information about Remote BLOB Storage in SharePoint

1. RBS in SharePoint

2. Introduction to BLOBs
• BLOB = Binary Large Object
• Large block of data stored in a database that is known by its size and location instead of by its
structure
• For example a Office document or a video file
• By default, BLOBs are stored directly in the SharePoint content database
• 90% of a typical content database is made up of BLOBs
• BLOBs can be very large
• From < 1 MB to 2 GB
• New copy is stored for each version
• BLOBs can be problematic on a SharePoint database
• Specially for files > 1 MB
• Data can consume lots of space and uses server resources that are optimized for database access patterns
• Also does not help in DB fragmentation
• It might be better to store BLOBs outside the content database

3. RBS in SharePoint
• RBS is a SQL Server library API set that is incorporated as an add-on
feature pack for SQL Server
• Enables applications, such as SharePoint 2013, to store BLOBs in a
location outside the content databases
• The metadata for each BLOB is stored in the SQL Server database and
the BLOB is stored in the RBS store
• TechNet resources
• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748649.aspx

4. FILESTREAM
• The FILESTREAM is a RBS provider included in
SQL Server
• SharePoint 2013 supports FILESTREAM
• FILESTREAM is transparent for end users and
for administration
• Deep copy feature
• Site collection backup/restore and site import/export will
download the file contents and upload them back to the
server regardless of which RBS provider is being used

5. RBS limits in SharePoint
• The total volume of remote BLOB storage and metadata in the
content database must not exceed the 200GB limit
• Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) storage subsystem on Network Attached
Storage (NAS)
• Time to first byte of any response from the NAS should remain within 40
milliseconds 95% of the time.
• When SharePoint Server 2013 is configured to use RBS, and the BLOBs reside
on NAS storage, consider the following supported limit.
• From the time that SharePoint Server 2013 requests a BLOB, until it receives
the first byte from the NAS, 95% of the time no more than 40 milliseconds can
pass.
• https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262787.aspx

6. RBS vs EBS
• EBS (External BLOB Storage)
• Introduced with SharePoint 2007 SP1
• Gives an opportunity to offload the BLOB
and passes an ID to SharePoint to keep
track of it
• Layer in SharePoint to talk to SQL Server
• RBS (Remote BLOB Storage)
• Introduced with SharePoint 2010
• Offloads all the BLOB content being
pushed to SQL Server
• No direct relation to SharePoint

7. Third party products
• Provide more functionality than FILESTREAM provider
• AvePoint DocAve Storage Manager
• Externalization rules bases on file size, content type, date…
• Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM) Capabilities
• Support for Advanced Storage Systems
• BLOB Compression and Encryption
• Capabilities to upload files natively blocked by SharePoint and files that exceed SharePoint
limitations
• Dashboards and tools to manage and monitor BLOB storage and to resolve problems and
orphaned items
• http://www.avepoint.com/products/sharepoint-infrastructure-management/sharepoint-
storage-management/
• Metalogix StoragePoint
• http://www.metalogix.com/Products/StoragePoint/StoragePoint-BLOB-Offloading.aspx