Today I tried to install and configure my SharePoint Server 2016 Farm to use the SQL Server 2016 remote BLOB storage (RBS).
I started with the following environment. All servers are virtualized on hyper-v and are running Windows 2012 R2 as operating system.
- 1 Domain Controller
- 1 SQL Server 2016 Enterprise
- 1 SharePoint Server 2016 Custom Role
- 1 SharePoint Server 2016 Web Front-End role
The RBS setup for SharePoint Server consists of several parts. See my installation guide here. Which goes into the details for configuring the SQL Server 2016 and reflects the latest Update 4 (see below).
The RBS installation requires to run the RBS installer (part of the Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Feature Pack: RBS.msi) on each SharePoint Web Front-End Server.
The RBS installer can be found on the SQL 2016 ISO under: ..\x64\redist\RemoteBlobStore\RBS.msi or it can be downloaded from: Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Feature Pack
Sadly I ran into the following issue during the installation on my SharePoint 2016 Web Front-End:
Let’s hope, Microsoft can fix it. I created a new issue. Any ideas to get round this issue are highly appreciated.
Update 1 (2016-06-15):
After a recent chat with a Microsoft Software Engineer we were able to enclose the error. The error only happens on systems that don’t have SQL 2016 installed.
Update 2 (2016-07-20):
Today I tired the SQL 2014 SP 2 RBS.msi. I was able to test the connection. I’m not sure, if the 2014 RBS.msi is supported with SQL Server 2016 databases.
BTW. the 2014 RBS.msi is about one MB larger than the 2016 RBS.msi
Update 3 (2016-07-21):
SQL 2014 SP2 RBS is not compatible with SQL Server 2016.
The SharePoint Product Group confirmed, that SharePoint 2016 is not yet tested and certified with SQL 2016 RBS. There will be further work to get SQL 2016 RBS certified. SQL 2014 SP 2 RBS is currently the supported version -Currently refer to these two articles:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff628583(v=office.16).aspx
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee748649(v=office.16).aspx
There will be an further article about SharePoint 2016 and SQL 2016 RBS.
Update 4 (2016-08-09) – Solution
Today Microsoft published a new blog article focusing on the missing DLL issue. The SQL 2016 RBS installer needs the Microsoft ODBC Driver 13 for SQL Server. You can download it here.
Sadly the technet article Overview of RBS in SharePoint Server 2016 isn’t updated yet: “Be aware that SQL Server Remote BLOB Store installation package for SQL Server 2014 is the only version of RBS that is supported by SharePoint Server 2016”.
SharePoint and Microsoft 365 
I’ve encountered the same problem today installing RBS on my SharePoint 2013 server with a seperate SQL 2016 server. However for me it is necessary to install RBS on the SharePoint and not the SQL server. Is there any workaround to supply the installer with the .dlls needed?
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On Friday I had a productive conversation with a Microsoft developer. I really hope Microsoft makes good progress with the analysis of this problem.
Currently there is no workaround I’m aware of.
I already tried to find the missing DLLs with process monitor. I compared the output from a server with SQL installed to a server without SQL. They looked identical… So, no outcome.
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Ok, thanks for the update. Please let me know when there is any development on the matter!
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This morning a got a further update. Please see above and up vote the connect item.
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Thanks again for the update. To sum it up: Microsoft is not ready to connect SQL2016 to SharePoint, how disappointing! I have already up-voted the issue on Microsoft Connect (I guess that’s what you mean). I hope Microsoft releases a SQL2016 compatible version of RBS soon, our software is depending on it…
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That’s what i meant: up-vote the Microsoft Connect issue. Thank you.
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Hi Andi,
The RBS 2016 installation requires ODBC Driver 13 which is shipped with SQL 2016 installation media but not with SharePoint 2016 pre-requisites, which is the reason why the issue appears to be resolved when SQL 2016 was installed on that same box (as per your Update 1). Further SharePoint 2016 Pre-requisites installs ODBC Driver 11 which is required for RBS 2014 which is the reason why RBS 2014 installation was successful (as per your Update 2) but RBS 2014 is not compatible with SQL 2016 since a lower client version may not be compatible with some of the enhancements in SQL 2016 which is on higher version(as per Update 3). Finally SharePoint team is yet to test and certify RBS 2016 for SharePoint 2016 hence the SharePoint TechNet articles are not officially updated yet until they completely test and signoff on RBS 2016 (as per Update 4). Hope this clarifies all the updates for your blog viewers and audience. The blog which Andi mentioned is available here below. you have my email address so let me know if you have questions on RBS where I can help. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sql_server_team/remote-blob-storage-rbs-client-library-setup-requirements-in-sql-server-2016/
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Thank you very much for your great support!
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Thanks for the update! The installation of the ODBC Driver 13 actually helped and the RBS 2016 installation went smooth this time.
However now I’m running into the next problem, which might be related. Trying to enable the RBS provider I get this:
$rbs=$cdb.RemoteBlobStorageSettings
$rbs.GetProviderNames()
Exception calling “GetProviderNames” with “0” argument(s): “SQL remote blob
storage must be installed on each web front end server and on the content database before it may be used.”
This usually shows when you dont have RBS installed on all SharePoint servers, but on my test system there is only one SharePoint server and the WSS_Content contains all the valid RBS tables.
Maybe something is still missing for a valid RBS installation?
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Hi Simon,
today I completed my first RBS installation without any issues. I wrote a little guide: https://andikrueger.wordpress.com/2016/08/29/sharepoint-2016-with-sql-server-2016-rbs-installation-guide/
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[…] SQL Server 2016 Remote BLOB Storage (RBS) for SharePoint Server 2016. As mentioned in my earlier post I had an error installing the RBS […]
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