SUMMARY
How does End Point Backup (formerly Unitrends Cloud Backup) ensure my internet connection is being used appropriately?
ISSUE
Can I limit how much bandwidth the ECB agent uses?
Alternatively, how can I make the backups run faster and use more throughput?
RESOLUTION
For concerns about going too fast, or using too much bandwidth:
Cloud backups, once initial fulls are completed, are usually small efforts the complete quickly, however if during initial data seeding backups, or periodically, you find the image agent is using too much network throughput or causing production impacts, you may leverage endpoint firewall QoS policies to limit that throughput on your network, or, block connections to ingest.backup.net and storage.backup.net on port 443 at your firewall. Alternatively, 3rd party software firewall applications installed in the windows system may also be able to filter by connection ID/SSID (something windows itself does not by default do) and provide more flexibility or tuning by specific network.
A note of warning, users who may tether their computers to cell phone plans with data caps or connect to networks with metered costs may run into complications if using EPB. It may be necessary to use 3rd party software to prevent the application adapter.exe from using network throughput on such adapters.
For Concerns about the agent going slower than expected on a given network connection:
If the Cloud Backup is not going as fast as you think it should be capable of, please equally check your firewall as QoS, security policies, or other bandwidth limiting factors may impede performance. EPB leverages HTTPS for communication and will be subject to any throttles or limits you place on the user who is currently logged into the system being protected, or place on the system itself.
Antivirus applications leveraging scan on read technology, limited IO throughput of a machine, restrictive CPU or memory configurations, and wifi network throughput limitations may also impact backup speeds. Of course the WAN performance itself for uploads is typically the largest limiting factor.
NOTES
The EPB agent was developed to support systems that typically fit into a roaming profile. Traveling users, Home Office workers, and other systems that do not conform to traditional backup schedules or cannot be reliably reached on networks. Because we expect the agent to be connected to various networks throughout time and thus encounter a variety of filters, limitations, and connection speeds, the agent has been designed to make the best use of the connection it finds available, and does not incorporate any bandwidth limiting technology.