I'm not sure if there's any limit on MSSQL/Oracle (I think CLOBS are capped at 2gb on MSSQL) - the bytes are actually stored on the filesystem just like a real file. This decision is all about tradeoffs - if your application deals with a lot of binary data, I would shy away from storing it in a database because frankly, filesystems are better at storing files. One of the main issues is getting consistent backups once the database becomes huge - when using a filesystem you can do incremental backups and it's a lot easier to restore individual files. I'd also want to save my JDBC traffic for real data, not just bytes of a file.
So yes, if you store them on a filesystem you need shared storage for a cluster - but SATA NAS has become so cheap it's not as expensive as it used to be if you are lacking a SAN. Dave Ross http://www.coldspringframework.org >I've come up against a problem where I need to consider using SQL to >handle image storage. I know the positives and negatives of doing so >(File system might be a better choice, but SQL is easier to manage >across cluster nodes... etc etc.) > >I'm wondering, if I decide to do this, what are the possible downsides >from a server performance standpoint. I ask, because I assume that if >there was none, then the "Enable binary large object retrieval (BLOB)" >setting would be defaulted to TRUE instead of FALSE. > >Another way to do this would just to raise the Blob buffer size and >program in a limit to the application. > >Is there any common wisdom about this? Is there a preferred solution, >or has anyone had any nightmare experiences? > >Terrence Ryan >Senior Systems Programmer >Wharton Computing and Information Technology >E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:248700 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
