I am creating a new User Profile Service Application in Central Administration and the options for specifying the Sync Database are disabled:

The database is created with a horrible GUID:

Is there a way to specify the Sync DB name with Central Administration? Are we required to use PowerShell (I haven't yet tested this so please forgive me if this is the case)? Is this

As of now, I think we have only ADI options, so in this build it not but in future release I am sure we will get that option.

Jason,

If your question is "can I control the naming (i.e., the GUID that is generated) of the a service application" then the answer is no. The only way would be to use a Windows PowerShell script.  There is an article that allows you do to this but it was published for SharePoint 2010 and not updated for SharePoint 2016, however the concepts and Windows PowerShell cmdlets used are generally the same.

NOTE: This article has NOT been tested for SharePoint Server 2016 Preview and is best effort in support.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg983005(v=office.14).aspx

Kirk Stark, MSFT

Senior Technical Writer, SharePoint Products

My question is why is the database name text box for the Sync database disabled?

In SharePoint 2013 the sync database name text box was editable. Currently in the 2016 preview the Profile and Social database names are editable.

Jason,

If your question is "can I control the naming (i.e., the GUID that is generated) of the a service application" then the answer is no. The only way would be to use a Windows PowerShell script.  There is an article that allows you do to this but it was published for SharePoint 2010 and not updated for SharePoint 2016, however the concepts and Windows PowerShell cmdlets used are generally the same.

NOTE: This article has NOT been tested for SharePoint Server 2016 Preview and is best effort in support.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg983005(v=office.14).aspx

Kirk Stark, MSFT

Senior Technical Writer, SharePoint Products

• Marked as answer by Bill Baer (Microsoft)Microsoft employee, Owner 10 hours 44 minutes ago
• Unmarked as answer by Jason WarrenMVP 10 hours 36 minutes ago

Agreed, whilst this is only a small thing, I have clients that HATE guids in database names... 8-)

Jason,

The answer is "no". In preview the only way to control the name of this (empty) database is via Windows PowerShell creation of the UPA.

However I wouldn't be too concerned. In the future the sync DB will be removed entirely as it is not used - we won't even populate it's schema. But for Beta 1 it is easier to just disable out those controls on the web form.

cheers

s.

Thanks Spence. This was the answer I was looking for :)