Small values are unexpectedly set to traffic shaping settings from Host Client

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• After enabling traffic shaping from Host Client, Web Client shows about 1-thousandth values in the same settings.
• After enabling traffic shaping from Web Client, Host Client shows about 1000-times values in the same settings.
• For example, when enabling traffic shaping for a vSwitch from Host Client with default values:

Host Client shows the value as configured:

Average bandwidth : 100000  Kb/s
Peak bandwidth    : 100000  Kb/s
Burst size        : 102400  KB

However Web Client shows 1/1000 or 1/1024 values for each than expected:

Average bandwidth (kbit/s): 100 <--- 1/1000
Peak bandwidth (kbit/s):    100 <--- 1/1000
Burst size (KB):            100 <--- 1/1024
 

esxcli shows small values as well:

$ esxcli network vswitch standard policy shaping get -v [vSwitch Name]

  Enabled: true
  Average Bandwidth: 100 Kbps  <--- 1/1000 
  Peak Bandwidth: 100 Kbps     <--- 1/1000
  Burst Size: 800 Kib          <--- 1/1024  Note:Unit is kilobit, not kilobyte

Note: This can lead Host Client's slow response if Traffic shaping is set to vSwitch connected to Management Network or Management Network vmkernel portgroup

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5
• VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7

Resolution

This is fixed in ESXi 6.5 Update 2.

Workaround:
Use Web Client (Flash or HTML5) or esxcli command instead of Host Client when setting Traffic shaping.

Note: When setting Traffic shaping by esxcli, the unit of Burst Size is Kib(kibibit) so you need to multiply the value by 8(byte to bit) than you set from Web Client. 

For example:

• When you set the following settings from Web Client:

Average bandwidth (kbit/s): 100000
Peak bandwidth (kbit/s):    100000
Burst size (KB):            102400

• ​When you set the traffic shaping from the command line :
• when the target is Standard vSwitch:

 $ esxcli network vswitch standard policy shaping set --vswitch-name [vSwitch Name] --enabled true --avg-bandwidth 100000 --peak-bandwidth 100000 --burst-size 819200

• when the target is Port Group:

 $ esxcli network vswitch standard portgroup policy shaping get --portgroup-name [Portgroup Name] --enabled true --avg-bandwidth 100000 --peak-bandwidth 100000 --burst-size 819200

Additional Information

Impact/Risks: This issue can cause unexpected network issues such as slow response of Host Client, ESXi host unresponsive from vCenter or slow response of Virtual Machine access.