The maximum bandwidth available for thin clients can be configured by GPO policies configured by the administrators. Moreover, it is also possible to specify bandwidth restriction policies that apply exclusively to office devices, allowing home users to fully take advantage of all the features provided by personal networks by implementing these policies.

The following topics are covered in this article:

• 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
  • Access Statistics using meeting controls
  • Access Statistics from the main desktop client window

Prerequisites for VDI bandwidth management through GPO policies

• Ownership or administrative privileges of the account
• Setup of a virtual desktop infrastructure

MSI bandwidth settings

This can be done by the administrator either through the installer or by modifying the registry (HKCU or HKLM) with the keys and values listed below:

SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\General

• BandwidthLimitUp – In the Sending Bandwidth Setting, you can specify how much bandwidth you wish to send in kbps at a time.
• BandwidthLimitDown – There is a minimum value of 800KB for the maximum receiving bandwidth in kbps (should be at least that value).
• It is recommended that you ignore bandwidth limits – It is used in order to disregard the bandwidth limits that are set by MSI and/or the Web and to ignore them. Policy Bandwidth Settings are not affected by this setting.

Web bandwidth settings

In the Zoom web portal, these settings can be found under the account section. The MSI bandwidth settings will override these settings unless IgnoreBandwidthLimits is set to 1 which will override the MSI bandwidth settings.

• Depending on the IP address and the rules that are applied to the IP address, they can be applied.
• It is possible to set the value to 0 in the case that there are no bandwidth limits that apply or exist.

Policy bandwidth settings

It is possible to configure these registry keys on the VDI client to provide policies based on the .ini files of thin clients, and they can be configured under the following registry keys:

SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\VDI\bandwidth\

• Office: These are the settings that have to be set on the thin client in order to work with the on-premise setup, which is controlled by the .ini file. Using the thin client, you can look for the following line in the .ini file located in the install directory:
• [DeviceLocation] IsInOffice=1
  A value of 1 for IsInOffice would mean that the office settings are used if the value of IsInOffice is set to that value.
• Home:
•  The home settings are used if there is no .ini file available, or the IsInOffice value is zero, when there is no .ini file available.

It should be noted that both the office value and the home value can accept three types of connections (ICA, UDP, and Direct) with “up” and “down” values configured for the bandwidth available.

GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb=1 is a registry key that allows the values associated with the connection type and location to be used regardless of whether the value exists under the location or the connection type key. Since the default value is 0, if the value is not configured, there is no bandwidth limitation if it is left at 0.

*Note: There is a slight difference in how the .ini file is implemented for Linux, which includes the “eLux” distribution. A new line needs to be added to the ZoomMedia.ini file located in the setup/ica/ZoomMedia.ini directory instead of the existing line:

There is only one additional line that needs to be added:

[DeviceLocation]
IsInOffice=1

Example

To set the bandwidth limit for ICA mode when the user is in office, apply the following bandwidth settings in policy:

[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 thin client office or home setting is decided by the IsInOffice value, which is set based on platform type.

Windows

On the Windows thin client, create a new file named “bandwidth_config.ini” under the plugin install path and add the two lines below:

[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.

Look for the value “ISINOFFICE=” and set the value to 1 or 0.

Linux

Similar to Windows, add the configuration to the existing ZoomMedia.ini file:

[DeviceLocation]
IsInOffice=1

GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb

If the policy GPOBandwidthOverrideWeb is set under SOFTWARE\Policies\Zoom\Zoom Meetings\VDI and is enabled, only use the bandwidth values from Policy Bandwidth Settings, regardless of whether the value exists under the device location and connection type (our default value is 0, and we use the previous bandwidth configuration rules if the value is not set).

How to check bandwidth limitation from the VDI Statistics tab

For the VDI client and plugin 5.10.6 and later, applied bandwidth limitations for the plugin and VDI client can be seen from the VDI Statistics tab during a meeting.

Access Statistics using meeting controls

While you’re in a Zoom meeting on the desktop client, you can view meeting diagnostic information.

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Start or join a meeting.
3. In the meeting controls, click the upward arrow next to Start Video / Stop Video.
4. Click Video Settings.
5. Click Statistics .
6. Select the VDI tab.

Access Statistics from the main desktop client window

1. Sign in to the Zoom desktop client.
2. Click your profile picture then click Settings.
3. Click Statistics .
4. Select the VDI tab.

If bandwidth limitations were applied successfully, a note will appear at the bottom of the window: Your IT Team has limited the bandwidth available for this meeting in your location.

The bandwidth limit values for the VDI client and plugin upstream/downstream can be seen by clicking the exclamation icon .