The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM - Red Gate Software

Chapter 12: Planning, Configuration and Best PracticesOptimizing your Storage Configuration forFILESTREAMEarlier chapters showed how to easily configure a SQL Server instance for experimentingwith FILESTREAM storage. When it comes to setting up a production server forFILESTREAM storage, a number of additional configuration steps are recommended tomake sure that the server is tuned for optimum FILESTREAM performance.Keep FILESTREAM data containers on a separatedisk volumeFILESTREAM operations can be very I/O intensive, so it is advisable to keep theFILESTREAM data container isolated from the data and log files of your database. If youhave several FILESTREAM-enabled databases on the server, it is advisable to put eachFILESTREAM container on a separate disk volume.If you expect to store a huge number of data files in your FILESTREAM data container,you can partition the FILESTREAM table and split the FILESTREAM data across multipledisk volumes. We saw how to partition a FILESTREAM table in Chapter 2.Disabling short file namesAs we discovered in Chapter 2, for every FILESTREAM cell that is not NULL, SQL Servercreates a disk file in the columns folder of the data container. If the table is large, it isquite possible that the folders associated with the FILESTREAM columns will contain alarge number of disk files.439