Data Domain: Encryption Frequently Asked Questions

Table of Contents

Encryption Configuration

Question: How is Data At Rest Encryption (DARE) configured on Data Domain?

1. Add an Encryption License.
   1. Have a license file with a valid Encryption license added to it.
   2. Use the below command to update the e-license in the Data Domain using the license file available:
      

      # elicense update

2. Add a security officer and enable security officer authorizations.
   1. Add a user with the "security" role (if one does not already exist) using the command:
      

      # user add <username> role security

   2. Enable Security Officer Authorization by logging in as the security officer and running the command:
      

      > authorization policy set security-officer enabled

3. Switch back to an admin account and enable DARE by running the command:
   

   # filesys encryption enable

Question: Which platforms are supported with DARE?

Question: How can I store data in clear text on the Data Domain?

# filesys encryption disable

Question: Which backup applications and protocols are supported with DARE?

Question: Which encryption algorithms can be used?

Question: How can the encryption algorithm be changed?

# filesys encryption algorithm set {aes_128_cbc | aes_256_cbc | aes_128_gcm | aes_256_gcm}

Question: How do I ensure that encryption is done on preexisting data once encryption is enabled?

# filesys encryption apply-changes

Question: How do I disable encryption?

# filesys encryption disable

Question: Which encryption commands require a file system restart in order to take effect?

Question: Which encryption commands require disabling the file system in order to set or use them?

General Encryption Questions

Question: Is DARE supported on all Data Domain systems?

Question: How is cryptography performed on Data Domain systems?

Question: What version of BSafe does Data Domain use?

Question: What are the available user interfaces to configure encryption in DDOS?

Question: Is selective encryption of data possible? Like only one mtree or file?

Question: Are any cryptographic keys or account passwords transmitted or stored in clear text or under weak ciphers, such as when an entity authenticates, in datafile, in programs, or in authentication directories?

Question: What version of OpenSSL does Data Domain use?

Question: How does DARE protect against data access from users and applications?

• Encryption of data at rest is all about encrypting the data, which resides on the disk subsystem. Encryption or decryption happens at the compression layer. Users or applications send and receive clear text data to the Data Domain, but any data physically residing on the Data Domain is encrypted.
• All encryption occurs below the file system and namespace and is invisible to the users or applications. If a user or application already has authorized access to a file or directory, the data can be read in its native format regardless of encryption.
• Data Domain encryption is designed such that if an intruder circumvents other network security controls and gains access to encrypted data, the data is unreadable and unusable to that person without the proper cryptographic keys.

Question: Does encryption happen after deduplication?

Question: How does the Data Domain ensure the security of the data?

Question: What alerts are generated with encryption?

• When there are compromised encryption keys present
• When the encryption key table is full and no more keys can be added to the system
• When auto key exporting fails
• When automated key rotation fails
• When encryption is disabled
• When the system passphrase is changed

Question: Is there any security certification for DDOS?

Question: Where is the encryption key stored?

Question: If someone pulls out a hard drive from a Data Domain, can they decrypt data from it?

Question: What cryptographic keys and passwords are needed for recovery, especially for disaster recovery?

Question: How can the file system be locked before moving the system to a different location?

1. Disable the file system:
   

   # filesys disable

2. Lock the file system and enter a new passphrase (this requires authentication with a security user):
   

   # filesys encryption lock
   This command requires authorization by a user having a 'security' role.
   Please present credentials for such a user below.
           Username: secuser
           Password:
   Enter the current passphrase:
   Enter new passphrase:
   Re-enter new passphrase:
   Passphrases matched.
   The filesystem is now locked.

   1. The new passphrase must NOT be lost or forgotten. Without this passphrase, the file system cannot be unlocked, meaning that data on the Data Domain is inaccessible.
3. To unlock the system when it reaches a remote location, use the below command:
   

   # filesys encryption unlock
   This command requires authorization by a user having a 'security' role.
   Please present credentials for such a user below.
           Username: secuser
           Password:
   Enter the passphrase:
   The passphrase has been verified. Use 'filesys enable' to start the filesystem.

4. The file system can now be enabled and used as normal.

Question: Does the 'storage sanitize' command have any relationship with file system encryption?

Question: Is over-the-wire encryption supported for EDP systems?

System Passphrase

Question: What is the system passphrase?

Question: When is the passphrase used?

Question: How is the passphrase used for secure transport of the Data Domain?

Question: What happens if the passphrase changes? Can data still be accessed?

Question: How can I find out if a passphrase is set on the system?

Question: What happens if the passphrase is lost or forgotten?

Question: Is there any mechanism to reset a lost system passphrase?

