tempdb transaction log overflowing when query is executed against linked server

What the title says -

Msg 9002, Level 17, State 4, Line 1 The transaction log for database 'tempdb' is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databases

The query in question first pulls out some rows from a databased on the linked server (matching strings in the server I'm querying from), stores them in a table, then uses this table to pull out 开发者_开发技巧more matching records from the linked server. This is what I get on the second part.

The basic question is, is there something else hiding in this error message? Which tempdb is it, my tempdb, or the linked server's tempdb? I don't think mine can be a problem, as increasing the size doesn't help, the recover mode is simple, autogrowth is on, etc.

You first need to check your SQL Server's tempDB.... is the drive that TempDB and its log got lots of free disc space? It might be on two different drives. I would expect such an error to write a message in the SQL Server error log - have you checked there as well at the time of the problem? You then need to do the same on the remote server, if you have access.

Whether it's tempDB or a user/application database, just because the recovery model is simple doesn't mean that the transaction log won't grow - and take all the disk space! It does make it less likely, but long transactions can cause it to "blow".