Distributed query

SQL Server includes a feature called Distributed Query, which accesses data on different SQL Server instances, other database sources, and non-database tabular data such as Microsoft Office Excel files or comma-separated text files. Distributed Query is based on the OLE DB interfaces, and most OLE DB providers are feature-rich enough to be used by the Distributed Query feature. Because multiple sources can be referenced within a single query, it’s an effective mechanism to interact with data from multiple sources without writing a lot of special-case code.

Distributed Query supports several distinct use cases.

  • You can use Distributed Query to move data from one source to another. Although it’s not a complete ETL tool like SQL Server ...

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