June 15, 2010 at 9:38 am
Is there a native encryption method for backup files in SQL Server, I have searched but found onlt third party tools on the net.
Any help appreciated,
Regards
June 15, 2010 at 9:43 am
No, You can add a password, but the files are not encrypted and can be read with a text editor.
June 15, 2010 at 9:57 am
Without third-party tools a backup only encryption is difficult. However, you can use Transparent data encryption (TDE), what I am unsure of is what versions TDE is available in, probably not anything less than Standard. But I didn't do the research.
Also, I would ask a larger question. Why? For what reason are you looking at encrypted backups? Are you trying to meet a business requirement or a regulatory requirement? What is the underlying problem you are trying to solve?
CEWII
June 15, 2010 at 12:07 pm
The reason for encrption is we are planning to transfer sensitive data, physically transfer a machine over a long road with the backups on disk, because it will be faster than transferring through network.
June 15, 2010 at 12:15 pm
You could use something like bitlocker on Windows to encrypt the data, but other than a third party, there's no way to encrypt a SQL Server backup natively.
June 15, 2010 at 12:30 pm
That clarifies things for me, thank you. A fair number of these questions are based on misunderstandings or poorly written business requirements. and no understanding of the ramifications.
So as I read your response, you have a bunch of sensitive data that is too big to reasonable transfer over your network links so you are going to sneakernet it accross some distance and you want that data to be safe in transit.
Ok, there are options and most of them aren't as pretty as I would like..
1. Run backup as normal onto disk and then zip the file onto the removeable drive specifying NO compression and setting the password. Be sure to use one of the versions that use AES and not the old style password structure.
2. Run backup as normal onto disk and then use the PGP Disk tool where you create a large encrypted volume and copy the backup into it, it is encrypted as it is written.
3. Buy a third-party tool to write encrypted compressed backups.
4. Risk it. Depending on distance and how long the trip is it might be silly to go to the effort. If the media will never be out of your possession and you aren't carrying data for one of the heavily regulated industries. Also, even if you lost your data would it make sense to someone else?
5. I'm sure there are others like bitlocker that are similar to the options persented here..
CEWII
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