Question: Is there an option to avoid storing the system passphrase on the Data Domain?

Embedded Key Manager (EKM)

# filesys encryption embedded-key-manager <option>

Question: Is key rotation supported with EKM?

Question: Is there a charge for the embedded key management functionality?

Question: Can I switch from local to external key management?

Key-ID     Key MUID                                                                    State                     Key Manger Type
1               be1                                                                    Deactivated               DataDomain

2               49664EE855DF71CB7DC08309414C2B4C76ECB112C8D10368C37966E4E2E38A68       Activated-RW              KeySecure

Question: What happens when when key rotation is disabled or enabled?

External Key Managers

Question: What external key managers does Data Domain support?

• Gemalto KeySecure (support added in DDOS release 7.2)
• Vormetric (support added in DDOS release 7.3)
• CipherTrust (support added in DDOS release 7.7)
• IBM GKLM (support added in DDOS release 7.9)

Question: Is a separate license required to enable integration with an external key manager?

Question: How many key managers can be used at a time?

Question: Where do I find more information about how to configure KMIP external key managers?

Question: How are certificates managed for external key managers in Data Domain?

Question: What is a Certificate Authority?

Question: What is a CA-signed certificate? What is a local CA-signed certificate?

Question: How do I create a certificate signing request on a Data Domain?

# adminaccess certificate cert-signing-request

Question: Is it possible to switch between key managers?

Question: What happens when external key manager connectivity goes down? Is my data still accessible?

Question: Is there a way to store keys only in the external key manager and not on the Data Domain?

Question: Is there any performance impact from integration with KMIP?

Question: Is it possible to leverage the KMIP solution for selected Data Domains within the environment?

Question: Is communication between the Data Domain and KMIP secure?

Key Life-Cycle Management

Question: What key management capabilities exist with Data Domain encryption?

Question: What are the different key states on the Data Domain?

• Activated-RW: There is only one key in this state on a Data Domain at any given time, and it is used for reading and writing data. This key is also used by the garbage collection process to re-encrypt containers.
• Pending-Activated: There is only one key in this state on a Data Domain at any given time. This identifies the key that will become Activated-RW after the next file system restart. This state exists only at the time of enabling encryption. Pending-activated keys are not created at any other time.
• Activated-RO: External key managers can have multiple Activated keys. The most recent key is in Activated-RW, and the rest are in this state. Keys may go into this state on the Data Domain when it cannot sync state with the key manager.
• Deactivated: This is used for reading existing data on the Data Domain system.
• Compromised: When an external key manager key is compromised, it changes to this state after the next key sync.
• Marked-For-Destroyed: When a customer marks a key for destruction, the key changes to this state. When garbage collection is run, all containers encrypted with Marked-For-Destroyed keys are re-encrypted using the Activated-RW key.
• Destroyed: A key in the Marked-For-Destroyed state goes into this state when there is no data associated with it.
• Destroyed-compromised: A key in the Compromised state goes into this state when there is no data associated with it.

Question: Can encryption keys be exported for disaster recovery?

# filesys encryption keys export

# filesys encryption keys import <filename>

Question: Is the key generated by KMIP stored on the Data Domain?

Question: How is a key state change in the KMIP appliance applied to the Data Domain?

Question: Is it possible to manually synchronize the key states between the Data Domain and KMIP?

Question: Is it possible to change the time at which the Data Domain receives key updates from KMIP?

Question: Is there a limit to the number of keys stored on the Data Domain?

Question: Can different keys be used for different datasets on Data Domain?

Question: Is there any notification when the maximum key limit is reached?

Question: How can I clear the alert about the maximum key limit?

Question: Can I see the amount of data that is associated with a particular key on the Data Domain?

Question: Can I see the age of keys on the Data Domain?

Question: Does the old key work even if the time period has lapsed for making the new key effective?

Question: Are encryption keys automatically deleted when there is no data associated with them on the Data Domain?

Question: Can a key be deleted even if there is data associated with it on the Data Domain?

Question: If a key is deleted on the KMIP, is the key also deleted from the Data Domain's key list?

Question: In a multi-site Data Domain environment, is a KMIP required at every location?

Question: If a key is compromised, is there a process to retrieve the data that is encrypted with the old key?

1. Run 'filesys encryption keys sync'.
2. Run 'filesys encryption apply-changes'.
3. Start a file system cleaning.
   1. Cleaning re-encrypts all the data that was encrypted with the compromised key using a newer key.
   2. Once cleaning is done, the old key state is changed to Compromised-Destroyed.
4. Delete the old key.

Encryption and Replication

Question: Is Data Domain replication supported and interoperable with DARE?

Question: Do the source and destination systems have to be running the same DDOS version to use encryption?

