SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, Volume 2

Chapter 26. SQL FILESTREAM: to BLOB or not to BLOB

Ben Miller

Coming from a development background, I understand streaming and I/O operations; the two concepts fall close together in my mind. So, when I think about SQL Server, I think about data in rows and columns and managed by an engine—files don’t enter my mind.

FILESTREAM is a new SQL Server data type for SQL 2008 and later. More precisely, it’s an attribute on an existing varbinary(max) data type in SQL 2008 and later. There are requirements to use it, as you’ll see in this chapter. FILESTREAM gives the SQL Server engine the ability to store a reference to a file in a SQL Server column and have the actual file stored in the filesystem instead of inside the column itself. But the question ...