For those unfamiliar with encryption in SQL Server, this article is a nice introduction to symmetric encryption in SQL Server 2005.  I’ve only used encryption a few times and it’s definitely been the godsend that the article states. 

I referenced the article recently when I had to restore a database on a new server that had data that was encrypted on the existing server.  I was actually surprised in the end how easy this task was to do.

1. Backup the database on the [SOURCE] server.

2. Backup the database master key on the [SOURCE] server.

BACKUP MASTER KEY TO FILE = ‘C:\MASTER.KEY’

ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘password’

3. Backup the service master key on the [SOURCE] server.

BACKUP SERVICE MASTER KEY TO FILE = ‘C:\SERVICE.KEY’

ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘password’

4. Restore the database master key on the [DESTINATION] server.

RESTORE MASTER KEY FROM FILE = ‘C:\MASTER.KEY’

DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘password’

ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘password’

[ FORCE ]

5. Restore the service master key on the [DESTINATION] server.

RESTORE SERVICE MASTER KEY FROM FILE = ‘C:\SERVICE.KEY’

DECRYPTION BY PASSWORD = ‘password’

[FORCE]

6. Restore the database on the [DESTINATION] server.

And viola… I was now able to decrypt the data.  These steps, of course, only work if there isn’t a service master key already on the new server.  And some day I’ll likely run into that situation.  But I’ll blog that then…

EDIT:  My bad, restoring the database master key is bad.  Fortunately the time I had to do it there was only a single database on the test server so there was no negative impact at the time.  Unfortunately, I blogged badly following that.

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