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This article will examine the basics of the DMK, how it is used and how you can ensure you don't lose access to your data. The basis for security in many of your databases is the Database Master Key (DMK). It will prompt you for the DMK password, which must already exist.SQL Server includes a number of encryption features and capabilities that you can use to secure your systems. When adding a database to an Availability Group using the wizard in SQL Server Management Studio, this step will be performed automatically. Alternatively, DMKs can be altered on each SQL Server to use that server's SMK. SMKs can be synchronized between servers which use the same Service Account.
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Fail-Over and High-Availability Clustersĭifferent SQL Servers will have different SMKs by default. This change cascades down and causes all dependent objects (including data) to be re-encrypted, and may take some time.
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Do NOT reconfigure the SQL Server Service Account via Windows Services. Once changes are made in Configuration Manager, the SMK will be re-encrypted. These both require reconfiguring the service account using SQL Server Configuration Manager. Changing the SQL Service Account, or following a change to the existing Service Account's password New backups need to be taken after any changes to the SQL Server Service Account.
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It is recommended to back up the SMK and store with database backups. Original SMK means the SMK that was present (or created) during DryvIQ installation. Since the SMK is encrypted by the SQL Service Account's password, the following considerations apply. By default, data encrypted by TDE in the DryvIQ database cannot be decrypted without access to the original SMK. SQL Server can only have one SMK, which is stored in the master database. Service Master Key Management | Self-Managed SQL Server Installations
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