Backing up the Services Master Key

What happens if you don't backup the Service Master Key, or don't know where
the backup is? Will this keep you from restoring the Master Database? How
does this backup play in the disaster recovery?Hi
"DBA GUY" wrote:
> What happens if you don't backup the Service Master Key, or don't know where
> the backup is? Will this keep you from restoring the Master Database? How
> does this backup play in the disaster recovery?
Check out
http://blogs.msdn.com/lcris/archive/2005/07/08/sql-server-2005-a-look-at-the-master-keys.aspx
and other posts on the blog. The absolute worse case will be that you won't
be able to access the encrypted data in any of your databases, but if you
know the passwords to the DMKs you can drop the SMK encryption and re-apply
it.
John