Metadata holds the generic definition “data about data”. Within Share Point, metadata can be managed centrally and can be used in a way that matches the business logic as well as to find related information easily. Managed metadata is frequently related to terms, term sets, term store etc. Hence Managed Meta data can be summed as a hierarchical collection of centrally managed terms that the users can define and use later as attributes for items or in Managed Navigation.

In order to use Managed metadata we need to have the managed metadata service application. The creation of the Service Application will automatically create the Managed Metadata Service and a dedicated DB to act as the term store to store the centrally created terms. Let’s see how to create the Managed Metadata Service Application.

Managed Metadata Service Application creation
Go to Central Administration and Click on Manage Service Applications

Central Administration

Select Managed Metadata Service from the list of options.

Select

Fill up the Service Application Name, DB Server and DB Name.

Service Application

Also specify the App Pool Name and Content Type Hub Site Collection URL (if you have created one)

Pool

Click on ‘OK’.

manage

This will create the Managed Metadata service application.

create

Click on manage services in this farm.

manage services

Ensure Managed Metadata Web service is up and running. Now go back to the service application we had created recently.

tool

Clicking on the service application name will open up the term store management tool. Here we can create term sets and terms. These can then be used for Global Managed Navigation as well as for Managed filtering in document list/library. Thus we saw how to set up Managed Metadata Service application in SharePoint 2016. In the upcoming articles we will see how to set up Global Managed Navigation and Filtering in SharePoint 2016.