can easily have MDS and the Win32 client components running on personal hardware (2GB RAM recommended), while shared hardware is used for more robust applications (Integrated Testing, QA and Production). This can greatly simplify self-training, server side development and unit-testing.

2. Selecting the RDBMS that will be the data container for the MDM server. Oracle and SQL Server are popular choices, and work equally well.

   Tip: A dedicated database instance works best, preferably hosted on the same hardware as MDS. Shared or centralized databses will certainly work, but DBMS-to-MDS cache performance is at its best when your network is not a factor!

3. A strategy for installing the GUI modules -- the Data Manager, Import Manager and Syndicator. Self Installs? Deploy via your favorite Enterprise Software Management utility? Make the decision that best suits the size and technical ability of your user community. Keep in mind that MDM software upgrades are a frequent ocurrence, requiring re-installs of these client side components.

   Tip: A shared installation on the network works quite well for the Data Manager. Use a dedicated Windows server, or merely copy the contents of "/Program Files/SAP MDM 5.5/Data Manager/" into a shared network folder. Provide a shortcut to "../Data Manager/Data Manager.exe", and ease your end users into new Releases with minimum downtime.

A QuickStart Guide to SAP MDM 5.5

 Introduction
 Part 1: Select and Install MDM Components
 Part 2: MDM Components and Modules
 Part 3: MDM architecture: How components fit into the MDM eco-system
 Part 4: The OS/DB Product Availability Matrix for MDM 5.5 SP4
 Part 5: MDM for the Java Developer
 Part 6: Tips and Tools for the MDM Administrator
 Part 7: Migrating MDM Configuration
 Conclusion