CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sql-serversql-server-express
Jasper
Jasper

Reputation: 1837

SQL Server Express database size / BLOB storage

I was reading about external blob storage in SQL Server and was wondering how this relates to the database size. When talking SQL Server Express, you have a limit in database size (for 2008 it's 10GB I believe). So how about your ESB storage? Is that taken into account for this limit, or does it only count the actual .mdf file itself? Thinking about it, what about the .ldf log file?

I was thinking about this related to SharePoint. Since the major part of a content database usually consists of larger blob objects (documents), it could be very cost effective to move those to ESB if that saves you fullsize SQL Server licenses.

Update: Posted about a possible savings option for SharePoint Foundation - SQL Express here: http://blog.repsaj.nl/index.php/2012/09/sp2010-saving-yourself-a-full-sql-license/

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6132

Answers (2)

Remus Rusanu
Remus Rusanu

Reputation: 294177

FILESTREAM size is not accounted against the total 10Gb restriction size.

SQL Server Express supports FILESTREAM. The 10-GB database size limit does not include the FILESTREAM data container.

But the Remote Blob Store package has a dependency on SQL Agent jobs for things like garbage collection and orphan scan and SQL Express Edition does not have SQL Agent. It requires Enterprise Edition:

RBS requires SQL Server Enterprise for the main database server in which the BLOB metadata is stored. However, if you use the supplied FILESTREAM provider, you can store the BLOBs themselves on SQL Server Standard.

Upvotes: 3

marc_s
marc_s

Reputation: 754220

The 10gb size limit concerns the .mdf only - no limit on the .ldf.

Also, in SQL Server 2008 - the database size limit does not apply to data stored as FILESTREAM in your database (see FILESTREAM compatibility: SQL Server Express supports FILESTREAM. The 10-GB database size limit does not include the FILESTREAM data container).

Upvotes: 5

Related Questions