Question: How does replication work with encryption?

• DARE can be licensed or enabled on either the source or destination independently depending on what the customer wants to achieve.
• When both source and destination have encryption enabled:
  • Data ingested to the source is encrypted with the source system encryption key.
  • The source decrypts the local data, re-encrypts it using the destination system encryption key, and then replicates the encrypted data to the destination.
• When the source has encryption disabled, and the destination has encryption enabled:
  • Data ingested to the source is not encrypted.
  • When replicating, the source encrypts the data using the destination system's encryption key and then replicates the encrypted data to the destination system.
• When the source has encryption enabled, and the destination has encryption disabled:
  • Data ingested to the source system is encrypted with the source system's encryption key.
  • The source decrypts the data and then replicates the unencrypted data to the destination system.
• If encryption is enabled on the replica after replication context is set up, then any new segments now being replicated are encrypted at the source for the replica. Any segments residing on the replica prior to encryption being enabled are left in an unencrypted state unless changes are applied and cleaning is run on the destination.

• Both the source and destination systems must be running same DDOS release.
• Encryption must be either enabled or disabled on both. There cannot be a mismatch in encryption configuration also. Encryption keys are the same with source and destination.
• When both source and destination have encryption enabled:
  • All data ingested to the source system is encrypted using source system encryption key.
  • When replicating, the source sends encrypted data to the destination system in its encrypted state.
  • The destination has the same key as the source since collection replication is all about an exact replica of the source system.
  • No data can be written to the destination outside of replication, as the destination is a read-only system.
• When both source and destination both have encryption disabled:
  • Data ingested to source system is not encrypted.
  • When replicating, the source sends the data in an unencrypted state and it remains unencrypted at the destination.
  • No data can be written to the destination outside of replication, as the destination is a read-only system.

Question: Is the destination's key stored indefinitely on the source Data Domain?

Question: Can encryption be enabled on a collection replication system after the replication context is established?

Question: Can DARE be enabled concurrently with the over-the-wire encryption feature for Data Domain replication?

Question: What happens if both DARE and OTW encryption are enabled concurrently?

Question: When encryption is enabled on both the source and destination, must they have the same passphrase?

Question: With encryption enabled on the destination, do both the replicated data and data from some other access point (like through local backup) get encrypted? Is there a way to separate the two on the destination so that only the replicated directories are encrypted?

Question: How is the key exchange done between source and destination during MREPL or MFR?

Question: What type of algorithm does OTW encryption use to encrypt replication traffic?

Question: Does key rotation without a file system restart work with all types of replication?

Question: How is the destination's encryption key protected during the key exchange in the absence of certificates or PKI key pairs?

Question: Are both systems in a replication pair required to use the same external key manager (like KMIP key manager) solution, or can one of the systems use external key manager and other can use embedded key manager?

Encryption and Migration

Question: Is data migration supported on systems with DARE enabled?

Question: Are both active tier and cloud tier data migration supported with DARE enabled?

Question: Which encryption settings are preserved as part of migration?

Question: What encryption compatibility checks are done between source and destination during migration?

Question: Is migration supported between EDP systems?

Encryption and Cloud Tier

Question: Is encryption supported for cloud tier?

Question: Are KMIP and External Key Managers supported with cloud tier?

Question: At what granularity can encryption be enabled in the cloud?

Question: Do cloud units have independent keys?

Question: Can keys be deleted from the cloud?

Question: Where are data encryption keys managed for cloud units?

Question: How do I recover cloud keys during disaster recovery?

Question: Can data movement run when encryption is enabled only for the cloud tier?

Question: Can an external key manager be used with cloud tier?

Encryption and Garbage Collection

Question: What role does the garbage collection (GC) process play in DARE? Is there a performance impact when enabling encryption for the first time?

Question: Is there a performance impact to ongoing clean cycles?

Question: How long does it take to encrypt existing data?

Encryption and Headswap

Question: If a Data Domain with DARE configured undergoes a headswap, are disks still accessible with the new head unit?

Question: What if the passphrase is lost at the time of the headswap operation?

Encryption and Performance

Question: What is the observed impact on storage consumption when DARE is used?

Question: What is the observed impact on throughput (writes and reads) when DARE is used?

• First Full: ~10% performance degradation on writes
• Incremental: ~5% performance degradation on writes
• Restores: 5-20% performance degradation on reads

• First Full: 10-20% performance degradation on writes
• Incremental: 5-10% performance degradation on writes
• Restores: 5-20% performance degradation on reads

Best Practices

Question: What are best practices concerning key rotation policy?

Question: What are best practices with KMIP key class if the same KMIP server is used for many Data Domains?