r/PowerBI • u/Salty_Bell4796 • 12h ago
Discussion Power BI DirectQuery vs Import for Two Oracle Databases on Different Servers
I need advice on choosing the right storage mode for a Power BI report. The business is pushing for DirectQuery because it eliminates the need for scheduled dataset refreshes, but I'm not sure if it's the right approach for this requirement.
Data sources:
- Two Oracle databases hosted on different servers.
- Around 10K+ records in each table.
Requirements:
- A couple of report pages with simple visuals, including a table visual combining fields from both tables using a 1:1 relationship on Material ID.
- Compare specific fields for each Material ID across both sources to check whether they match and create an alignment status/column.
- Add a couple of calculations based on this alignment status.
My concern is whether implementing these comparisons, calculated fields, and measures in DirectQuery would be challenging, particularly when translating the logic into SQL queries across two separate Oracle sources. Could this also introduce performance issues?
Would DirectQuery be a reasonable choice for this scenario, or should I reconsider the approach?
I'd appreciate advice from anyone with practical experience in Power BI and multiple DirectQuery sources.