Externalizing BLOB Storage in SharePoint 2010

By default, SharePoint stores all the uploaded documents and files in its content databases. This has always led to storage, performance, and manageability issues, especially for large SharePoint deployments in SharePoint 2003 and the early days of SharePoint 2007. In SharePoint 2007 SP1, Microsoft made its first attempt to store documents and files out of SQL Server; however, the implementation was difficult and came with many limitations. In SharePoint 2010, Microsoft took this to a completely new level by making use of the powerful storage externalization capabilities of SQL Server 2008 R2. This section explains what BLOBs are, how they are stored in SharePoint, and how Microsoft made use of the Remote BLOB Storage technology in SharePoint 2010 to move the storage of large documents and files from SQL Server to remote stores. At the end of this section, administrators learn how to install and configure RBS in SharePoint 2010 environments and how to migrate and move data between different stores.