Introduction
Removing Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) from SQL Server involves carefully disabling encryption and cleaning up encryption keys to ensure your database is decrypted and accessible.
Steps to remove TDE:
- Turn Off TDE on the Database:
Begin by disabling encryption on the target database. This initiates the decryption process, which may take time depending on the database size.
USE master;
GO
ALTER DATABASE YourDatabaseName SET ENCRYPTION OFF;
GO
Wait for the decryption process to complete before proceeding.
- Drop the Database Encryption Key:
After turning off encryption, remove the Database Encryption Key (DEK) from the database.
USE YourDatabaseName;
GO
DROP DATABASE ENCRYPTION KEY;
GO
- Drop the TDE Certificate from the master Database:
If the certificate used for TDE is no longer in use by any database, drop the certificate to clean up.
USE master;
GO
DROP CERTIFICATE YourCertificateName;
GO
- Drop the Master Key (Optional):
If the master key was created exclusively for TDE and no longer serves other encryption purposes, you can safely remove it.
USE master;
GO
DROP MASTER KEY;
GO
Conclusion:
By following proper decryption and key removal steps with thorough verification and backups, you can safely remove TDE without risking data loss or restore issues.
