description	Create an Index (Master Data Services)
title	Create an Index
ms.custom
ms.date	03/01/2017
ms.prod	sql
ms.prod_service	mds
ms.reviewer
ms.technology	master-data-services
ms.topic	conceptual
ms.assetid	d694a105-69b1-4ff6-99d3-1f408b916b81
author	CordeliaGrey
ms.author	jiwang6

Create an Index (Master Data Services)

Create a custom index on a list of attributes that you query frequently, to improve query performance.

Prerequisites

To perform this procedure:

You must have permission to access the System Administration functional area. For more information, see Functional Area Permissions (Master Data Services).
You must be a model administrator. For more information, see Administrators (Master Data Services).

To create an index

In Master Data Manager, click System Administration.
On the Manage Model page, select a model from the grid and click then Entities.
On the Manage Entity page, from the grid , select the row for the entity that you want to create an index for.
Click Indexes.
In the Name box, type a name for the index.
Select Is Unique if you want to create a unique index. For more information about index types, see Custom Index (Master Data Services).
Click attributes in the Available Attributes box, and then click the Add arrow. To add all attributes, click the Add All arrow.
Click Save.

For each created index, a row with four columns is added to the grid. The following table describes the columns.

Column Name	Description
Status	The index status. When you click Save, the image displays indicating that the index is updating. If there are errors when creating or editing an index, the image displays. Otherwise, the status is OK, and the image displays.
Name	The index name.
Is Unique	Specifies whether the index is unique.
On Attributes	Shows the display names of attributes that the index is defined on.