Storing Attachments and Result Files on the File System

Per default, Silk Central stores all attachments and result files in the database, but you can configure Silk Central to store these files on the file system of the application server.

Although it is not recommended to save attachments and result files separated from the other data, you may have reasonable arguments to prefer this approach (e.g. cost for database space). A disadvantage of this approach is that you have to maintain your data twice, meaning that you have to make a backup of your database and also of your file system. When restoring a database backup, you also need to restore the file system.

CAUTION:

If you enable the option to save files to the file system, make sure to never change the structure or directly move, update, or delete files in this location. Only the Silk Central services and the system you use for backup and restore should have write permissions in the specified File store root directory.

On the Instance Administration page, activate the maintenance mode on the instance that you want to modify. For additional information, see Maintenance Mode.
Log in to your instance as System Administrator and disconnect the database. For additional information, see Disconnecting from a Database.
On the Instance Administration page, stop the instance that you want to modify.
Open the TMAppServerHomeConf.xml file with a text editor.
The default path for this file is C:\Program Files (x86)\Silk\Silk Central 21.1\instance_<instance number>_<instance name>\Conf\AppServer on the application server.
Locate the <StoreFilesOnFileSystem> XML tag in the <Config>/<RdbmsSpecifics> section of the file. Set the value for this tag to true.
Save and close the XML file.
On the Instance Administration page, restart the instance.
Log in to your instance as System Administrator again. On the Database page you will see a new field called File store root directory where you have to define a local path (e.g. "c:/sc_files/testdb") which will be used for storing attachments and result files. This path needs to exist already and the front-end and application server services require full permissions on this folder.
Click Connect Database.

All attachments and result files will now be saved in the specified location. Attachments and result files that are already stored in the connected database will gradually be moved to the file system. In case the file system is not available, Silk Central will store the files in the database blob tables and move them to the file system at a later time when the file system is available again.

Be aware that there is currently no automatic way to move the files back to the database again. Enable this option only if you permanently plan to store your files to the file system.