Does Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) work on databases configured with Transactional Replication?

Question

HI, I have the following query:

Does Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) work on databases configured with Transactional Replication? If true, what considerations should be taken when implementing this?

Answer 1

I have not tested. Nor do I actually know. But if it does not work, I would be very very surprised. The point with TDE is that once you are authenticated to the database, the encryption is indeed transperant to you.

The one thing I like to point out is that you should probably configure the subscribers for TDE as well. Not that there is any such requirement, but it would be kind of funny to have them unencrypted.

Answer 2

Hi @Melin Guaringa, Charlie Stephano

Replication doesn't automatically replicate data from a TDE-enabled database in an encrypted form. Separately enable TDE if you want to protect distribution and subscriber databases.

Snapshot replication can store data in unencrypted intermediate files like BCP files. The initial data distribution for transactional and merge replication can too. During such replication, you can enable encryption to protect the communication channel.

For more information, see Enable Encrypted Connections to the Database Engine (SQL Server Configuration Manager).

Best regards,

Cosmog Hong

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