Supported FileTables Use Cases

CTE supports the following FileTables use cases:

CTE Data Transformation of existing files in FileTables

Configuration guidelines:

1. Install CTE agent on the remote server.

2. Create a new FileTable, or Identify the FileTable folder for the existing FileTable.

3. Create an offline Data Transformation policy and apply to the GuardPoint on the FileTable folder.

4. Run the Dataxform utility to transform the data.

Protect files in SQL FileTables with CTE

Configuration guidelines:

1. Install CTE agent on the remote server.

2. Create a new FileTable, or Identify the FileTable folder for the existing FileTable.

3. Create a production policy and apply the GuardPoint on the FileTable folder.

4. Once the GuardPoint is active, you can use the file table to load and access files.

Protect files with SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups with CTE

When the database that contains the FILESTREAM, or FileTable data, belongs to an AlwaysOn availability group, the FILESTREAM and FileTable functions accept or return virtual network names (VNNs) instead of computer names.

Configuration guidelines:

1. Install CTE agent on the remote server.

2. Create a new FileTable, or Identify the virtual network names (VNNs) for the existing FileTable.

3. Create a production policy and apply the GuardPoint to the VNN name

4. Once the GuardPoint is active, you can use the FileTable to load and access files.

5. When you enable FILESTREAM on an instance of SQL Server, it creates an instance-level share to provide access to the FILESTREAM data. Access this share by using the computer name in the following format:

   \\<computer_name>\<filestream_share_name>
   

6. In an AlwaysOn availability group, the computer name is virtualized by using a Virtual Network Name, (VNN). When the computer is the primary replica in an availability group, and databases in the availability group contain FILESTREAM data, then SQL creates a VNN-scoped share to provide access to the FILESTREAM data. Applications that use the file system APIs have to use the VNN-scoped share, which has a path in the following format:

   \\<VNN>\<filestream_share_name>
   

Install CTE on remote systems and guard the SQL Server VNN names

In this use case, CTE is installed on the SQL administrator system (a separate system from where the SQL Server resides) and a GuardPoint is applied to the VNN name.