Bandwidth Throttling

Why Throttle Bandwidth?

Backup uploads can consume significant network bandwidth, especially during the initial full backup or after large file changes. Bandwidth throttling ensures that backups do not interfere with your regular internet usage, video calls, or other network-dependent applications.

BackupEngine provides fine-grained control over upload speeds so you can balance backup performance against network availability throughout the day.

Setting a Global Throttle

The simplest configuration is a global upload speed limit that applies at all times. Open Settings in the desktop agent, navigate to Network, and use the bandwidth slider to set your limit.

• •The slider ranges from 1 Mbps to Unlimited.
• •Common settings: 5 Mbps for light usage, 10 Mbps for moderate, 25 Mbps for fast connections.
• •The limit applies to total BackupEngine upload traffic, shared across all active backup sets.
• •Changes take effect immediately — no need to restart the agent or current backups.

# Set upload limit to 10 Mbps
backupengine config set network.throttle 10

# Set to unlimited
backupengine config set network.throttle 0

# View current setting
backupengine config get network.throttle

Time-Based Rules

Time-based rules let you define different speed limits for different times of day. This is the recommended approach for most users: throttle during work hours and run at full speed overnight.

• •Create multiple rules, each with a time range, days of the week, and speed limit.
• •Rules are evaluated in priority order. The first matching rule wins.
• •If no rule matches the current time, the global throttle applies.
• •Example: 5 Mbps on weekdays 08:00-18:00, unlimited all other times.

# Add a work-hours throttle rule
backupengine config throttle-rule add \
  --name "Work Hours" \
  --days mon,tue,wed,thu,fri \
  --start 08:00 --end 18:00 \
  --limit 5

# Add an overnight unlimited rule
backupengine config throttle-rule add \
  --name "Overnight" \
  --days mon,tue,wed,thu,fri \
  --start 18:00 --end 08:00 \
  --limit 0

# List all rules
backupengine config throttle-rule list

Monitoring Network Usage

The desktop agent displays real-time network usage in the status bar. You can also view historical bandwidth consumption in the Activity tab.

• •Current upload speed is shown in the system tray and on the agent's main screen.
• •The Activity tab shows a graph of upload speed over time for each backup run.
• •If the throttle is active, the agent displays the current limit alongside actual speed.
• •Network usage statistics are also available in the Customer Portal for team-wide visibility.