Are FILESTREAM datatypes stored in the .mdf file?

Are FILESTREAM datatypes stored in the .mdf file?

Can they be stored anywhere e开发者_开发知识库lse like a separate directory?

Thanks Paul

They are already stored on the filesystem, the only thing in the .mdf file will be a reference to the file location.

From technet:

FILESTREAM integrates the SQL Server Database Engine with an NTFS file system by storing varbinary(max) binary large object (BLOB) data as files on the file system.

You can control where the FILESTREAM objects on a partitioned table are stored by using the FILESTREAM_ON attribute in your CREATE TABLE statement:

FILESTREAM_ON { partition_scheme_name | filegroup | "default" }

Specifies the filegroup for FILESTREAM data.

If the table contains FILESTREAM data and the table is partitioned, the FILESTREAM_ON clause must be included and must specify a partition scheme of FILESTREAM filegroups. This partition scheme must use the same partition function and partition columns as the partition scheme for the table; otherwise, an error is raised.