Gathering data from distributed databases

There are several approaches you can use to pull data from distributed data sources. Generally speaking, it is more efficient to use a View or other SQL native method to join the data outside of PIESCentral. One way of doing this with SQL Server is to use the sp_addlinkedserver function as described in this article:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188279.aspx↗

Alternatively, PIESCentral can pull the data from separate data sources and join it together based on a “Join Field” in each of the data sources. This is done at the Segment level on the “Source Description” tab. You first add the required data sources to the top grid and then add a “Join” between them with a Parent-Child relationship.

There are some things to watch out for when defining a Join between two data sources in PIESCentral. More information can be found in this KB article: limitations when joining data