Anonymized backups

  • I am a dba in a hospital. Sometimes our suppliers need to take a copy of their database to restore it on their servers and make updates or improvements. I would like to give them a copy of the db, crypting personal data such as name, surname, ...

    I'm thinking to create system jobs which restore the databases from the production server on a dedicated server, and then execute queries which overwrite some columns containt (maybe I could ask the suppliers to give me a list of tables containing personal data), and then make a bakup.

    Is there a better way? Has anyone good suggestions?

    Thanks in advance.

    sb

  • I do this with my suppliers.

    Restore a copy of the production environment to the test environment.

    Then run some scripts to delete data or change data.

  • Well, here is the thing:

    Have you got any backups scheduled already for your DR plan? If so, you don't want to affect your overall backup sets. you can create COPY_ONLY backups and restore them to your dedicated server and work form there.

    Check BOL for thse kind of backups

  • Both of the suggestions above are what I'd recommend, but I'd also have "obfuscation scripts" ready and running when you need to update test or dev from production as well.

  • Thanks a lot, the hardest work will be to prepare for each database the scripts to delete unwanted data...

    Very useful the COPY_DATA option, many thanks!

    sb

  • pixye.sb (2/13/2009)

    Very useful the COPY_DATA option

    COPY_ONLY backups.

    No problem, its our pleasure:)

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