Storing and Managing SharePoint Content

RBS, FILESTREAM, SHREDDED STORAGE

Bruce TuncertanSharePoint Solution Architecttuncertan@hotmail.com

November 23rd, 2013

Introduction

Bruce TuncertanSolution Architect - SharePoint

tuncertan@hotmail.com

sharepointtidbits.blogspot.com

• Bruce Tuncertan is a Solution Architect specialized in Microsoft technologies especially SharePoint.

• Bruce possesses over 20 year experience in the Information Technology and working with SharePoint since 2006.

• He has architected many technical solutions for public and private clients sized from SMEs to large enterprises.

• Bruce carries MCITP, MCTS certifications for SharePoint 2003, 2007 and 2010 as well as MCITP certification for Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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@tuncertan

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Agenda

Data (Structured and Unstructured)SharePoint storage in briefBLOBs (Binary Large OBjects)Challenges of storing unstructured data in

SQL Server. RBS (Remote Blob Storage)FILESTREAMBenefits and disadvantages of RBSShredded Storage

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Data

Structured: Organized in entities Tied to a relationship with

attributes Associated with a defined

schema Defined format Predefined length

Usually Small Example:

Contact Lists Calendar Task Lists

Unstructured: Does not adhere to

specific format or sequence

It is not tied to rules and unpredictable

Examples: Pictures, Images Video Audio Text Word, PowerPoint, etc.

Most often large in size

On average, in the enterprise 20% of the data is structured and 80% is unstructured

SharePoint Storage in Brief

• By default SharePoint stores its data in Microsoft SQL Server

• Both structured and unstructured data is stored in SQL tables

• SharePoint data storage is built around the file

Document Libraries

Record Centers

SharePoint Storage History

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• SharePoint Portal Server (SPS)

• SharePoint Team Services (STS)

• SharePoint Portal Server 2003

• Windows SharePoint Services

• Office SharePoint 2007 & Windows SharePoint Services

• 100GB / 1TB• Backup Tools• External BLOB Storage

(EBS)

• SharePoint Server 2010 & SharePoint Foundation 2010

• 200GB / 4TB• Remote BLOB Storage

(RBS)• Backup Tools

• SharePoint Server 2013 & SharePoint Foundation 2013

• 200GB / 4TB• Remote BLOB Storage

(RBS)• Shredded Storage

2001• File and

Database Storage

2003• All SQL

Storage

2007• SQL

Storage • EBS

2010• SQL

Storage• RBS

2013• SQL

Storage• Shredded

Storage

BLOB?

Microsoft TechNet: In SharePoint, a binary large object (BLOB) is a

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: unstructured data

stored directly in the SP content db along with the structured data

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BLOBs in SharePoint BLOB is the data stream associated with a file

BLOBs do not participate in query operations

They consume about 80% of the total content

SharePoint stores BLOBs and associated metadata in the content database

Storage Challenges

• Cost SQL storage is usually more expensive

• Performance SQL BLOBs bubble-up at the web front end.

Introduces a burden to SQL server performance due to its large size

• Compliance and Policy Requirements Expunge

BLOB Immutability

Externalizing BLOBs

EBS – External BLOB Storage Developed by SharePoint Team

FARM Level

Supported in SharePoint 2007 and 2010 but deprecated in 2010

Not supported in SharePoint 2013

RBS – Remote BLOB Storage Developed by SQL team

Content db Level

Introduced in SharePoint 2010

Supported in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013

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RBS (Remote Blob Storage) - Overview

• RBS is designed to outline unstructured (BLOB) as well as structured (metadata) data

• RBS provides flexibility to organizations to deploy more efficient data storage

RBS does not resolve the capacity challenges – The corpus size is the sum of both structured and unstructured data regardless of their location

• RBS offers an upgrade path for organizations

RBS Overview

RBS Overview

Unstructured Data Storage Options

• SQL BLOB Traditional method, storing BLOBs in SQL db

• RBS-Remote SQL Server add-on

Dedicated remote file store services (RBS Providers)

Avepoint

Metalogix

NetApp

Quest

• RBS-FILESTREAM Another RBS provider

SQL Server Feature

Integrated File + Database

Ideal for files > 1MB

Data Storage Options/Pros and Cons

RBS-FILESTREAM

• Moves blobs from the SQL Database into the file system.

• It is still a unit of the database

• Unstructured data stored directly in the NTFS file system

• Dual programming model with Data consistency

• They do not participate in the query operations

• It can help improve SQL Server performance

• Size limit is the file system volume size

FILESTREAM Performance

Throughput

Accessing FILESTREAM BLOB Data

T-SQL Access to Insert, Update and Delete FILESTREAM data.

