Improving Availability and enhancing Programmability - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration - page 240

SQL Server 2008 integrates the new data type called FILESTREAM , which integrates the
database engine with the NTFS file system by storing in the format of VARBINARY(MAX) . The
storage limit on such data can exceed the 2GB limit on the stored values to take advantage
of the relational capabilities of the core database engine, by handling the files on SQL
Server. Similarly, the collations affect how characters (data) for a specific language or accent
are recognized and sorted; by default SQL Server installation uses the default collation.
Furthermore, the FILESTREAM takes the operating system cache for caching file data to avoid
the usage of memory that is available for query processing which helps the performance. In this
recipe, we look at how to design a storage solution for unstructured data and new collations.

Getting ready

To take advantage of unstructured data storage, we need to ensure that FILESTREAM is
enabled on the operating system level and the SQL Server instance level.

1. Enable the FILESTREAM storage on the operating system level during the SQL

Server installation.