BDC,
Everybody aware as it was there in MOSS 2007 / SharePoint 2007 but now we have
BCS – Business connectivity services, one of the important features in
SharePoint 2010. Whenever we need to bring external content / connect to
external content types then BCS comes into picture. Today’s article is also
based on one of the BCS issue which I came across and resolved it with proper
analysis and troubleshooting.
Problem
description:
One
of our users trying to connect to ‘External content types’ by means of
SharePoint Designer and facing the following error.
Error
message - 1:
The Business Data Connectivity Metadata Store is currently
unavailable.
Error
message - 2:
There is no business data connectivity service associated with the
current web context.
We
haven't used the BCS before so this is the first time we came across this error
so when I started exploring our farm then I noticed that one of mandatory
requirement to make this functionality working is – Service Application.
Point #1: Make sure you have the BCS service application (SA)
exists.
So
we have created the BCS SA and check the results but same problem i.e. same
error message.
Point #2: Make sure you associate this service application with
the respective web applications on which you have the site collections.
How
to do this? – Here are the details.
1. Open
the Central Administration
2. Application
management
3. Service
applications
4. Configure
service application associations
5. Make
sure its listed under ‘application proxies’
Point #3: BCS service application has a dependency on managed
metadata so make sure the managed metadata service application already exist in
your environment. If it’s not then please create it.
Point #4: Make the account that you have used for creating the
BCS service application has necessary permissions on the web application
database.
Point #5: Make sure the Business connectivity service is in
started mode via Services on Server.
How
to check this? – Here are the details.
1. Open
the central Administration
2. System
Settings
3. Servers
4. Manage
services on Servers.
5. Check
the respective service i.e. BCS and start it if it’s in stopped status.
That’s
it – the issue should be resolved now after following the above
recommendations.
If you find a different solution, please report it as a comment to
this post. Be sure to double-verify it: undo your solution and verify that the
problem comes back, then redo it and verify that the problem goes away.
If
you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then
please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves
your issues, Thank you.
