It's an old question I know, but with SQL Server 2012 is it finally ok to store files in the database, or should they really be kept in the filesystem with only references to them in the database?
If storing them in the database is considered acceptable these days, what is the most effective way to do it?
I'm planning to apply encryption so I appreciate processing will not be lightning fast.
SQL Server already has the FILESTREAM feature. The FILESTREAM feature provides efficient storage, management, and streaming of unstructured data stored as files on the file system.
You will need to attach it to your SQL Server. The files will be read into a File Stream and then the File Stream will be converted into byte array using BinaryReader in order to save into the database table. Once the File is converted into Byte Array it will be inserted into the database.
Also, keep in mind that Web servers are cheap and you can easily add more to balance the load, whereas the database is the most expensive and hardest to scale part of a web architecture usually. There are some opposite examples (e.g., Microsoft Sharepoint), but usually, storing files in the database is not a good idea.
There's a really good paper by Microsoft Research called To Blob or Not To Blob.
Their conclusion after a large number of performance tests and analysis is this:
if your pictures or document are typically below 256K in size, storing them in a database VARBINARY column is more efficient
if your pictures or document are typically over 1 MB in size, storing them in the filesystem is more efficient (and with SQL Server 2008's FILESTREAM attribute, they're still under transactional control and part of the database)
in between those two, it's a bit of a toss-up depending on your use
If you decide to put your pictures into a SQL Server table, I would strongly recommend using a separate table for storing those pictures - do not store the employee photo in the employee table - keep them in a separate table. That way, the Employee table can stay lean and mean and very efficient, assuming you don't always need to select the employee photo, too, as part of your queries.
For filegroups, check out Files and Filegroup Architecture for an intro. Basically, you would either create your database with a separate filegroup for large data structures right from the beginning, or add an additional filegroup later. Let's call it "LARGE_DATA".
Now, whenever you have a new table to create which needs to store VARCHAR(MAX) or VARBINARY(MAX) columns, you can specify this file group for the large data:
CREATE TABLE dbo.YourTable (....... define the fields here ......) ON Data -- the basic "Data" filegroup for the regular data TEXTIMAGE_ON LARGE_DATA -- the filegroup for large chunks of data
Check out the MSDN intro on filegroups, and play around with it!
There's still no simple answer. It depends on your scenario. MSDN has documentation to help you decide.
There are other options covered here. Instead of storing in the file system directly or in a BLOB, you can use the FileStream or File Table in SQL Server 2012. The advantages to File Table seem like a no-brainier (but admittedly I have no personal first-hand experience with them.)
The article is definitely worth a read.
If you love us? You can donate to us via Paypal or buy me a coffee so we can maintain and grow! Thank you!
Donate Us With