IBM Master Data Management connection

Use the IBM Master Data Management connection to connect to data that you can transform, refine, or analyze before you bring it into the IBM Master Data Management service.

IBM Master Data Management is a master data management service that helps you to resolve data across different sources and gain a clearer view of each customer, supplier, or partner. Load record data from systems across your enterprise into IBM Master Data Management and run matching algorithms to consolidate that data into master data entities. A master data entity is a collection of records that provides a 360-degree view of a person, organization, or other entity. One or many member records can contribute to the master data entity view.

Prerequisite

You need an instance of IBM Master Data Management on Cloud Pak for Data. For instructions, see Installing IBM Master Data Management.

Create a connection to IBM Master Data Management

  • Route host: Path to the IBM Master Data Management service on Cloud Pak for Data. You can get this information from Cloud Pak for Data instance namespace where the IBM Master Data Management service is running. For example, in an OpenShift environment, run this command:

    oc get routes -n <namespace>

  • Match 360 instance ID: From the Cloud Pak for Data home page, go to Services > Instances. Click the link for the Match 360 with Watson instance that you want to connect to. Copy the value after mdm- in the URL. For example, if the end of the URL is mdm-1234567891123456, the instance ID is: 1234567891123456.

  • API key: If you do not know the value of your API key, you can generate a new platform API key for your Cloud Pak for Data account. Log in to the web client, click your avatar in the toolbar, and then click Profile and settings. Click API key > Generate new key.

    Note: If you generate a new API key, your current API key becomes invalid. You must either modify the existing connection to use the new API key or delete the existing connection and create a new connection that uses the new API key. You must also update any scripts or applications to use the new API key.

  • Username: Username of the Cloud Pak for Data user who is creating the connection.

    The username must have permission to create storage volumes. This is normally an Administrator level permission. Creating storage volumes is required for jobs that import data to a target IBM Master Data Management connection. For information, see Managing storage volumes and Managing persistent volume instances with the Volumes API.

For Credentials, you can use secrets if a vault is configured for the platform and the service supports vaults. For information, see Using secrets from vaults in connections.

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance

This connection can be used on a FIPS-enabled cluster (FIPS-tolerant); however, it is not FIPS-compliant.

Limitations and known issues

  • The number of records that are included in previews for entity type data assets is limited to 100 records.

  • A single user cannot run two bulk load jobs at the same time.

  • When you use IBM Master Data Management as a target connection, do not map these system attributes:

    • collection_id
    • created_date
    • created_user
    • entity_id
    • entity_last_updated
    • last_updated_date
    • last_updated_user
    • record_last_updated
    • record_number

In some cases, such as if a user stops an Import job before it completes, the storage volume might not get cleaned up correctly. This causes future attempts to run the Import job to fail with the message, Persistent storage value already exists. To resolve this issue:

  1. Make sure no Import jobs are currently running.
  2. Manually delete the storage volume.

Learn more