Migrate content into or out of RBS (SharePoint Server 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation 2010

This article describes how to migrate content into or out of Remote BLOB Storage (RBS), or to a different RBS provider.

After installing RBS and setting a content database to use RBS, all existing content in that database can be migrated into the database's active provider. You use the same Windows PowerShell 2.0 command to migrate content into or out of RBS, or to another RBS provider. When RBS is implemented, SQL Server itself is regarded as an RBS provider.

You can migrate content databases at any time, but we recommend that you perform migrations during low usage periods so that this activity does not cause performance degradation for users. Migration moves all content from the specified content database into the storage mechanism of the newly named provider.

This operation can be performed on any Web server in the farm. You only need to perform the operation one time on one Web server for each content database that you want to migrate.

To migrate a content database 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 commands in the following steps.

  6. To obtain the content database RBS settings object:

    $cdb=Get-SPContentDatabase <ContentDbName>
    $rbs=$cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings
    

    Where <ContentDbName> is the name of the content database.

  7. To view a list of all RBS providers that are installed on the Web server:

    $rbs.GetProviderNames()
    
  8. To set the active RBS provider:

    $rbs.SetActiveProviderName(<NewProvider>)
    

    Where <NewProvider> is the name of the provider that you want to make active for this content database. If you want to migrate the content database out of RBS altogether and back into SQL Server inline storage, set this value to ().

  9. Migrate the data from RBS to the new provider or to SQL Server:

    $rbs.Migrate()
    

See Also

Concepts

Set a content database to use RBS (SharePoint Server 2010)

Other Resources

Resource Center: SQL Server and SharePoint Server 2010 Databases