VSS and VDS traffic shaping policy not functioning as expected

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article clarifies the Ingress/Egress traffic shaping policy terms to avoid potential confusion.

Symptoms:

• The traffic shaping policy is not working as expected.
• The Ingress/Egress policy appears to be functioning opposite to the expected behavior.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

The traffic shaping policy is configured on the PortGroup from the vSwitch/VDS perspective.

Therefore, when using the GUI:

• Egress is traffic sent out from the vSwitch to the virtual machine
• Ingress is traffic coming into the vSwitch from the virtual machine

Note: The Performance tab shows the transmit values in KBps, whereas the Traffic Shaping tab under PortGroup settings shows the values in Kbps.