Where do SQL Server Management Studio queries actually execute?

Question

If I am using SQL Server Management Studio on my local machine to execute a query which is manipulating data on one or more remote servers, where does the actual computing take place? Is it using my local resources or that of the remote server?

Answer 1

The remote server.

SQL Server Management Studio doesn't have any Query Execution Engine built in to it. It simply sends your query to the server that you are connect to and gets the results (and the query plan used, if you request it).

In the case of querying data across linked servers, the server will used the linked server configuration to send the query to the linked server and retrieve the relevant results.