Setting client bandwidth policy

 

Applies to: Groove Server 2010

Topic Last Modified: 2010-02-11

This article provides information and a procedure for setting a policy for controlling SharePoint Workspace client bandwidth use for communications that depend on the Groove Transport mode of communications, including:

  • SharePoint Workspace client to client communication (direct peer-to-peer)

  • SharePoint Workspace client to Groove Server Relay communication

The following types of communication are not governed by this policy:

  • SharePoint Workspace client to SharePoint Server communication

  • SharePoint Workspace client to Groove Server Manager communication

SharePoint Workspace is designed to use communications bandwidth efficiently during regular activity and to reduce bandwidth usage when running in the background. However, under certain conditions, if you expect a period of high network demand, for example, you may want to consider setting the Groove Server Manager bandwidth usage policy for SharePoint Workspace. This policy lets you set a maximum network bandwidth us by defining a bandwidth policy for domain devices.

In this topic:

  • About setting bandwidth policy for SharePoint Workspace

  • Controlling SharePoint Workspace bandwidth usage

This procedure requires that Groove Server 2010 Manager is installed as described in Deployment for Groove Server 2010.

About setting bandwidth policy for SharePoint Workspace

SharePoint Workspace does not limit its use of communications bandwidth except when addressing the requirements of sociable communications, when bandwidth usage is determined by an internal optimization protocol. This limited bandwidth use occurs under the following conditions:

  • When SharePoint Workspace is running in the notification area (all SharePoint Workspace windows are closed).

  • Another application is heavily using the communications device (for file download, for example).

  • SharePoint Workspace starts to send or receive a large amount of content when the communications device is already in demand by another application.

By default, the SharePoint Workspace bandwidth usage policy is disabled. Typically, this policy should remain disabled (cleared). Specifying a value to limit SharePoint Workspace network bandwidth usage significantly impedes Groove performance.

You may want to consider enabling the policy and specifying a value if:

  • Network requirements demand a limit on SharePoint Workspace network bandwidth usage.

  • You want to use the results for capacity planning. Setting a finite SharePoint Workspace bandwidth limit per device for a known number of devices can provide helpful statistics in planning for overall SharePoint Workspace bandwidth use in an enterprise.

Enabling a policy that limits network bandwidth use will significantly affect SharePoint Workspace performance. The impacts of setting a SharePoint Workspace bandwidth use policy include the following:

  • Causes SharePoint Workspace to limit its use of communications devices, even when SharePoint Workspace is active.

  • Causes SharePoint Workspace to limit its use of communications devices for all destinations, regardless of whether the destination is over a high-speed Ethernet line or a slow dial-up connection.

  • Over-rides sociable communications.

  • Increases the time that is required for sending large files (a 2-megabit file, for example). Although a bandwidth policy may not have an obvious impact on delivery of small messages (such as online status messages), its impact on the large messages generated by many SharePoint Workspace tools can be significant.

Make sure that you understand these implications before setting a device policy on SharePoint Workspace bandwidth use. Test the performance impact on a representative set of tools and hardware before you deploy a new policy.

Controlling SharePoint Workspace bandwidth usage

The following procedure describes how to set a bandwidth policy for SharePoint Workspace from the Groove Server Manager administrative policy pages.

To control SharePoint Workspace bandwidth usage

  1. Review the information in About setting bandwidth policy for SharePoint Workspace.

  2. Log on to the Groove Server Manager administrative Web site, expand Policies, and then click Default or another policy template.

  3. On the Member Policies page, under Bandwidth Policies, select the check box for Limit bandwidth to and enter a numeric value in the text box.

  4. Select one of the following units from drop-down menu:

    • megabits/second - Sets bandwidth limit units to megabits per second. Allowable value: whole number from 1 to 100.

    • kilobits/second - Sets bandwidth limit units to kilobits per second. Allowable value: whole number from 5 to 100,000.

    • bits/second - Sets bandwidth limit units to bits per second. Allowable value: whole number from 4800 to 100,000,000.

After SharePoint Workspace clients receive this policy from Groove Server Manager, they will be subject to the bandwidth restrictions defined by the policy. This policy applies to domain members who are subject to this policy template. For information about assigning policy templates to domain members, see Deploying policies to SharePoint Workspace users.