How to connect PolyBase to Oracle Eloqua

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Eloqua, you get access to your Oracle Eloqua data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Oracle Eloqua data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Oracle Eloqua data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Oracle Eloqua, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Oracle Eloqua and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Oracle Eloqua data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Oracle Eloqua

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Oracle Eloqua Sys is created automatically).

There are two authentication methods available for connecting to Oracle Eloqua: Login and OAuth. The Login method requires you to have the Company, User, and Password of the user.

If you do not have access to the username and password or do not wish to require them, you can use OAuth authentication. OAuth is better suited for allowing other users to access their own data. Using login credentials is better suited for accessing your own data.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Oracle Eloqua properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Oracle Eloqua.

Create an External Data Source for Oracle Eloqua Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Oracle Eloqua data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for Oracle Eloqua.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL oracleeloqua_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'oracleeloqua_username', SECRET = 'oracleeloqua_password';

Create an External Data Source for Oracle Eloqua

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Oracle Eloqua with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Oracle Eloqua, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_oracleeloqua_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Oracle Eloqua Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = oracleeloqua_creds
);

Create External Tables for Oracle Eloqua

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Oracle Eloqua data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Eloqua. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Oracle Eloqua Campaign would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Campaign(
  Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ActualCost [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Campaign',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_oracleeloqua_source
);

Having created external tables for Oracle Eloqua in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Oracle Eloqua, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Oracle Eloqua and start working with live Oracle Eloqua data alongside your SQL Server data today.