Network utilization

This setting determines the data transfer mode for the deployment.

The preset is: Multicast

With the Multicast transfer mode, OS Deploy Server sends data to a group of recipients simultaneously.

Using the Unicast transfer mode, the server sends a copy of the data to each recipient. This can significantly reduce the deployment speed.

For example, suppose that you have a bandwidth of 100 MB per second, and you want to deploy a system to 10 target machines.

• With the Unicast mode, the server divides the speed among 10 machines. Therefore, the data transfer speed will be 10 MB per second for each target machine.
• With the Multicast mode, the server sends one copy of data to a multicast address, and each client will receive data at a speed of 100 MB per second.

Multicast configuration has a parameter that specifies the time to live (TTL) for multicast packets. Use this parameter to limit multicast packets distribution via gateways.

The default value is 15. In practice, this enables the packets to pass up to 15 hops which may be treated as an unlimited distance. The minimal value 1 will limit the packets circulation to one subnet.

By setting the permitted bandwidth, you can limit the network usage during deployment. The default value is 1 gigabit (Gbit) per second.

Adjusting network utilization settings

Acronis Snap Deploy 5 uses Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) for multicasting. Therefore, all network hardware (such as routers or network switches) must be IGMP-capable and correctly configured. The specific information on configuring any particular router or network switch is usually available in the documentation provided with the hardware.

If there is no IGMP-capable hardware (or you cannot configure it correctly) in the network, use the Unicast data transfer mode.