In VMware Cloud Director Availability, you can configure a global limit on the total incoming replication traffic from all paired sites. For Cloud Director sites, you can also configure a limit for the replication data traffic from on-premises sites to the cloud site. Throttling the network bandwidth can prevent the network saturation and helps to avoid the overloading of the management connections with the replication data traffic that shares the network infrastructure.

In VMware Cloud Director Availability, throttling the network bandwidth to the specified megabits per second limits only the replication data traffic transfer rate. The bandwidth throttling does not limit the transfer rate of other types of network traffic like data and the management traffic.

Global Bandwidth Throttling to the Cloud Site

Note: The bandwidth throttle limit to any cloud site requires external Replicator Appliance instances. Since VMware Cloud Director Availability 4.6, you can also apply bandwidth throttle limit for vSphere DR and migration, with the same requirement.
  • Cloud Director sites:
    For Cloud Director sites, external Replicator Appliance instances are expected in production environments. The Cloud Director Combined Appliance does not limit the bandwidth as it is suitable for testing environments only.

    For information about adding external Replicator Appliance instances in the Cloud Director site, see Add an additional Replicator Service instance in the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in the Cloud Director Site.

  • vSphere DR and migration:
    For vSphere DR and migration, external Replicator Appliance instances are optional by default in the cloud site. To apply bandwidth throttle the cloud site must run only external Replicator Appliance instances, in addition to the vCenter Replication Management Appliance.

    For information about adding external Replicator Appliance instances for vSphere DR and migration, see Add an additional Replicator Appliance instance in the Installation, Configuration, and Upgrade Guide in On-Premises and Provider Site.

The global bandwidth throttling limits the transfer rate of the combined incoming replication data traffic to all local Replicator Appliance instances from all remote cloud or on-premises sites. This global traffic limit operates with any number of Replicator Appliance instances. The number of data connections or the activity within the connections has no effect on the bandwidth throttling.

On-premises Bandwidth Throttling to the Cloud Director Site

The outbound network bandwidth throttling limit from on-premises sites to the Cloud Director site applies to each individual On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance instance.

Replication policies configured with bandwidth throttling limit for the traffic from the On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance instances to the Cloud Director site does not affect the traffic between Cloud Director sites, nor affects the traffic from the Cloud Director site to the On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance instances.

A replication policy configured with bandwidth throttling limit affects the transfer rate from all On-Premises to Cloud Director Replication Appliance instances, on all on-premises sites that target the respective organization to which the replication policy applies.