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Case Study 2
Contoso Ltd
Overview
Application Overview
Contoso, Ltd., is the developer of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application.
Contoso is designing a new version of the ERP application. The previous version of the ERP
application used SQL Server 2008 R2. The new version will use SQL Server 2014.
The ERP application relies on an import process to load supplier data. The import process
updates thousands of rows simultaneously, requires exclusive access to the database, and runs daily.
You receive several support calls reporting unexpected behavior in the ERP application.
After analyzing the calls, you conclude that users made changes directly to the tables in the
database.
Tables
The current database schema contains a table named OrderDetails. The OrderDetails
table contains information about the items sold for each purchase order. OrderDetails
stores the product ID, quantities, and discounts applied to each product in a purchase
order. The product price is stored in a table named Products.
The Products table was defined by using the SQL_Latin1_General_CPl_CI_AS collation. A
column named ProductName was created by using the varchar data type.
The database contains a table named Orders. Orders contains all of the purchase orders from
the last 12 months. Purchase orders that are older than 12 months are stored in a table named OrdersOld.
Stored Procedures
The current version of the database contains stored procedures that change two tables. The
following shows the relevant portions of the two stored procedures:
Customer Problems
Installation Issues
The current version of the ERP application requires that several SQL Server logins be set up
to function correctly. Most customers set up the ERP application in multiple locations and
must create logins multiple times.
Index Fragmentation Issues
Customers discover that clustered indexes often are fragmented. To resolve this issue, the
customers defragment the indexes more frequently.
All of the tables affected by fragmentation have the following columns that are used as the
clustered index key:
Backup Issues
Customers who have large amounts of historical purchase order data report that backup time
is unacceptable.
Search Issues
Users report that when they search product names, the search results exclude product names
that contain accents, unless the search string includes the accent.
Missing Data Issues
Customers report that when they make a price change in the Products table, they cannot
retrieve the price that the item was sold for in previous orders.
Query Performance Issues
Customers report that query performance degrades very quickly. Additionally, the customers
report that users cannot run queries when SQL Server runs maintenance tasks.
Import Issues
During the monthly import process, database administrators receive many supports call from
users who report that they cannot access the supplier data. The database administrators want
to reduce the amount of time required to import the data.
Design Requirements
File Storage Requirements
The ERP database stores scanned documents that are larger than 2 MB. These files must only
be accessed through the ERP application. File access must have the best possible read and
write performance.
Data Recovery Requirements
If the import process fails, the database must be returned to its prior state immediately.
Security Requirements
You must provide users with the ability to execute functions within the ERP application,
without having direct access to the underlying tables.
Concurrency Requirements
You must reduce the likelihood of deadlocks occurring when Sales.Proc1 and Sales.Proc2 execute.
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You need to recommend a solution that addresses the file storage requirements.
What should you include in the recommendation?
A.
FileStream
B.
FileTable
C.
The varbinary data type
D.
The image data type
Explanation:
* Scenario: File Storage Requirements
The ERP database stores scanned documents that are larger than 2 MB. These files must
only be accessed through the ERP application. File access must have the best possible read
and write performance.
* FileTables remove a significant barrier to the use of SQL Server for the storage and
management of unstructured data that is currently residing as files on file servers.
Enterprises can move this data from file servers into FileTables to take advantage of
integrated administration and services provided by SQL Server. At the same time, they can
maintain Windows application compatibility for their existing Windows applications that see
this data as files in the file system.
Filetable is feature to have files with access from SQL and from Windows.
From scenerio:
These files must only be accessed through the ERP application.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc645583.aspx
When the database has a FILESTREAM filegroup, you can create or modify tables to store FILESTREAM data. To specify that a column contains FILESTREAM data, you create a varbinary(max) column and add the FILESTREAM attribute.
Absolutely!!
I agree with jml. My thoughts on this is filestream due to the requirement that the files can not be accessed from outside the application. FileTable allows files to be accessed through the file system.
B is correct
no A, as jml and mc said
A. Filestream
Here are some of the web pages we recommend for our visitors.
The “FileTable” is accecible by UNC Paths, so no “B” is not the answer.
The “Non-FileStream varbinary” is good but not as fast as a “FileStream varbinary”, so no “C” is not the answer.
The image data type will be discontinued, so no “D” is not the answer.
The best option is “A”, FileStream.
FileStream:
FILESTREAM uses the NT system cache for caching file data. This helps reduce any effect that FILESTREAM data might have on Database Engine performance. The SQL Server buffer pool is not used; therefore, this memory is available for query processing.
The “FileTable” is accessible by UNC Paths, so no “B” is not the answer.
The “Non-FileStream varbinary” is good but not as fast as a “FileStream varbinary”, so no “C” is not the answer.
The image data type will be discontinued, so no “D” is not the answer.
The best option is “A”, FileStream.
FileStream:
FILESTREAM uses the NT system cache for caching file data. This helps reduce any effect that FILESTREAM data might have on Database Engine performance. The SQL Server buffer pool is not used; therefore, this memory is available for query processing.