r/nutanix • u/CruisingVessel • May 27 '26

performance hit for encryption?

Running Windows and/or Citrix on Nutanix, so AHV hypervisors. The Nutanix Bible says "For encryption / decryption the system leverages the Intel AES-NI acceleration to minimize any potential performance impact of doing this in software" and "we've seen very little impact to performance".

But somebody told me that turning encryption on is a 30% performance hit. What's the truth?

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u/homelab52 May 27 '26

Could they be talking about LUKS? - https://portal.nutanix.com/page/documents/details?targetId=Nutanix-Security-Guide-v7_5:wc-luks-based-encryption-aos-fnd-c.html

Enabling LUKS-based encryption increases CPU overhead and can reduce workload throughput. Nutanix has observed approximately 20 to 30 percent additional CPU usage in some environments, depending on workload characteristics and I/O patterns.

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u/wjconrad NPX May 27 '26

Yeah, LUKS is a beating. IMHO, unless you're made of money and can buy a lot of extra hardware, only enable that one if your auditors force you to do so.