how this disk encryption works?

[Technologov]

I don't understand.
I have changed VM to support encryption and added password.

What I expected?
-It should encrypt all disk images attached to VM with this AES+key-password (didn't happen)
-it should take several minutes to encrypt HDD (*.VDI) files. (Didn't happen)
-It should ask password on every VM "start". (Didn't happen)

Was it really encrypted? I bet NOT.

[aeichner]

Please attach the vbox config and a VBox.log of the VM after enabling encryption. Btw., did you create a new VM for testing or used an existing one? If you created a new one the process will most likely complete immediately because there is nothing to encrypt yet and the password dialog in the GUI will be shown the first time the guest tries to access an encrypted disk not necessarily during startup.

[Technologov]

I did "full clone" of existing Win XP VM, and allowed encryption via VM settings. (to avoid damaging original VM)

Simply put: GUI didn't save my settings.

[aeichner]

That is weird, your log definitely shows that the VM is not encrypted but I just tried cloning and encrypting several VMs like you did and it always works for me here.

[Technologov]

Host: Windows 7 x64, VBox 5.0.0-BETA1

It is a GUI problem. Simple to reproduce:
VM settings->general->encryption->enable encryption
AES-256
passwd: [123456]
"OK"

VM settings->general->encryption->...

encryption is DISABLED.
It means, that GUI on Windows hosts failed to save my settings !

[birdie]

encryption is DISABLED.
It means, that GUI on Windows hosts failed to save my settings !

Works just fine for me.

Host: CentOS 6.6 x86