The Art of SQL Server FILESTREAM - Red Gate Software

Chapter 12: Planning, Configuration and Best PracticesBest Practices for FILESTREAM DevelopmentIn this section, we have included all best practices for developers working withFILESTREAM. Some of these practices are found in other chapters of the text as well, butthis section may provide value for quickly evaluating an application's design or for useduring a code review.Use FILESTREAM streaming APIs to read and writeFILESTREAM dataAs we have seen, reading and writing FILESTREAM data using T-SQL is not efficientin most cases because, when FILESTREAM data is accessed using T-SQL, streamingcapability is not available. In addition, T-SQL access uses SQL Server's memory forbuffering the FILESTREAM data, which can significantly add to the memory pressureon the server.For best performance, always use the Win32 or Managed API for reading and writingFILESTREAM data.Avoid small partial updatesFILESTREAM does not support in-place update of the BLOB data. When you modify aFILESTREAM value, SQL Server will create a new copy of the entire file with the modifiedcontent and discard the old file. A new copy of the file needs to be created even for a smallchange in the FILESTREAM data file.If your application requires modification of data, you might want to review the expectedvolume of changes when you are deciding whether FILESTREAM storage is ideal. Iffrequent modifications are required, you might benefit more from keeping the data in a451