Install and configure RBS with a 3rd party provider (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

This article describes how to install and configure Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) for a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Express database server that supports a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 farm.

To use RBS, you must do the following:

• Install the RBS client library on each Web server – the RBS client library stores the BLOB data on the file system, enable fidelity checks, and perform other tasks.

• Install the 3rd-party provider – Be sure to follow the instructions from the manufacturer of the provider.

• Enable RBS for each content database - You must enable RBS for each content database for which you want to use RBS.

• Test the RBS installation

The user account that you use to perform the procedures that are described in this article must have the following memberships:

• Administrators group on the Web servers and application servers.

• SQL Server dbcreator and securityadmin fixed server roles on the computer that is running SQL Server 2008 R2 Express.

Install the RBS client library on each Web server

You must install RBS client library on all Web servers in the SharePoint farm. The RBS client library is installed only once per Web server, but RBS is configured separately for each associated content database. The client library consists of a client-side DLL that is linked into a user application, as well as a set of stored procedures to be installed on SQL Server.

To install the RBS client library on the on the first Web server

1. On any Web server, browse to https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=188395&clcid=0x409 and download the RBS.msi file.

2. Click Start, click Run, type cmd into the Run text box, and then click OK.

3. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Prompt window. Replace WSS_Content with the database name, and replace DBInstanceName with the SQL Server instance name. You should run this command by using the specific database name and SQL Server instance name only one time. The operation should finish within approximately one minute.

   msiexec /qn /lvx* rbs_install_log.txt /i RBS.msi TRUSTSERVERCERTIFICATE=true FILEGROUP=PRIMARY DBNAME="WSS_Content" DBINSTANCE="DBInstanceName" FILESTREAMFILEGROUP=RBSFilestreamProvider FILESTREAMSTORENAME=FilestreamProvider_1
   

To install the RBS client library on all additional Web and application servers

1. On a Web server, download the RBS.msi at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=188395&clcid=0x409.

2. Click Start, click Run, type cmd into the Run text box, and then click OK.

3. Copy and paste the following command into the Command Prompt window. Replace WSS_Content with the database name, and replace DBInstanceName with the name of the SQL Server instance. The operation should finish within approximately one minute.

   msiexec /qn /lvx* rbs_install_log.txt /i RBS.msi DBNAME="WSS_Content" DBINSTANCE="DBInstanceName" ADDLOCAL=Client,Docs,Maintainer,ServerScript,FilestreamClient,FilestreamServer
   

4. Repeat this procedure for all Web servers and application servers in the SharePoint farm.

To confirm the RBS client library installation

1. The rbs_install_log.txt log file is created in the same location as the RBS.msi file. Open the rbs_install_log.txt log file by using a text editor and scroll toward the bottom of the file. Within the last 20 lines of the end of the file, an entry should read as follows: Product: SQL Remote Blob Storage – Installation completed successfully.

2. On the computer that is running SQL Server 2008, verify that the RBS tables were created in the content database. Several tables should be listed under the content database that have names that are preceded by the letters "mssqlrbs".

Install the 3rd-party provider

The steps that you use to install the 3rd-party provider will vary between manufacturers. Be sure to follow the instructions from the manufacturer of the provider.

Enable RBS for each content database

You must enable RBS on one Web server in the SharePoint farm. It is not important which Web server that you select for this activity, as long as RBS was installed on it by using the previous procedure. You must perform this procedure once for each content database.

To enable RBS by using Windows PowerShell

1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements: See Add-SPShellAdmin.

2. On the Start menu, click All Programs.

3. Click Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products.

4. Click SharePoint 2010 Management Shell.

5. At the Windows PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

   $cdb = Get-SPContentDatabase <ContentDatabaseName>
   $rbss = $cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings
   $rbss.Installed()
   $rbss.Enable()
   $rbss.SetActiveProviderName($rbss.GetProviderNames()[0])
   $rbss
   

   Where:

   • <ContentDatabaseName> is the name of the content database.

For more information, see Get-SPContentDatabase.

Test the RBS installation

You should test the RBS installation on one Web server in the SharePoint farm to ensure that the system works correctly.

To test the RBS data store

1. On the computer that contains the RBS data store, click Start, and then click Computer.

2. Browse to the RBS data store directory.

3. Confirm that the folder is empty.

4. On the SharePoint farm, upload a file that is at least 100 kilobytes (KB) to a document library.

5. On the computer that contains the RBS data store, click Start, and then click Computer.

6. Browse to the RBS data store directory.

7. Browse to the file list and open the file that has the most recent modified date. This should be the file that you uploaded.

See Also

Concepts

Overview of RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010)
Plan for RBS (SharePoint Foundation 2010)

Other Resources

How to: Enable FILESTREAM
Resource Center: Installation and Deployment for SharePoint Foundation 2010