VDI bandwidth management through GPO policies in Zoom
Using GPO policies, administrators can set the maximum bandwidth available for thin clients by configuring GPO policies. It is also possible to implement bandwidth restriction policies that apply specifically to office devices, so that home users can take full advantage of the capabilities of their personal networks.
This article covers:
- MSI bandwidth settings
- Web bandwidth settings
- Policy bandwidth settings
- How to change the Office or Home value on the thin client
- Windows
- macOS
- Linux
- GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb
- How to check bandwidth limitation from the VDI Statistics tab
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Making use of meeting controls to access statistics
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From the main desktop client window, you will be able to access Statistics
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Prerequisites for VDI bandwidth management through GPO policies
- Account owner or admin privileges
- VDI setup
MSI bandwidth settings
These settings can be configured by the administrator through the installer or through the registry (in either the HKCU or HKLM file) by using the following keys/values:
SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\General
- BandwidthLimitUp – In kbps, you can set the maximum bandwidth for sending (has a minimum value of 800kb)
- BandwidthLimitDown – In kbps, set the maximum rate at which the data can be received (has minimum value of 800kb)
- IgnoreBandwidthLimits – The bandwidth limit that is set by MSI and/or the Web is ignored using this tool. There is no effect on Policy Bandwidth Settings when this setting is enabled.
Web bandwidth settings
This can be configured on the Zoom web portal’s account page, and will override the MSI bandwidth settings unless the IgnoreBandwidthLimits option is set to 1.
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In addition to IP addresses, they can also be applied based on rules and policies.
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The value can be set to 0 if there are no bandwidth limits which exist or apply.
Policy bandwidth settings
VDI clients use the following registry keys to apply policies based on the .ini files they have and are configured under the following locations:
SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\VDI\bandwidth\
- Office: As far as the thin client is concerned, these are the “on-premise” settings that are determined by the .ini file. Check the .ini file in the installation folder of the thin client for the following line in the file:
[DeviceLocation] IsInOffice=1It is indicative of the fact that the office settings are being used when the value of IsInOffice is 1.
- Home: If there is no .ini file, or if IsInOffice is set to 0, then the home settings are used in place of those settings in the .ini file.
There are three different connection types that can be used for office and home settings (ica, udp, and direct), and there are up and down options configured for the bandwidth.
In the system registry, if the setting “GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb=1” is configured, this value is used regardless of whether a corresponding value exists under either location or connection type. Unless the bandwidth limit is configured, there will not be a bandwidth limit if the default value is set to 0.
There is the same additional line as before:
[DeviceLocation] IsInOffice=1
Example
When the user is in office, the following bandwidth settings can be applied to the policy in order to set the bandwidth limit for ICA mode:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\VDI\bandwidth\office\ica] "Up"=dword:00000320 "Down"=dword:00000320
How to change the Office or Home value on the thin client
The IsInOffice value determines whether the thin client is in the office or at home based on the platform type, which is set by the IsInOffice value.
Windows
There are two lines that need to be added to the file bandwidth_config.ini that is located under the plugins installation path on the Windows thin client:
[DeviceLocation] IsInOffice=1
Default plugin install path for each platform type is below:
- AVD: C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomWVDMediaPlugin
- Citrix: C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomCitrixHdxPlugin
- Vmware: C:\Program Files (x86)\ZoomVmwareMediaPlugin
macOS
On the macOS plugin 5.8.0 and later, the configuration file is located under the ZoomVDI_Config file, which is located under ~/Library/Application Support/ZoomVDI/ZoomVDI_Config.
You will need to look for the value “ISINOFFICE=” and set the value to 1 or 0.
Linux
The configuration is similar to that which is found in Windows, but it should be added to the existing ZoomMedia.ini file:
[DeviceLocation] IsInOffice=1
GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb
There is a policy known as GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb set under SOFTWARE/Policies/Zoom/Zoom Meetings/VDI that if it is enabled will only use bandwidth values from Policy Bandwidth Settings, regardless of whether the bandwidth value exists under the device location or connection type. The default bandwidth value is 0, and in the absence of a bandwidth configuration value, we will use the previous configuration rules.).
How to check bandwidth limitation from the VDI Statistics tab
When viewing the VDI Statistics tab during a meeting, it is possible to see whether there is applied bandwidth limitation for the plugin and the VDI client that has been applied for the plugin and VDI client in version 5.10.6 and later.
Access Statistics using meeting controls
It is possible to view meeting diagnostic information while you are in a Zoom meeting on a desktop client.
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Zoom’s desktop client can be accessed by signing in with your Zoom account.
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Meetings can be started or joined at any time.
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Please click the upward arrow next to the Start Video / Stop Video button in the meeting controls in order to start the video.
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To change the video settings, click the Video Settings button.
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Select Statistics from the drop-down menu.
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The VDI tab can be found by selecting it.
Access Statistics from the main desktop client window
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Zoom’s desktop client can be accessed by signing in with your Zoom account.
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You can do this by clicking the picture of your profile and clicking Settings.
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You can find statistics by clicking on Statistics.
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The VDI tab can be found by selecting it.
You will see a note at the bottom of the window if bandwidth limitations were successfully applied to the meeting. This note reads: Your IT Team has limited the bandwidth that is available for this meeting at your location.
As a result of clicking the exclamation icon, you will be able to look at the upstream/downstream bandwidth limits for the VDI client and plugin by clicking on the exclamation icon.
Frequently Asked Questions
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