virtualbox.org

I would like to run Truecrypt inside a guest OS.

Would performance be considerably weaker than running Truecrypt in the host and a guest inside a mounted volume?
Could a Truecrypt inside a guest use AES-NI?

The guest OS for all intents and purposes a PC. Truecrypt runs and takes a performance hit due to the virtualization, HOW MUCH of a performance hit and whether it's acceptable is a matter of the host disk speed, CPU and memory available. You will just have to try it and find out. I find the performance acceptable, depending on what your needs and expectations are you could too, if what you are doing is too disk I/O intensive then it may not work for you. I do basic stuff on my VMs and it does fine.

I personally run my VMs from a Truecrypt volume on the host, that way the VMs and their VDI disk files are all encrypted and unaccessible when the volume is not mounted.

Rootman wrote:Truecrypt runs and takes a performance hit due to the virtualization, HOW MUCH of a performance hit and whether it's acceptable is a matter of the host disk speed, CPU and memory available.

I have a good rig, especially disk speed and RAM.

Rootman wrote:You will just have to try it and find out. I find the performance acceptable, depending on what your needs and expectations are you could too, if what you are doing is too disk I/O intensive then it may not work for you. I do basic stuff on my VMs and it does fine.

I intend to do software development. The purpose of this VM is isolation of workspace, VM portability and commercial data security (through isolation).

Rootman wrote:I personally run my VMs from a Truecrypt volume on the host, that way the VMs and their VDI disk files are all encrypted and unaccessible when the volume is not mounted.

The point of this thread is to compare performance of host volume encryption VS guest OS level encryption.

I find guest encryption attractive (compared to host) because:
1) You don't need to think about mounting/unmounting.
2) Great security without hit to portability.
3) The guest is harder to attack through the host when unencrypted.