Restore database excluding FILESTREAM data

Context

We are developing a system with a large-ish database in the bottom. It is an MS SQL database running on SQL Server 2008 R2. The total size of the database is about 12 GB.

Out of these, approximately 8.5 GB is in a single table BinaryContent. As the name suggests, this is a table where we store simple files, of any kind, directly in the table as a BLOB. Recently we've been testing the possibility to move all these files out of the database to the file system using FILESTREAM.

We did the necessary modifications to our database without any problems, and our system is still working fine after the migration. The BinaryContent table looks roughly like this:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].BinaryContent NOT NULL,
[FileName] varchar NOT NULL,
[BinaryContentRowGUID] [uniqueidentifier] ROWGUIDCOL NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY] FILESTREAM_ON [FileStreamContentFG]
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[BinaryContent] ADD [FileContentBinary] varbinary FILESTREAM NULL
ALTER TABLE [dbo].[BinaryContent] ADD CONSTRAINT [DFBinaryContentRowGUID] DEFAULT (newsequentialid()) FOR [BinaryContentRowGUID]


With everything residing in the PRIMARY file group, except the field FileBinaryContent which is in a separate file group FileStreamContentFG.

Scenario

From a developer's point of view, we would often like a fresh copy of the database from our production environment, to be able to work the the latest data. In those cases, we are rarely interested in the files stored in BinaryContent (now using FILESTREAM).

We have this almost working as we'd like. We back up the database, without the file stream like this:

BACKUP DATABASE FileStreamDB
FILEGROUP = 'PRIMARY'
TO DISK = 'c:\backup\FileStreamDB_WithoutFS.bak' WITH INIT


And restore it like this:

RESTORE DATABASE FileStreamDB
FROM DISK = 'c:\backup\FileStreamDB_WithoutFS.bak'


This seems to be working OK, and our system works as long as we avoid the parts that use the `FileBinary

What you're trying to do would leave the database in a (transactionally) inconsistent state, hence it isn't possible.

The Partial Database Availability whitepaper is a useful reference guide and includes an example of how to check whether a particular table or file is online. If your data access were through stored procedures, you could relatively easily incorporate that check.

One alternative (but somewhat hacky) approach that might be worth a look in your scenario would be to hide the table and replace it with a view.

-- NB: SQLCMD script
:ON ERROR EXIT
:setvar DatabaseName "TestRename"
:setvar FilePath "D:\MSSQL\I3\Data\"

SET STATISTICS TIME OFF;
SET STATISTICS IO OFF;
SET NOCOUNT ON;
GO

USE master;
GO

IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.databases WHERE name = N'$(DatabaseName)')
  DROP DATABASE $(DatabaseName)
GO

CREATE DATABASE $(DatabaseName) 
ON PRIMARY 
  (
  NAME = N' $(DatabaseName)'
  , FILENAME = N'$(FilePath)$(DatabaseName).mdf'
  , SIZE = 5MB
  , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED
  , FILEGROWTH = 1MB
  ) 
, FILEGROUP [FG1] DEFAULT
  ( 
  NAME = N' $(DatabaseName)_FG1_File1'
  , FILENAME = N'$(FilePath)$(DatabaseName)_FG1_File1.ndf'
  , SIZE = 1MB
  , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED
  , FILEGROWTH = 1MB 
  ) 
, FILEGROUP [FG2] CONTAINS FILESTREAM
  ( 
  NAME = N'$(DatabaseName)_FG2'
  , FILENAME = N'$(FilePath)Filestream'
  )
LOG ON 
  ( 
  NAME = N'$(DatabaseName)_log'
  , FILENAME = N'$(FilePath)$(DatabaseName)_log.ldf'
  , SIZE = 1MB
  , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED
  , FILEGROWTH = 1MB
  )
GO

USE $(DatabaseName);
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[BinaryContent](
    [BinaryContentID] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL
    , [FileName] [varchar](50) NOT NULL
    , [BinaryContentRowGUID] [uniqueidentifier] ROWGUIDCOL UNIQUE DEFAULT (NEWSEQUENTIALID()) NOT NULL
  , [FileContentBinary] VARBINARY(max) FILESTREAM  NULL
) ON [PRIMARY] FILESTREAM_ON [FG2]
GO 

-- Insert test rows
INSERT
  dbo.BinaryContent
  (
  [FileName]
  , [FileContentBinary]
  )
VALUES
  (
  CAST(NEWID() AS VARCHAR(36))
  , CAST(REPLICATE(NEWID(), 100) AS VARBINARY)
  );
GO 100

USE master;
GO

-- Take FILESTREAM filegroup offline
ALTER DATABASE $(DatabaseName)
MODIFY FILE (NAME = '$(DatabaseName)_FG2', OFFLINE)
GO

USE $(DatabaseName);
GO

-- Rename table to make way for view
EXEC sp_rename 'dbo.BinaryContent', 'BinaryContentTable', 'OBJECT';
GO

-- Create view to return content from table but with NULL FileContentBinary
CREATE VIEW dbo.BinaryContent
AS

SELECT
  [BinaryContentID]
    , [FileName] 
    , [BinaryContentRowGUID]
  , [FileContentBinary] = NULL
FROM
  [dbo].[BinaryContentTable];
GO

-- Check results as expected
SELECT TOP 10
  *
FROM
  dbo.BinaryContent;
GO

StackExchange Database Administrators Q#18315, answer score: 10