Impact of Standalone vs Distributed

[NamBui]

Hi, I'm currently installing Check Point Firewall in VMware environment.

From this post: Part 1 - The Architecture - Check Point CheckMates

I can see that standalone model has multiple limitations, both performance, and functionality. However, the document doesn't really give a lot of information. 

So exactly what functions will I lose with the standalone deployment (I know SmartEvent is one), and exactly what are the performance impact of standalone vs distributed model (estimate is fine, I just want some number).

Thank you in advance.

[PhoneBoy · Accepted solution]

You can run SmartEvent on a standalone gateway if you have enough memory (at least 16 GB).
There are a few limitations documented in the various release notes around standalone mode.

The main issue with standalone is the resources needed to run both management and gateway functions on the same system.
Management is very disk I/O intensive and memory intensive, gateway is network I/O intensive.
You can expect, at a minimum, that a gateway configured as standalone will have a 50% penalty compared to the same gateway deployed with separate management.