CDF Database Structure
The CDF database is a Microsoft SQL Server™ 2000 database named cdf_mscrm.
There are three types of tables in the CDF database:
- Entity tables: These tables will contain the data from your source system. For each entity that can be migrated to Microsoft CRM, the CDF database has two or three entity tables:
- One entity table for the customer data that is to be entered in the standard Microsoft CRM fields (cdf_<entity>)
- One entity table for migration information (cdf_<entity>_info)
- For customizable entities, one entity table for the data that is to be migrated to custom fields in Microsoft CRM (cdf_<entity>_ext)
- Microsoft CRM correlation tables. These tables are used to correlate the data you load into the entity tables with data in Microsoft CRM. The correlation tables are populated when you run the CDF Initialization Tool, a tool provided in the Microsoft CRM Data Migration Framework. All data in your entity tables that references users, organizations, business units, territories, and drop-down list values must be transformed or cleansed to match the data in these correlation tables.
- CDF metadata tables. The metadata tables are pre-populated as part of the CDF database setup and do not store your source data. You define criteria for the migration process, such as the size of test batches and whether an entity or attribute should be migrated. The CDF Migration Tool, a tool provided in the Microsoft CRM Data Migration Framework, uses these tables to control the migration process.
The database also includes stored procedures for cleansing data and controlling the data migration process. For more information about the CDF database stored procedures, see Appendix A, "CDF Database Stored Procedures," in the Microsoft Business Solutions CRM Data Migration Framework Guide.
Important Other than adding columns to the cdf_<entity> and cdf_<entity>_ext entity tables, do not change the schema of the CDF database, or migration could fail.