The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM - Red Gate Software

Chapter 12: Planning, Configuration and Best PracticesAccess to FILESTREAM data from a remote computer uses the Server Message Block(SMB) protocol. SMB is a protocol used for sharing files and other resources such asprinters between computers. The default port number used by SMB is 445. You need tomake sure that the firewall is configured to allow access to these ports.Configuring the client computer for remote accessNote that streaming access to the FILESTREAM data is available only when the clientis authenticated using Windows authentication. So, when accessing FILESTREAM dataremotely, it is very important to ensure that the Windows user account your applicationuses on the other computer has adequate permissions to log in to the SQL Server instanceand access the FILESTREAM table using Windows authentication (Integrated Security).As on the server side, to use FILESTREAM in a firewall-protected environment, the clientmust be able to resolve DNS names to the server that contains the FILESTREAM files.Configuring the client application for remote accessOn the application side, accessing FILESTREAM data remotely is no different fromaccessing it from the same computer. In Chapter 3, we saw several examples that demonstratedhow to access the FILESTREAM data using the streaming APIs. You should be ableto run those examples successfully against a remote SQL Server instance if FILESTREAMhas been correctly configured for remote access.MSDN documentation recommends doing fewer updates with bigger data chunks whenaccessing FILESTREAM data remotely. The recommended buffer size is 60 KB for theoptimum performance.450