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SQL Server 2008: Changes to enabling FILESTREAM from CTP-6 onwards


Just over a month ago I posted on how to enable FILESTREAM in CTP-5 and the pre-CTP-6 build I was working with. Now that’s all changed! CTP-6 is a hybrid of the CTP-5 method and what will eventually be the methodology in RTM. The changes were made to separate the OS-level configuration from the SQL-level configuration, so a SQL admin can’t invoke OS-level changes. This makes sense to me.


In a nutshell, the new way of enabling FILESTREAM will be:



  • OS admin enables FILESTREAM when installing SQL Server or through the SQL Server Configuration Manager
  • SQL admin enables FILESTREAM in the instance using sp_configure. This will always succeed, but if this is done before the OS-level enabling, then FILESTREAM operations will fail.

I won’t go into all the details as Joanna Omel (the Program Manager for FILESTREAM in the Storage Engine) has blogged about them on the Storage Engine PM team blog – see here for her post.


More on CTP-6 changes as I hear about them (or trip over them!)

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