Manage network bandwidth

This article discusses options for obtaining more network bandwidth for agent-driven transfers. Increasing your network bandwidth helps decrease transfer times, especially for large data sets.

Control bandwidth usage for agent-driven transfers

Bandwidth limits are helpful if you need to limit how much data Storage Transfer Service uses to transfer data. Using a bandwidth limit helps ensure that:

• Your network is not saturated as a result of using Storage Transfer Service.

• Your organization's existing application behavior doesn't degrade during the transfer.

• You don't cause a sudden price increase if you're on a network connection that charges by peak bandwidth usage.

Bandwidth limits are applied at an agent pool level and are divided by all agents in the pool. Bandwidth limits are enforced as an average value over one minute, so you may still experience short bursts that exceed the per-second limit that you specify.

Set a bandwidth limit

To set a bandwidth limit:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Agent pools page.

   Go to Agent pools

2. Select the agent pool to update.

3. Click Set bandwidth limit.

4. Enter the desired network limit in megabytes per second (MB/s) and click Set limit.

Edit a bandwidth limit

To edit an existing bandwidth limit:

1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Agent pools page.

   Go to Agent pools

2. Select the agent pool to update.

3. Click Edit limit.

4. Enter the desired network limit in megabytes per second (MB/s) and click Set limit.

To remove a limit, click Use all bandwidth.

Options for obtaining more network bandwidth

There are several options for obtaining more network bandwidth for agent-driven transfers:

• Peering with Google—Peering is where you directly interconnect with Google to support traffic exchange. We have direct peering locations world-wide. To learn about the benefits and our policies, see Peering.

• Cloud Interconnect—Cloud Interconnect is similar to peering, but you'll use an interconnect to connect to Google. There are two types of interconnects to choose from:

  • Dedicated Interconnect— You connect directly from your data center to a Google data center via a private, dedicated connection. For more information, see Dedicated Interconnect overview.

  • Partner Interconnect—You work with a service provider to establish a connection to a Google data center via a service partner's network. For more information, see Partner Interconnect overview.

• Obtain bandwidth from your ISP—Your internet service provider (ISP) may be able to offer more bandwidth for your needs. Consider contacting them to ask what options they have available.