Running SSRS and SSAS from different server than the primary database instance(SQL Server Engine) Right now both SSRS, SSAS  and SQL Server Engine are on the same server.  We are using 2008R2 Enterprise. We are thinking to upgrade to SQL Server 2012 or 2014. and We want put on separate serve the SQL Engine and SSRS,SSAS on SQL Server 2012 or 2014.

What we want is:


  Server 1 for SQL Server Engine
  
  Server 2 for SSRS and SSAS


My questions are:


How they talk each other(the two Servers)?
Where the cube for SSAS stored?
Where the report builder build report?
Can you give my high level explanation how server 1 and server 2 interact or direct me some document I can read?
1.How they talk each other(the two Servers)?


From the database engine perspective, both SSRS and SSAS are clients like any other application.  These query data from SQL Server using SQL queries.  Microsoft just chose to include these components with SQL Server licensing and media.


  2.Where the cube for SSAS stored?


On the server with SSAS installed (server 2).


  3.Where the report builder build report?


On the server with SSRS installed (server 2).


  4.Can you give my high level explanation how server 1 and server 2 interact or direct me some document I can read?


In addition to what I mentioned in #1, client applications can query the SSAS server without involving the database engine at all after cubes are built.  However, SSRS has a dependency on the reporting server databases as well as data sources that may also be on SQL Server.

Below are a couple of architecture diagrams you might find useful:

SSAS:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb510502.aspx

SSRS:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms157231.aspx