Let this go down in the record books that today marks the First Annual Celebration of International Check Your Enterprise Single Sign-On Master Secret Key Day!
Picture this, it is 2 AM and you are sound asleep. All of a sudden your work pager goes off. The datacenter is flooded (why they had a datacenter in the basement is a whole other story) and you lost the Master BizTalk Server. The power went off and backup initially failed so all the servers restarted. Your other BizTalk boxes are just fine but can not talk to the Master SSO server so they are not working. Your SQL database is ok because it was higher on the rack. Would you know where your SSO Master Secret Key is in order to promote another server to be the Master? If so, you would be up and running in less than 2 minutes. Otherwiseit might take hours or even days to recover.
Did the expensive implementation consultants who have now left your company tell you something about a SSO Key file someplace but you do not know where it is or what the password is on the file (you can always try “password” first if you do not remember it)?
Put all those worries behind you thanks to today! 11-11 should be your day to re-export your SSO Master Secret Key and keep it in a safe place.
Exporting out the Master Secret is as simple as 1, 2, 3 (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa559192(v=bts.10).aspx)
1. On the Start menu, click All Programs, click Microsoft Enterprise Single Sign-On, and then click SSO Administration.
2. In the scope pane of the ENTSSO MMC Snap-In, expand the Enterprise Single Sign-On node
3. Right-click System, and then click Back up Master Secret.
Remember first thing Monday, double check your SSO Master Secret Key file and have a Happy International Check Your Enterprise Single Sign-On Master Secret Key Day!