How to backup a filestream database?

Question

1.) How can I backup my FILESTREAM database on SQL Server 2008 from SQL Server Management Studio?
2.) Do I have to make a separate backup of the FILESTREAM folder on disc?

Answer 1

1.) You can backup the filestream data using the normal SQL Backup & Recovery process. See this article for reference. You can also exclude filestream data explicitly from your backup should you want to.

2.) You can take a separate backup of the filestream directory, but you really don't need to. It only makes sense to the SQL Server DB instance that created it.