How to Connect Oracle to Looker in PostgreSQL

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How do I quickly connect Oracle to Looker?

Create a secure JDBC connection so Looker can query Oracle schemas and serve analytics.

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Description

Table of Contents

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Why connect Oracle to Looker?

Moving reporting logic from ad-hoc SQL to governed Looker models centralizes metrics, removes spreadsheet chaos, and offloads heavy queries from transactional Oracle systems.

Which drivers does Looker require for Oracle?

Looker Cloud ships the Oracle JDBC thin driver (v19); self-hosted Looker admins must copy ojdbc8.jar into /looker/driver/ and restart Looker.

How do I add an Oracle connection in Looker?

Step 1 – Open Admin → Connections

Click New Connection and pick Oracle as the dialect.

Step 2 – Enter JDBC string

jdbc:oracle:thin:@//HOSTNAME:PORT/SERVICE_NAME

Step 3 – Provide credentials

Use a least-privilege Oracle user with read access to your analytics schema.

Step 4 – Set Additional Params

Optional: oracle.jdbc.timezoneAsRegion=false avoids timestamp drift.

Step 5 – Test & Save

Click Test; Looker validates network, auth, and basic SQL (SELECT 1 FROM DUAL).

How do I model Oracle tables in LookML?

Create a new view file per table, then a model referencing the Oracle connection.Example below uses e-commerce tables.

What SQL validates the connection?

Run small deterministic queries—e.g., count records—to confirm latency and permissions.

Best practices for production

  • Grant the Looker user SELECT only.
  • Create Oracle materialized views for heavy joins.
  • Enable persistent derived tables in Looker to cache expensive logic.
  • Schedule query-based PDT rebuilds during off-peak hours.

Common mistakes

Using SID instead of SERVICE_NAME

Modern JDBC strings require SERVICE_NAME; using :SID fails with ORA-12505.

Forgetting network allow-list

Oracle’s firewall must allow Looker’s IPs or private VPC peering; otherwise tests time out.

FAQs

Does Looker support Oracle 12c?

Yes—Looker supports 11g → 19c; verify the JDBC driver matches DB version.

Can I join Oracle and BigQuery data?

Looker’s Linked Models let you query across connections in Explore, but performance depends on the slower source.

How do I migrate models from Oracle to Snowflake later?

Keep LookML dialect-agnostic—avoid Oracle-only functions—so you can swap the connection and PDTs will rebuild.

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Why How to Connect Oracle to Looker in PostgreSQL is important

How to Connect Oracle to Looker in PostgreSQL Example Usage


-- KPI tile in Looker dashboard
SELECT SUM(oi.quantity * p.price) AS total_revenue
FROM   OrderItems oi
JOIN   Products   p ON p.id = oi.product_id
JOIN   Orders     o ON o.id = oi.order_id
WHERE  o.order_date BETWEEN DATE '2024-01-01' AND DATE '2024-01-31';

How to Connect Oracle to Looker in PostgreSQL Syntax


-- Verify Oracle connection from Looker
SELECT 1 FROM DUAL;

-- Ecommerce sanity checks
SELECT COUNT(*) AS customer_cnt FROM Customers;
SELECT COUNT(*) AS order_cnt FROM Orders;

-- Example join leveraging indexed keys
SELECT o.id, c.name, o.total_amount
FROM   Orders      o
JOIN   Customers   c ON c.id = o.customer_id
WHERE  o.order_date >= DATE '2024-01-01';

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is SSL required?

Not mandatory but strongly recommended. Provide ?oracle.net.ssl_server_dn_match=true in the JDBC string and upload the wallet to Looker.

How large can Oracle tables be?

Looker streams results; millions of rows are fine, but use aggregate explores or PDTs for better UX.

Want to learn about other SQL terms?

dbt tests

dbt tests are declarative assertions in dbt that automatically validate data quality during model builds.

dbt utils

dbt utils is a community-maintained dbt package that adds time-saving utility macros for analytics engineers, such as generating surrogate keys, safely unioning models, and automating date spines.

dbt Tutorial Glossary: Build, Test & Deploy SQL Models

dbt is an open-source framework that lets data teams transform raw warehouse tables into tested, documented, production-ready datasets using version-controlled SQL.

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