Can the FORCESEEK query hint be used on tables being queried against on a linked server? (I.e. as part of a distributed query)

Question

I have a query that uses the FORCESEEK hint and runs fine on the server where the database I'm querying lives. If I try to run the same exact query remotely from a different server (targeting the original server), I get the following error:

Msg 7436, Level 16, State 1, Line 4 The query processor could not produce a query plan because FORCESEEK or FORCESCAN hints on table or view 'TableBeingQueried' cannot be used with remote data sources. Remove the hints and resubmit the query.

Example T-SQL:

SELECT DISTINCT Table3.Field5
FROM Server1.Database1.Table1 AS T1
INNER JOIN Server1.Database1.Table2 AS T2 WITH (FORCESEEK) -- Index exists for T2.Field2
    ON T1.Field1 = T2.Field2
INNER JOIN Server1.Database1.Table3 AS T3 WITH (FORCESEEK) -- Index exists for T3.Field3
    ON T2.Field4 = T3.Field3

Answer 1

You could use OPENQUERY() to be able to query the linked server and apply FORCESEEK / FORCESCAN hints.

Example:

SELECT * FROM
OPENQUERY(
[Server1],
'SELECT DISTINCT Table3.Field5
FROM Server1.Database1.Table1 AS T1
INNER JOIN Server1.Database1.Table2 AS T2 WITH (FORCESEEK) -- Index exists for T2.Field2
    ON T1.Field1 = T2.Field2
INNER JOIN Server1.Database1.Table3 AS T3 WITH (FORCESEEK) -- Index exists for T3.Field3
    ON T2.Field4 = T3.Field3;');

Answer 2

You CANNOT use FROCESCAN or FORCESEEK on remote data sources.

Reference: Hints (Transact-SQL) - Table

The FORCESCAN hint has the following restrictions:

The hint cannot be specified for a remote data source.

When using the FORCESEEK hint (with or without index parameters), consider the following guidelines:

The hint cannot be specified for a remote data source. Error 7377 is returned when FORCESEEK is specified with an index hint and error 8180 is returned when FORCESEEK is used without an index hint.