SOLVED: LUKS Encryption and Performance

This is merely an academic question really.

But I wanted to find out does using disk encryption such as LUKS impact performance only at boot or 100% of all disk activity, meaning even after boot for interactions with the operating system for running applications or executing CLI commands and so on?

I am merely looking for a boiled down answer if at all possible with a response of:

  • Only at boot, or
  • 100% of the time

I am hoping it is possible to get a binary answer on this anyway.

Thank you,
Warron

All the time - think about it, every time you read/write to disk there’s crypto going on. AES-NI in your cpu helps a lot if you’re using a supported algo.

run cryptsetup benchmark to see the best for your cpu. i bet it’ll be aes-cbc or aes-xts 256-bit by a long way.

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All of the time. It is not something you would notice.

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Thank you both, I have not done any real research on the use of LUKS but have been interested in it for quite some time. I have been learning and trying to master the concepts of PKI over the last six years.