The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM - Red Gate Software

Chapter 10: Integrating FILESTREAM with other SQL Server FeaturesMaximum replication data sizeWhile configuring replication for FILESTREAM columns to VARBINARY(MAX) columns,one of the most important configuration parameters that needs attention is the maximumreplication data size setting. This is a SQL Server instance-level configuration which, bydefault, is set to 64 KB.Therefore, under the default maximum replication data size, and default FILESTREAMto VARBINARY(MAX) conversion settings, transactional or merge replication of aFILESTREAM () column, or any other large-value type, will fail if we attempt to storevalues larger than 64 KB. And not only the replication, but also the INSERT or UPDATEoperation will fail; SQL Server will abort the INSERT or UPDATE operation and generatethe following error:Length of LOB data (nnnn) to be replicated exceeds configured maximum 65536.The statement has been terminated.As we have seen several times in the previous chapters, FILESTREAM columns are idealonly if the values you expect to store in the FILESTREAM column are 1 MB or larger.This obviously means that when you set up transactional replication, you should eitherreplicate to FILESTREAM, or change the maximum replication data size configurationsetting so that values larger than 64 KB can be stored and replicated.To change the maximum replication size configuration setting, right-click on the SQLServer instance in SSMS Object Explorer and click Properties, navigate to the Advancedtab and edit the setting, as shown in Figure 10-2.Once the maximum replication data size setting has been increased, you will be able toreplicate FILESTREAM data values to VARBINARY(MAX) that are less than, or equal to,the size specified.355