Backing Up the Database Encryption Key

When initially installing or upgrading to Avalanche 6.2.2 or newer, all of the confidential information in the database will be encrypted. To protect this critical, confidential data, your encryption key is stored outside of the database. This ensures that merely having an unauthorized backup copy of the database is not sufficient to access confidential data.

You must back up your encryption key to a secure location that is separate from the database. The encryption key is stored as a file called avalanche.ikeyfile.

To back up the encryption key

The first time you create a backup of Avalanche 6.2.2 or newer, the avalanche.ikeyfile will need to be saved in a separate location from the database backups. Copy the file from c:\Program Files\Wavelink\Avalanche\EnterpriseServer to a secure location. When determining where to store the backup, consult your company's secure file policy.

To restore the encryption key

The avalanche.ikeyfile will be needed every time you restore a backup. To restore the encryption key, copy the avalanche.ikeyfile back to c:\Program Files\Wavelink\Avalanche\EnterpriseServer.