Dell Storage Manager 2020 R1 Administrator's Guide

How Secure Data Works

Using Secure Data to manage SEDs requires an external key management server. If a key management server has not been configured or is unavailable, Storage Center allows SEDs to be managed; however, it will not secure the SEDs until the key management server is available and configured, at which point they will be secured.

Each FIPS disk in Storage Center has an internal Media Encryption Key (MEK). The key resides on the disk, providing encryption for data written to the disk and decryption for data as it is read from the disk. Destroying the key makes any data on the disk immediately and permanently unreadable, a process referred to as a crypto erase. When you add an SED to, or release an SED from a Secure Data folder, the MEK is destroyed and a new key is generated. Creating a new key allows the disk to be reused, although all previous data is lost.

Not to be confused with the MEK, the Storage Center manages a separate set of keys for providing data-at-rest encryption. These keys are referred to as authority credentials. The purpose of these keys is to protect the theft of any number of drives. If a secured drive from a Secure Data folder is removed from the system such that power is removed, the drive will be locked and customer data will be unreadable.

Authenticating to the drive using the authority credential is the only means of unlocking the drive while preserving customer data, which can only be obtained by successfully authenticating to the related key management server through a secure channel.

Use the Copy Volumes to Disk Folder operation to copy volumes from a Secure Data folder to another folder. The destination folder can be either a secure folder or a nonsecure folder.

To protect data at rest, all SEDs in a Secure Data disk folder lock when power is removed (lock on reset enabled). When power is removed from the drive, the drive cannot be unlocked without an authority credential.

When replicating from a Secure Data volume to a non-Secure Data folder, that volume is no longer secure after it leaves the Secure Data folder. When replicating a non-Secure Data volume to a Secure Data folder, that volume is not secure until it replicates to the Secure Data folder and Data Progression runs.