If I use whole disk encryption, will I notice a drop in performance?
And what about for a SSD?
And I see that there is a option in my bios that enables Intel AES-NI does this have any effect on my encryption?
Ubuntu – Will performance be worse if I encrypt the entire Hard Drive / SDD
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I have been using the encrypted home directory feature for years and I can tell you that while it behaves fine under normal circumstances it will bring your machine to its knees when doing any kind of intense file operations.
I have a quad-core Pentium i7 with 16GB of RAM from System7. By any measure it is a lightening fast laptop with a SATA 7200 RPM drive. Just today when I was unzipping a file with 20,000 small text files in it (take 10 minutes), my system is essentially unusable. Everything that touches the file system has a 1-2 second delay...including the web browser. My experience is exactly that of the OP -- the encrypted home directory is about 15x slower than unencrypted.
I didn't think anything about it because I am so used to it (this is my 4th laptop). On the wild chance that somebody has a tip on how to improve it, I thought I'd search here.
I encrypt my home directory because I HAVE to. If you don't have to...then don't.
- Go to releases.ubuntu.com/11.04 and download the alternate install CD for your architecture.
- Burn the .iso to a blank CD.
- Reboot with the CD in the drive, and allow the computer to boot from the CD.
- On the Ubuntu alternate CD's menu, select "Install":
- Follow the installer's instructions until you get to the step entitled "Partition Disks".
- Choose "Guided - use entire disk and set up encrypted LVM" from the menu.
- Finish the installation by following the instructions on the screen.
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Best Answer
LUKS/dm-cryptwhich is used for encryption on Linux will slow your machine since it's a software encryption. However, on a SSD you probably won't notice any difference.