Sharepoint 2010 Misconception with RBS

13/07/2011 Leave a comment

After Sharepoint 2010 sp1 is released , some new features and improvements has been spreading in several blogs.And one of the most interested the new content database limits. In SP1 , by defining specific requirements for large data storage in SharePoint, Microsoft is able to increase the supported limits for data storage in SharePoint.
Sotware boundaries and limits and the primary changes are:

  1. For a SharePoint content database up to 200 GB there are no special requirements and this limit is included for consistency.
  2. For a SharePoint content database up to 4 TB you need to additionally plan for the following two requirements:
    • Requires disk sub-system performance of 0.25 IOPS per GB, 2 IOPS per GB is recommended for optimal performance.
    • Requires the customer to have plans for high availability, disaster recovery, future capacity, and performance testing.
    • And you need to review additional considerations in the TechNet Boundaries and Limits article.
  3. For a SharePoint content database over 4TB specifically for a Document Archive scenario you are required to additionally plan for the following:
    • SharePoint sites must be based on Document Center or Records Center site templates and must be an archive scenario where less than 5% of content is actively read from each month and less than 1% of content is actively written to.
    • Do not use alerts, workflows, link fix-ups, or item level security on any SharePoint objects in the content database. Note: document archive content databases can be the recipient of documents as a result of Content Routing workflow.
  4. Other specific limits changes being made at the same time:
    • A new limit of 60million items in any one SharePoint content database
    • The specific 5 TB limit per SQL Server instance has been removed.  Instead you should work with a SQL Server professional to plan for database storage.

 Also these new extended limitation is not our artile issue if you need more info see:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

And also RBS has some improvements:
The Microsoft SQL Server FILESTREAM RBS provider is now supported allowing for iSCSI connections to lower cost NAS storage. The SQL Server RBS provider is one option for RBS use with SharePoint and there are a number of ISV’s who also have RBS providers.

What about RBS misconception: Misconception is that RBS can provide extra database size limit ? Answer is “No”:

First of all Microsoft Says :
“We are clarifying that Remote Blob Storage (RBS) does not offer a way to increase the SharePoint content database size limits. The content database supported size limits apply to the sum of data stored in SQL Server plus data stored outside of SQL Server using an RBS provider”

Even if you use RBS or not , Sharepoint boundries is strict and you should not able to change it. And this is not only just Content DB size limit. it is also valid for all Sharepoint Limitation,  including Maximum document size limit of 2 GB for one file.

See you in next article…

 

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Can not Enable RBS because of SQL server collation for Sharepoint 2010

19/04/2011 Leave a comment

Note: This is article contains possibility of one reason for this error.You can able to get this error other unrelated situations.)

When you try to enable after complete installation of RBS in sharepoint powershell console you getting belowed error:

Exception calling “Enable” with “0″ argument(s): “Must declare the scalar variable “@RBsId”.”
At line:1 char:13
…

First you think like me should i missing a parameter ? Answer NO! You are not! this fuction is parameterless.But whats happing ? I reflect the dlls and find out SPContentDatabase.RemoteBlobSettings.Enable() function call stored procedure of “dbo.proc_EnableRbs” in selected content database.And this stored procedure using @RBsId as internal parameter.

Can not enable RBS Error

Can not enable RBS Error

After working one day and countless install/uninstall attempt finally we found the problem is SQL Server Collation set “TURKISH_CI_AS” .And sharepoint 2010 has limitation with SQL collation .

You get more information form here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2008668

Changing the server collation to Latin1_General_CI_AS_KS_WS fixes the issue .

In this moment you have two option as hardway you can try to rebuild master tables with correct collation and alter all content databases or as easy way you can reinstall SQL Server  with corrent collation.

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Error acces to registry key when installing RBS.msi

18/04/2011 Leave a comment

This article about encounter registry access denied error when installing RBS.msi as your account already added Local Administrator group in Windows Server 2008

Here is the complete error:
“Installing the FILESTREAM blob store failed with error message:
Access to the registry key
‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Remote Blob Storage’ is denied.
Setup will continue the installation”

Cause : UAC

Solution: Disable UAC

.

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SharePoint 2010 Server with FILESTREAM RBS Provider

01/10/2010 4 Comments

What is RBS ?

Remote Blob Storage is a library API set that is incorporated as an add-on feature pack for Microsoft SQL Server. It can be run on the local server running Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008,SQL server 2008 express or SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. To run RBS on a remote server, you must be running SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition. RBS is not supported for Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

What is the benefits of RBS ?

RBS can provide the following benefits:

  • BLOB data can be stored on less expensive storage devices that are configured to handle simple storage.
  • The administration of the BLOB storage is controlled by a system that is designed specifically to work with BLOB data.
  • Database server resources are freed for database operations.

When we consider to use RBS ?

  • The BLOB data files are larger than 256 kilobytes (KB).
  • The BLOB data files are at least 80 KB and the database server is a performance bottleneck. In this case, RBS reduces the both the I/O and processing load on the database server.

