Until SQL 2016 if you used TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) you couldn’t use backup compression.

In 2016 Microsoft changed this, but it has been a rocky road. Backups work okay but in some circumstances people have found that they are corrupt when they come to restore them.

We thought that was all fixed, as highlighted by Brent Ozar, MS have been recommending that you are on at least SQL Server 2016 RTM CU6 or 2016 SP1 CU4 where these issues are resolved.

https://www.brentozar.com/archive/2017/09/breaking-news-using-tde-2016-backups-time-patch/

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/dad3dfe3-c914-44f8-96b9-ab56cc825fe9/tde-corrupt-backups-when-using-backup-database-with-compression-maxtransfersize?forum=sqldatabaseengine

It seems like people are still having problems though. Ken Johnson is on 2106 SP1 CU6 and is having problems:

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/dad3dfe3-c914-44f8-96b9-ab56cc825fe9/tde-corrupt-backups-when-using-backup-database-with-compression-maxtransfersize?forum=sqldatabaseengine

Our production DBA has just run a test and confirmed that in one test backing up 20 databases from one server and restoring them to another, about 10 have failed. Although in other environments this is working fine.

You can see the error if you try to verify the backup:

Date and time: 2018-02-16 09:52:10
Command: BACKUP DATABASE [XXXXX] TO DISK = XXXXX’ WITH CHECKSUM, COMPRESSION, MAXTRANSFERSIZE = 131072
Processed 95488 pages for database ‘XXXXX’, file ‘XXXXX’ on file 1.
Processed 3 pages for database ‘XXXXX’, file ‘XXXXX’ on file 1.
BACKUP DATABASE successfully processed 95491 pages in 2.375 seconds (314.113 MB/sec).
Outcome: Succeeded
Duration: 00:00:02
Date and time: 2018-02-16 09:52:12

Date and time: 2018-02-16 09:52:12
Command: RESTORE VERIFYONLY FROM DISK = ‘XXXXX’ WITH CHECKSUM
Msg 3189, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Damage to the backup set was detected.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
VERIFY DATABASE is terminating abnormally.
Outcome: Failed
Duration: 00:00:03
Date and time: 2018-02-16 09:52:15

And it certainly doesn’t then work if you try to restore it:

5 percent processed.
Msg 3183, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
RESTORE detected an error on page (1:7763) in database “XXXXXXX as read from the backup set.
Msg 3013, Level 16, State 1, Line 2
RESTORE DATABASE is terminating abnormally.

We’re raising a call with Microsoft, will update when we know more.

In the meantime, can we trust backups of TDE with backup compression enabled? Given that we want to be absolutely sure our backups can save us in event of disaster the answer may be no. At a minimum we need to test each time we update our applications or patch SQL Server.

The side lesson if course is that we should always be regularly checking our backups are restorable.

More articles on TDE

What is Transparent Data Encryption?

Setting up Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

Encrypting an existing database with TDE

Understanding Keys and Certificates with Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)

How Secure is Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) – and How to Prevent Hacking

Migrating or Recovering a TDE protected Database