BES Bandwidth Throttling

Many network environments have limited bandwidth between certain geographic locations, between offices and home users using VPNs, etc. Deploying large Microsoft patches (the Windows XP SP2 update is 275 MB!) can easily overwhelm the limited bandwidth connections and cause bandwidth problems for certain users or applications.


To avoid these types of problems, BES provides a number of mechanisms to reduce bandwidth usage including the use of BES Relays, distributing patch deployment over time, and the use of bandwidth throttling. Bandwidth throttling allows the BES Console operator the ability to set the maximum number of bytes per second to be used to send files over a network connection. BES can be configured to throttle bandwidth at the BES Server, BES Relay, or BES Client level. Below are instructions on how to configure BES to use bandwidth throttling.


Important Note:

In BES 5.0 and above the bandwidth throttling settings were moved to the "Tasks" tab on the BES Support Fixlet site instead of using custom settings. Please view Tools > Show BES Client Settings Tasks and Tools > Show BES Server and BES Relay Settings Tasks in the BES Console for more information. In addition, there is an Analysis that can be activated that will display the bandwidth throttling status of BES Clients.

Bandwidth throttling can be set in the following ways:

Throttling through BES Relays (A)

BES Relays downloading from the BES Server

BES Relays can be configured to throttle file downloads when downloading from the BES Server. When BES Relay throttling is enabled, the BES Relay will download from the BES Server no more than the specified number of bytes per second. This setting is especially useful for BES Relays that have a slow connection to the BES Server (such as a BES Relay in a remote location connected by a 56 kbps modem).


Configuration: BES Client throttling can be configured by using the "_BESGather_Download_LimitBytesPerSecond" setting on the BES Relays. Information on how to configure this setting can be found here.


Total outgoing download traffic for the BES Relay

The BES Relay in BES 4.0 and above can be configured to throttle the cumulative file downloads at any given time. When this throttling setting is enabled, the BES Relay will send out no more than the specified number of bytes per second for all file downloads (including BES Clients and child BES Relays). This setting is especially useful if there is a concern in a local area network that too much bandwidth will be used when a patch is sent out to many BES Clients simultaneously.


Configuration: BES Relay cumulative download throttling can be configured by using the "_BESRelay_HTTPServer_ThrottleKBPS" setting on the BES Relay. Set this number to the total number of kilobytes that the BES Relay will give to all of the BES Clients combined per second.

Throttling through BES Clients (B)

BES Clients downloading files from the BES Server or BES Relay

BES Clients can be configured to throttle file downloads when downloading from the BES Server or BES Relays. When BES Client throttling is enabled, the BES Client will download from the BES Server or BES Relays at no more than than the specified number of bytes per second. This setting is especially useful for individual computers that are on slow connections (such as travelling sales representatives or home users on dial-ups).


Configuration: BES Client throttling can be configured by using the "_BESClient_Download_LimitBytesPerSecond" setting on the BES Clients. Information on how to configure this setting can be found here.

Throttling through the BES Server/Relays (C/D)

Total outgoing download traffic for the BES Server/Relays

The BES Server can be configured to throttle the cumulative file downloads at any given time. When this throttling setting is enabled, the BES Server/Relays will send out no more than the specified number of bytes per second for all file downloads (including BES Clients and child BES Relays). This setting is especially useful if there is a concern in a local area network that too much bandwidth will be used when a patch is sent out to many BES Clients simultaneously.


Configuration: BES Server cumulative download throttling can be configured by using the "_BESRelay_HTTPServer_ThrottleKBPS" setting on the BES Server. Information on how to configure this setting can be found here.