Summary

I worked on a long running RBS case where the customer followed the steps in our TechNet Article , which resulted in SharePoint throwing an the following error while uploading files to a document library, after enabling RBS.

While working on this issue, I learned many ways to troubleshoot RBS installation and configuration issues and I wanted to share.

Overview

First, there are many steps to install and configure RBS and the best Microsoft sources are the following articles.

Overview of RBS in SharePoint 2013
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748649.aspx

Install and configure RBS with FILESTREAM in a SharePoint 2013 farm
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748631.aspx

Install and configure RBS with SharePoint 2013 and SQL Server 2012
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/bogdang/2014/12/04/install-and-configure-rbs-with-sharepoint-2013-and-sql-server-2012

At a high level, the steps are:

1. Enable FILESTREAM on the database server
2. Provision a BLOB store for each content database
3. Install the RBS client library on each Web server   < – This is where my customer had problems.
4. Enable RBS for each content database
5. Assign db_owner permissions to the web application

Sounds easy enough?  However, when things don’t go as planned, here are a few tips.

 

Troubleshooting

1. Installing the correct RBS client is key. Ensure to install the RBS client that matches the SQL server version.

Here is a current list of SQL feature packs:

SQL 2008 R2

RTM: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16978

SP1: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26728

Sp2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30440

Sp3: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=44272

SQL 2012

RTM: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29065

SP1: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35580

SP2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=43339

SP3: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=49999

SQL 2014

RTM: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42295

SP1: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46696

SP2: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53164

SQL 2016:

RTM: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52676

SP1: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54279

 

Note: You only need the RBS.MSI file (x86 | x64) from the feature pack.

 

2. You must install the RBS client with the command line, as it only installs what is needed and with a pre-defined configuration.

When installing RBS on the first client, this command only needs to be run once.

The remaining servers will use a slightly different command.

Note: The differences is that on the first server, you are creating the FileStreamFileGroup and FileStreamStore , the remaining WFEs will be clients that connect to the existing configuration.

 

3.  After installing the client with command line, reading the install log is required. If there are any errors during the install, it needs to be addressed before moving on, and reading the log file is the only way to confirm if the install was successful.

The log will be in the same folder as the MSI is located.

Look for the following to indicate success:

 

4. When enabling RBS for each content database, you may receive the error  “SQL remote blob storage must be installed on each web front end server and on the content database before it may be used.”.

Command to enable:

Example of error:

If this occurs, there was a problem with the client one or more WFES, or the server(s) needs to be rebooted.

Check the RBS client install log on all WFEs. If they look good, reboot them and try the enable again.

If you see errors in the install log, the client may need to be uninstalled and reinstalled (not updated).

 

5. Once everything is installed and “should be working” but it’s not, check the “verbose” ULS Logs when attempting to upload a fie. In verbose mode, you will see log entries with the “Files” category detailing why the upload failed.

Example:

• This is an RBS client issue or configuration issue.
• The client is not installed correctly
• The files steam was entered incorrectly while installing the first client.
• There are a few things to check to ensure the client in installed properly

 

6. Ensure the proper version is installed that matches the SQL version and service pack level.

• Ensure that the client assemblies were installed in the GAC properly. Ref: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrbs/2010/09/23/fixing-rbsprovider-version-mismatch-issues
  
• Ensure that the proper machine.config has been updated with the following 2 sections for the RBS client.Note: If these entries are not present in the machine.config, the error “No provider of type <Filestream> found” will be present.

7. Lastly, read the Remote Blob Storage whitepaper, its excellent!

Remote Blob Storage
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/5/2/9521D8DA-5D3C-4817-BB9D-B5B1BD293365/SQL_Server_2008_R2_Remote_Blob_Storage.docx