Deployed SharePoint 2010 using least privileged method? If you created a Managed Metadata Service Application and try to access the Term Store Management Tool you might run into the following error.
Managed Metadata Service or Connection is currently not available. The Application Pool or Managed Metadata Web Service may not have been started. Please Contact Your Administrator.
You will also notice the Event ID 8077 logged in your application log with the following description.
There are no instances of the Managed Metadata Web Service on any server in this farm. Ensure that at least one instance is started on an application server in the farm using the Services on Server page in Central Administration.
The most common cause for this error is due to the service account that’s running the Managed Metadata service does not have enough permissions to do so on the machine that’s running the service. To resolve this you will have to grant the service account the log on locally right via Group Policy or Local Security Policy on that machine.
Go back to the Term Store Management Tool and it should be able to find the service application now.
SharePoint 2010 RTM English bits went live last week (official launch on May 12). Though it will only be available for general use somewhere in June, you can try out SharePoint Foundation (previously WSS) and SharePoint Server using the links below.