Are you seeing slow transfer rates when replicating content in your hierarchy? You check with the network team and bandwidth is only 20% utilized. You site server only shows 1% network utilization. You change the number of threads used to transfer content but you don’t get the speed increase. Rate Limits could be the culprit.
By default, a site can use up to three concurrent threads to transfer data to a destination site. When you enable rate limits for a file replication route, the concurrent threads for sending data to that site are limited to one. This applies even when the Limit available bandwidth (%) is set to 100%. For example, if you use the default settings for the sender, this reduces the transfer rate to the destination site to be one third of the default capacity.
The following content will be throttled if rate limits are set.
| Content | Software package installation bits, software updates, boot images | File-based | Primary sites, secondary sites, distribution points |
Where to set the Rate Limits on Site Servers vs Distribution Points
On Site Servers, Rate Limits are set under \Administration\Overview\Hierachy Configuration\Addresses.
Right click the site name and select properties then the tab “Rate Limits”.
For Site systems that only act as Distribution point, Rate Limits are set under \Administration\Overview\Site Configuration\Servers and Site System Roles.
If you mark a server “Site System Roles” is shown at the bottom, Right click “Distribution point” and select properties then the tab “Rate Limits”.
•Schedule: You can configure the schedule for each file replication route to restrict the type of data and time when data can transfer to the destination site.
•Rate Limits: You can configure rate limits for each file replication route to control the network bandwidth that is used when the site transfers data to the destination site:
- Use Pulse mode to specify the size of the data blocks that are sent to the destination site. You can also specify a time delay between sending each data block. Use this option when you must send data across a very low bandwidth network connection to the destination site. For example, you might have constraints to send 1 KB of data every five seconds, but not 1 KB every three seconds, regardless of the speed of the link or its usage at a given time.
- Use Limited to maximum transfer rates by hour to have a site send data to a destination site by using only the percentage of time that you specify. When you use this option, Configuration Manager does not identify the network’s available bandwidth, but instead divides the time it can send data into slices of time. Then data is sent in a short block of time, which is followed by blocks of time when data is not sent. For example, if the maximum rate is set to 50%, Configuration Manager transmits data for an amount of time followed by an equal period of time when no data is sent. The actual size amount of data, or size of the data block, is not managed. Instead, only the amount of time during which data is sent is managed.
• You can configure a file replication route between two secondary sites to route file-based content between those sites.
