I am trying to follow the System Center Orchestrator DR guide regarding backups and they emphasize capturing the Service Master Key as part of the requirements:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh852622.aspx
Using SQL Server Management Studio, I have connected to the Orchestrator instance, selected the Orchestrator db and run the indicated T-SQL example:
BACKUP SERVICE MASTER KEY TO FILE = 'c:\temp_backups\keys\service_master_key' ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = '3dH85Hhk003GHk2597gheij4';
However, when I examine the resultant file as a sanity check it is of course encrypted.
I'm really just curious if my methods are sound. I gather that there is a separate service master key for each instance, but does it matter which database is selected when I execute the query in SSMS? Is there anything else I may need to know? The documentation is pretty basic:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190337(v=sql.110).aspx
Thank you for your help.