T-SQL is ideal for inserting short amount of data

Updating a FILESTREAM field modifies the underlying BLOB data

Deleting a row with FILESTREAM data, deletes the underlying BLOB data

Win32 Streaming Access to work within the context of SQL Server Transaction (T-SQL) to provide access.

Local and Remote FILESTREAM

Local FILESTREAM

• Unstructured data is stored in a file group and associated with the content database on the same SQL Server

• Supports integrated management, i.e. backup and restore

Remote FILESTREAM

• Unstructured data is stored in a file group in a separate db or SQL Server with related structured data

• Does not supports integrated management

• Unstructured data managed separately

FILESTREAM Limitations and Constraints

• Local FILESTREAM is really local DAS, NAS, SAN are all considered remote

No support for compression and TDE

Special limitations for mirroring and log shipping

• 3rd party ISV solutions require SQL Server Enterprise Edition

• NAS storage devices require 20ms TTFB

RBS Benefits

• Decreases storage costs

• Optimizes SQL disk I/O via bypassing SQL for BLOB operations

• Transparent to end user

• Increases BLOB transfer speed from/to the SQL Server and the Client.

• Moving a site becomes faster and more efficient because it doesn’t move the site. It moves the reference.

RBS Costs

• Backup & Restore

• Management of additional infrastructure

• Additional maintenance

• Clustered environment still require shared storage

• Microsoft does not support SQL Mirroring, db Snapshots and RBS on the same db

When to consider RBS?

Document Libraries are the main focus of your SharePoint farm or a site collection.

Majority of those files (>70%) exceed 1MB

SharePoint content db housing these files is large in size (~200GB)

Your DR tools are either RBS aware or you have process intended to synchronize backups

You have highly skilled, SQL and Windows Server admins that is trained or has the capacity to get trained in RBS

Your content must be on-premise

Shredded Storage

Newly introduced at SharePoint 2013Data platform improvementManages changes/edits to the large filesImprove the I/OReduces the compute utilizationReduces SQL storage

Traditional File Storage

When versions enabled – for every edit of the file, a brand new version is created with the metadata in SQL Server.1MB file with 10 versions = 10MB of SQL allocation.

Issues:Large SQL database sizeIncreased I/O traffic due to additional roundtrips to SQL Server

Shredded Storage @ SharePoint 2013

It compares the document before saving.Only saves the changed bits in the document. 1MB file with 10 versions 2.5MB of SQL allocation. Files are split into parts and saved as individual rows.By default it is turned ONCan be used in conjunction with RBS

Shredded Storage Pros & Cons Pros

SQL I/O is improved

Size of the content db is reduced under certain scenarios

Reduced SQL Server transaction logs

Cons All content is still stored in the SQL Server

Cannot be disabled – other options?

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Shredded Storage Logistics

Files are shredded in to 64KB or 1MB blocksSharePoint recognizes Office files and splits them into 64KB blocks.Other files will be shredded into 1MB blocks.Whether they are versioned or not.Cell Storage API is utilized for Shredded Storage

How Shredded Storage Works?

Shredded Storage & RBS Together

Shredded Storage splits larger BLOBs into many small BLOBsRBS works best with larger BLOBsWhat happens when we put them together?

Files recognized by SharePoint will get shredded regularly and stored to the RBS depending on your RBS Threshold. If SharePoint does not recognize the file it will get shredded to 1MB blocks and will be stored in the RBS if it is enabled.

RBS Threshold will be ignored.

In order to get the best of the both worlds Set RBS threshold to 1MB

Summary

Shredded Storage and RBS are complimentary to one another

Shredded Storage is beneficial in core collaborative cases with versioning is enabled

Make sure you consider other factors when developing a SharePoint storage strategy

RBS provides benefits over and above the Shredded Storage

Don’t forget Shredded Storage is here to stay

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Question 1

What is the supported content database size in SharePoint 2010?

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Question 2

What is the recommended file size for FILESTREAM?

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Question 3

What is the block/chunk size of Office Files when shredded in SharePoint 2013?

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Question 4

Can you give examples of structured and unstructured data?

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Question 5

In which version of SharePoint, RBS is introduced?

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Resources

• RBS Best Practices in SharePoint 2010 http://is.gd/0M432w • SharePoint 2010 RBS Benefits/Trade-offs http://bit.ly/nezN93 • Introduction to Shredded Storage in SharePoint 2013 http://bit.ly/PQbSBK • SharePoint 2013 Shredded Storage http://bit.ly/1gJwwkV • Shredded Storage vs. RBS http://bit.ly/16q8LY5 • Plan for RBS in SharePoint 2013 http://bit.ly/17MkjSU• The Impact of Shredded Storage on SharePoint 2013 http://bit.ly/1buWmEh

Q&A

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