title: SSAS and SQL Server
body: <p>We have a large number of stored procedures where data is pulled from an SSAS cube on the same server as SQL Server, and combined with data from the SQL Server tables.  </p>
  
  <p>We currently use a linked server, <code>openquery</code> and MDX to pull the data from SSAS. This creates some issues with execution plans since it can't estimate the number of rows that will be returned from SSAS. Is this really the only way to connect SSAS and SQL Server?</p>