Models from different databases are grayed out when trying to Join

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1

Hi everyone,

I'm encountering an issue while trying to perform a cross-database join between two models in Metabase.

My Setup:

  • Database 1: SQL Server

  • Database 2: SQL Server

  • Connection: These are two separate database connections on different servers (No Linked Server exists between them).

  • Metabase Version: [v0.59]

The Problem:

  1. I created a SQL query for the first database and converted it into a Model (Tasks_Model).

  2. I created a second SQL query for the second database and converted it into a Model (Entities_Model).

  3. Both models work perfectly fine on their own.

  4. When I try to create a new question, select Tasks_Model, and click on the Join icon, the Entities_Model appears in the list but it is grayed out and unselectable.

What I've tried:

  • Confirmed that both models have a common column.

Question: Is there a specific setting I need to enable to allow joining models across different database connections? Or is this a known limitation for my current version/setup?

Any guidance on how to achieve this join within the Metabase UI (without creating a Linked Server) would be greatly appreciated!

2

You can’t do a join across database.

What you need to do is create a view in the 1st SQL database to query the 2nd database.

Just watch the performance as the indexes won’t be used as efficiently. Not much you can do about that other than have a 3rd database that holds the data from the first 2. Not a stupid idea as then you can add all the clever columnstore stuff that you can’t add to your application database.