[mcnallym]

Yep SmartDefense will use up CPU. At our last Nokia update then Nokia were saying that really unless you have a multicore or multiple CPU system then SMARTDefense and UTM functionallity on the appliances will be a big performance hit on the unit. There newest appliances are coming out with Dual Core or more and awaiting the IPSO 6.0 update to allow multicore to work properly on them and should resolve some of these options.

Talking with some Check point people last week and they said that even there new UTM appliances start to struggle when you have the SMARTDefense enabled or start doing the UTM AV or URL filtering.

I have found that progressively over NGX then the policy install time has got worse and takes longer and longer with each release. I don't really suggest less then 512Mb for an NGX box these days.

I personally haven't seen anything regarding license count and going slower if exceed the license count, only that get annoying messages in the log file.