What is the difference of RBS with FILESTREAM and RBS without FILESTREAM feature ?

This implementation of the FILESTREAM provider is known as the local FILESTREAM provider. You can conserve resources by using the local RBS FILESTREAM provider to place the extracted BLOB data on a different (cheaper) local disk such as RAID 5 instead of RAID 10. You cannot use RBS with the local FILESTREAM provider on remote storage devices, such as network attached storage (NAS). The FILESTREAM provider is supported when it is used on local hard disk drives only.

A remote RBS FILESTREAM provider that is available in SQL Server 2008 R2 Express can store BLOB data on remote commodity storage such as direct-attached storage (DAS) or NAS. However, SharePoint Server 2010 does not currently support the remote RBS FILESTREAM provider.

BLOBs can be kept on commodity storage such as direct-attached storage (DAS) or network attached storage (NAS), as supported by the provider. The FILESTREAM provider is supported by SharePoint Server 2010 when it is used on local hard disk drives only. You cannot use RBS with FILESTREAM on remote storage devices, such as NAS.

The following table summarizes FILESTREAM benefits and limitations.

Operational requirement RBS with FILESTREAM RBS without FILESTREAM
SQL Server integrated backup and recovery of the BLOB Store Yes Yes
Scripted migration to BLOBs Yes Yes
Supports mirroring No No
Log shipping Yes Yes, with provider implementation
Database snapshots No1 No1
Geo replication Yes No
Encryption NTFS only No
Network Attached Storage (NAS) Not supported by SharePoint 2010 Products Yes, with provider implementation

1If the RBS provider that you are using does not support snapshots, you cannot use snapshots for content deployment or backup. For example, the SQL FILESTREAM provider does not support snapshots.

If FILESTREAM is not a practical provider for your environment, you can purchase a supported third-party provider. In this case, you should evaluate the following criteria when shopping for a provider:

  • Backup and restore capability
  • Tested disaster recovery
  • Deployment and data migration
  • Performance impact
  • Long-term administrative costs

What is the Prerequistes ?

If you plan to store BLOB data in an RBS store that differs from your SharePoint Server 2010 content databases, you must run SQL Server 2008 with SP1 and Cumulative Update 2. This is true for all RBS providers.

Important Notes

  • RBS does not enable any kind of direct access to any files that are stored in Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products. All access must occur by using SharePoint 2010 Products only.
  • If you are storing many small (less than 256 KB) files that are frequently accessed by many users, you might experience increased latency on sites that have many small files that are stored in RBS. Increased latency is one cost factor that you should consider when you evaluate RBS for your storage solution. However, it is unlikely to be the strongest consideration. The amount of increased latency is also related to the RBS provider that you use.
  • RBS can be run on the local server running Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 or SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. To run RBS on a remote server, you must be running SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise edition. SharePoint Server 2010 requires you to use the version of RBS that is included with the SQL Server Remote BLOB Store installation package from the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. Earlier versions of RBS will not work with SharePoint Server 2010. In addition, RBS is not supported in SQL Server 2005.
  • For best performance, simplified troubleshooting, and as a general best practice, we recommend that you create the BLOB store on a volume that does not contain the operating system, paging files, database data, log files, or the tempdb file
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express supports databases up to 10 GB. If the installation includes content databases that are larger than 4 GB but smaller than 10 GB, you can upgrade to SQL Server 2008 R2 Express for your content database storage solution instead of implementing RBS. For more information, see Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express Edition
  • WARNING:We do not recommend that you install RBS by running the RBS_X64.msi file and launching the Install SQL Remote BLOB Storage wizard. The wizard configures the RBS Maintainer to run a scheduled task every 30 days. This setting might not be optimal for your environment. For more information about the RBS Maintainer, see the SQL Server Help documentation that is included with the SQL Server Remote BLOB Store installation package from the Feature Pack for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2. (ref : Install and configure Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) with the FILESTREAM provider (SharePoint Server 2010))UPDATE 18.04.2011: With new version RBS.msi you can use GUI interface to install rbs to your envoriment.
    You have to select “Show the optional advanced configuration options” when wizard in progress. And uncheck the maintaner  schedule configuration for disable maintainer.You can download from Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Feature Pack Page
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=ceb4346f-657f-4d28-83f5-aae0c5c83d52
    This is the only provider that Sharepoint Server 2010  with version 10.50.xxxx (R2) .But you can load this provider to SQL Server 2008 express loaded machine.


Tips and Tricks

  • You can allow only big files to be put into FILESTREAM. Since FILESTREAM performance is not as good as the databases when it deals with small files (for example, <1M), you can change this threshold.  The following Windows PowerShell command change the setting to 1M (1048576 bytes), file below 1M will be stored in DB.

$cbd = Get-SPContentDatabase “WSS_Content”
$cbd.RemoteBlobStorageSettings.MinimumBlobStorageSize=1048576
$cdb.Update()

It would be good to test the performance based on your own storage and hardware.

This Article base on below MSDN articles :

And Blog Articles

Other Resources

Happy Codding…
.

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