Network Settings

Server outgoing bandwidth
Server bandwidth allocation
Notifications
Best practices
FAQs

The network settings can be configured to control the central server's outgoing data transfer rate (bandwidth). This can help you restrict the maximum outgoing bandwidth utilized by the product server, ensuring other central server processes run seamlessly. When configured, the network settings are applied only during patch and software deployment to end-user machines as other processes like remote control, deployment of configurations etc. tend to use a minimal amount of bandwidth.

Server outgoing bandwidth

The server's outgoing bandwidth is determined by the minimum of three factors, namely

Server machine's Network Interface Card (NIC) capacity
Maximum data transfer rate of the network
Pre-existing configurations in the network to limit the bandwidth

To understand this better, let us look at an example where a user has,

Installed the product server on a machine which has an NIC capable of 1 Gb/s transfer rate
Installed CAT6A Ethernet cables in the network infrastructure which supports up to 10 Gb/s
Throttled the bandwidth in the routers for each device to 100 Mb/s

Now the server's maximum outgoing bandwidth is 100 Mb/s. Had the bandwidth not been throttled in the router, the server's maximum outgoing bandwidth would have been 1 Gb/s.

Server bandwidth allocation

Allocated bandwidth

x% of the outgoing bandwidth (as configured by the user here) is assigned to the central server.

Allocation type

All days: This applies the configured bandwidth limit for deployments during any day of the week.
Specify days: Various profiles can be created that can configure the bandwidth limit for specific days and for specific intervals of time.

Notifications

Enabling this sends out an email notification to all selected users when the configured bandwidth is lower than the recommended bandwidth.

Best practices

It is recommended to configure the network settings only when managing over 200+ direct contacting components.

Direct contacting components = LAN agents + WAN agents contacting the server through a secure gateway server but without a distribution server + Number of distribution servers involved

The bandwidth can be configured as per the user's purpose and available resources. However, lower the bandwidth provided higher is the time taken for each deployment. So to ensure faster deployment time, configure the bandwidth as high as possible.
Frequent network changes can lead to unnecessary load for the central server. So validate the network changes before saving the same.
It is recommended to use closed time intervals in time slot profiles. For example if a time slot profile is configured as, 1:00 AM - 4:00 AM - 80%; 4:00 AM - 9:00 AM - 70% it is considered a closed interval because there is no time gap in between.

FAQs

1. Can I configure network settings even if my agent count is below 200?

We recommend configuring the network settings only for over 200 agents, to avoid unnecessary delays in deployment. However, this can be used for a slightly lower agent count as well.

2. Why am I getting the "File download delayed due to bandwidth limitation" error for deployments?

When bandwidth restrictions are applied, the deployment to a large number of endpoints happens sequentially in batches to optimize the deployment time. The deployment to the remaining endpoints will resume in eventual refresh cycles.

3. If I configure bandwidth restriction for the central server, does it also apply for the distribution servers?

The bandwidth restriction configured for the central server does not affect the communication between distribution servers and the agents under it.

4. How can I find the NIC capacity?

On the server machine, navigate to Control panel -> Network and Internet -> View network status and tasks -> Ethernet -> Speed