BruceTuncertan@SierraSystems.com

STORING AND MANAGING YOUR SHAREPOINT CONTENT

RBS, FILESTREAM, SHREDDED STORAGE

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@tuncertan

Bruce TuncertanPrincipal, Solution Architect – SharePoint at Sierra Systems

INTRODUCTION

BruceTuncertan@SierraSystems.com

sharepointtidbits.blogspot.com

Solution Architect specialized in Microsoft technologies specifically SharePoint.

Possesses 25 year experience in the Information Technology and working with SharePoint since 2006.

Architected many solutions for public and private clients sized from SMEs to large enterprises.

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

AGENDA

• Data (Structured and Unstructured)

• SharePoint storage in brief

• BLOBs (Binary Large OBjects)

• Challenges of storing unstructured data in SQL Server.

• RBS (Remote Blob Storage)

• FILESTREAM

• Benefits and disadvantages of RBS

• Shredded Storage

• Questions & Prizes 5

•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

DATA

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

DATA

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

DATA

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 Server 2010 & SharePoint Foundation 2010

• 200GB / 4TB• Remote BLOB Storage (RBS)• Backup Tools

• SharePoint Portal Server 2003• Windows SharePoint Services

• Office SharePoint 2007 & Windows SharePoint Services

• 100GB / 1TB• Backup Tools• External BLOB Storage (EBS)

• 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 an Office document or a video file

• By default, BLOBs are:• unstructured data

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

11

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

BLOBMetadat

a

SQL Server

Web Server

SP Object Model

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• Retention

• Obsolescence

NO MORE BLOBS

14

?

By 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

HOW ARE WE GOING TO SOLVE IT?

15

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

BLOBMetadat

a

SQL Server

Web Server

SP Object Model

RBS OVERVIEW

BLOBMetadat

a

SQL Server

Web Server

SP Object Model

BLOBProvider

BLOB Storage RBS Maintainer

RBS OVERVIEW

BLOBMetadat

a

SQL Server

Web Server

SP Object Model

BLOBProvider

1

BLOBProvider

2

BLOBProvider

3

BLOB Storage

1

BLOB Storage

2

BLOB Storage

3RBS Maintainer

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

• It can help improve SQL Server performance

• Size limit is the file system volume size

FILESTREAM PERFORMANCE

• 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

LOCAL AND REMOTE FILESTREAM

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

• 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

FILESTREAM LIMITATIONS AND CONSTRAINTS

•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 BENEFITS

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

RBS is not supported with Office 365

SHREDDED STORAGE

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

SHREDDED STORAGE

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

SHREDDED STORAGE

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

TRADITIONAL SHAREPOINT 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 size Increased 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.Can be used in conjunction with RBSBy default it is turned ON

•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?

SHREDDED STORAGE PROS & CONS

34

SHREDDED STORAGE LOGISTICSFiles 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?

HOW SHREDDED STORAGE WORKS?

HOW SHREDDED STORAGE WORKS?

MIGRATIONWhat happens when we migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013?

MIGRATIONWhat happens when we migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013?

1. Existing files are shredded during the migration and new files will be shredded afterwards

2. Existing files are not shredded but new files will be shredded automatically after the migration

3. Existing files are not shredded and shredding will be turned on manually after the migration

MIGRATIONWhat happens when we migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013?

1. Existing files are shredded during the migration and new files will be shredded afterwards

2. Existing files are not shredded but new files will be shredded automatically after the migration

3. Existing files are not shredded and shredding will be turned on manually after the migration

SHREDDED STORAGE & RBS TOGETHERShredded 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

SHREDDED STORAGE & RBS TOGETHERShredded 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

• 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

SUMMARY

44

QUESTION 1

•What is the supported content database size in SharePoint 2010?

45

•What is the recommended file size for FILESTREAM?

46

QUESTION 2

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

47

QUESTION 3

•Can you give examples of structured and unstructured data?

48

QUESTION 4

• In which version of SharePoint, RBS is introduced?

49

QUESTION 5

REFERENCES

• 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