5.50.8 and SSDs Performance Impact?

Anyone? No one is using SSDs with full disk encrption?

I just started using full disk on an ssd.  I am on a standalone client.  So far I do not notice any performance impact doing standard activities. i.e. web browsing, email, office apps, vpn to corporate network etc. I have not tried anything that would be real disk intensive though.  I recall there is a setting in Safeguard Enterprise related to ssd performance but I don't recall exactly what it is named......have you tried that?

Hi,

The special setting for SSDs in 5.50.8 is called "fast initial encryption": only the used area of the drive is encrypted, remaining empty data is not. Data gets encrypted as it's written to this unallocated space, the goal is to combat this particular issue: https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?page=content&id=KB66256 (Where are your write-ups on the issue, Sophos?).

The problem is, I noticed absolutely zero improvement with fast initial encryption vs. full disk encryption on SSD with 5.50.8, I tested this on 4 different SSD drives, too.

If you can, download and run Crystal DiskMark 3, it's free and pretty nice: http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html and post your numbers here.

Thanks!

P.S. Came across this interesting article, think it would be helpful to post it here:
http://thessdreview.com/buyers-guide/the-ssd-manufacturers-bluff/

So, I finally got my company to buy me a SSD for testing purposes on the laptop that I'm using, and for my own reference, I also ran CrystalDiskMark on my disk, before and after the fast initial encryption:

[Edit]:

Forgot to mention the specs:  Latitude E5410, Core i3-330M, 4GB RAM, Win7Pro x64, Crucial C300 128 GB SSD

Before Encryption

Sequential Read :   225.7 MB/s

Sequential Write :   140.0 MB/s

Random Read 512K :   226.5 MB/s

Random Write 512K :   140.6 MB/s

Random Read 4K:   15.55 MB/s

Random Write 4K:   22.69 MB/s

Random Read 4K QD32:   162.2 MB/s

Random Write 4K QD32:   124.3 MB/s

After Fast Initial Encryption

Sequential Read :   68.53 MB/s

Sequential Write :   56.08 MB/s

Random Read 512K :   66.53 MB/s

Random Write 512K :   60.77 MB/s

Random Read 4K:   10.93 MB/s

Random Write 4K:   13.20 MB/s

Random Read 4K QD32:   85.13 MB/s

Random Write 4K QD32:   57.73 MB/s

I didn't install truecrypt on here, so I have no idea how those compare.

It does kinda suck that the performance after encryption is less than half (other than Random 4K performance) than the level before encryption, but at least it's better than a mechanical HD.

Can any Sophos people comment about whether or not SGN/SGE interferes with TRIM operation in Windows 7 (could that be the cause of this massive drop in performance)?

Hi ssij,

Encryption is definitely the cause of such performance impact. Your best bet is to wait out until 5.60, as it introduced many performance improvements, and not just on SSD front. Here are some numbers from 5.60 Technical Preview:

Unencrypted

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo

                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :    91.427 MB/s

          Sequential Write :    88.750 MB/s

         Random Read 512KB :    30.581 MB/s

        Random Write 512KB :    38.354 MB/s

    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.387 MB/s [    94.4 IOPS]

   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.680 MB/s [   166.0 IOPS]

   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     0.778 MB/s [   190.1 IOPS]

  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     0.675 MB/s [   164.7 IOPS]

Encrypted with 5.60TP:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1 x64 (C) 2007-2010 hiyohiyo

                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :    89.933 MB/s

          Sequential Write :    84.967 MB/s

         Random Read 512KB :    28.029 MB/s

        Random Write 512KB :    31.970 MB/s

    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :     0.320 MB/s [   84.7 IOPS]

   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :     0.717 MB/s [   107.4 IOPS]

   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :     0.662 MB/s [   134.9 IOPS]

  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :     0.457 MB/s [   109.3 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [C: 26.0% (121.2/465.5 GB)] (x5)

  Date : 2011/01/20 23:47:11

    OS : Windows 7 Enterprise Edition [6.1 Build 7600] (x64)

Have you tried running an upgrade from v5.50.8 to v5.60 on a machine that is running an SSD?  I'd love to see if that increases the performance of the drive, or whether the SSD is borked from the way v5.50.8 encrypts the drive.

Here you go:

Drive is Fujitsu NJA2250CH G2 self-encrypting 5400RPM SATA drive, OPAL compliant.

unencrypted: http://i52.tinypic.com/el4m76.png

encrypted: http://i53.tinypic.com/2j5nj8k.jpg

Oops, here's a correct link with speeds on SSD:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8q3w5b
It's a PDF, I couldn't attach it here for some reason.