shrink filestream filegroup

Question

I need to shrink the dimensions of the filestream filegroup in my sql server 2016.
I think that the filestrem filegroup is empty because all the tables containing blob are empty.
How can I do?

Thanks

Marco Dell'Oca

Answer 1

Hi @Marco Dell'Oca ,

Welcome to Microsoft Q&A!
It’s the Garbage Collector process in the background which removed the files from the OS when the records if deleted from the table. Please refer to this blog: FILESTREAM garbage collection. Here are some suggestions:

1. If there is not much of activity on a regular basis, then you can run manual checkpoint in the database.
2. Regular transaction log backups are needed, in case of FULL and BULK_LOGGED recovery model.
3. Make sure there is not a long running transaction in the database.
   If both of the above are taken care and still free space is running lower than we can use sp_filestream_force_garbage_collection to force the garbage clean up manually.

Best regards,
Seeya

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Answer 2

Are there any actual files in the folder for Filestream?

If you recently have deleted all data, you still need to take log backups for the files to be garbage collected. I have a recollection that you need to take two backups for some reason.

Answer 3

Thanks for the replies.
I noticed that the filetable containing the filestreams has zeroed in size after a couple of backups.
Thank you
Marco Dell'Oca