That was a good idea. But sadly, it doesn't appear to be the case, either. I just tried that; didn't need "rpc".

SERVERA -> SERVERB -> SERVERC

A procedure on SERVERC simpy returns @@SERVERNAME.

A similar procedure on SERVERB inserts its own @@SERVERNAME and the results from the proc on SERVERC (2 rows).

An identical procedure on SERVERA, calls the proc on B... so, 3 rows - one for each server.

The procedure on A and B:

create proc testproc as

create table #x (eek varchar(500))

insert into #x select 'this is testproc on server ' + @@SERVERNAME

insert into #x exec linkedserver.testdb.dbo.testproc;

select * from #x

go

grant execute on testproc to public

(the proc on C is simply: SELECT @@SERVERNAME)

Result: 3 rows, one from each server. "rpc" was not enabled, only "rpc out".