The Remote Server folder in SEM pulls it's info from the sysservers table.

sysservers is the name of the system table that stores info on remote and linked servers. MS recommends that you use Linked Server instead of Remote Servers but the info is still stored in the same table.

>> Why do you suppose the SQL help says remote servers are there only for "backward compatibility" when they evidently have some critical purpose?

Remote servers don't have a critical purpose, only the one entry that represents the local server.

I don't know anymore specifics.

-Mike