- Two-Tier Configuration – SharePoint and SQL Server running on dedicated machines
- Using the free SharePoint Foundation and SQL Server Express editions
- Enabling multiple SharePoint Content Databases
In this Screencast 
, we demonstrate how to install and configure RBS in SharePoint 2013.
You shouldn’t be surprised if 95% of SharePoint Content Databases is BLOB (Binary Large Objects) data – that’s how SP files are stored in the SQL server database. Moving BLOBSs out of the SQL server DB reduces CPU and memory utilization and results in a significant SharePoint performance boost. An easy way to do this is to use the Microsoft FILESTREAM provider which is provided as a free download in the SQL Server 2014 feature pack.
It is important to note that there are two types of RBS providers:
- Local RBS Provider – BLOBs are stored on the same machine that is running SQL Server
- Remote RBS Provider – BLOBs are stored on a separate machine,
and the local RBS FILESTREAM provider is supported only when using local hard disk drives or attached iSCSI devices.
The Local/Remote RBS Provider concept is quite often the source of confusion and misunderstanding, especially when SharePoint and SQL Server are running on separate machines; e.g., Two-Tier implementation. Some of the popular misconceptions are that you cannot use SQL Server 2014 Express edition, or even, that in this case you need SQL Server Enterprise edition. That is far from true, and for the sake of example, we are using a Two-Tier configuration with the free SharePoint 2013 Foundation and SQL Server 2014 Express editions.
We’ve already demonstrated in this video that the actual SQL Server 2014 Express buffer cache limit is higher than the official 1GB limit. Another pleasant surprise is that placing the BLOBs on a fast local (SSD) storage not only improves performance, but allows you to work around the 10GB per Database limit in the SQL Server express edition.
When dealing with a real-life scenario, you might have to answer addition questions, like:
- What kind of permissions you need to have and configure, especially when using the least privilege configuration?
- Do you need to install the RBS Feature Pack on the SQL Server?
- How do you enable a second, or a third SharePoint content database for Remote Blob Storage?
[raw]We address in detail all these questions in our step-by-step Screencast [/raw]
- How to Install SharePoint Foundation 2013 with SQL Server 2014 Express.
- SQL Server 2014 Express Actual Memory Limit.
- How to Start and Configure SharePoint Foundation 2010 Search
- How to Install and Configure Search Server 2010 Express
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Dean