This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
Policing drops or remarks traffic above a rate. Shaping delays it in a queue. A token bucket is the model both often use. The calculators show the arithmetic. They do not configure a router.
Voice often wants a priority queue with a limit, not a deep shape that adds delay. Bulk traffic is the usual candidate for a shape. Write which traffic. 0.0.0.0/0 is not a class.
One policy, one interface you administer. Do not apply it during the reading. A provider policer you do not control is a fact you write, not a knob you turn.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing during the writing of the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the device named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the device, then decide.
Rollback is the file or the revision you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the interface.
- Name the traffic class.
- Pick shape or police and why.
- Write the rate.
- Do not apply the policy.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
Traffic Shaping vs Policing goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- Shaping voice into a deep queue.
- A class of every address.
- Applying the policy during the reading.
- An interface you do not administer.
- Police and shape both applied unread.
Decisions to write down
One decision for Traffic Shaping vs Policing: The class is specific. Shape or police has a reason. The interface is yours. Nothing was applied. And voice is not sitting in a deep shape by accident.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The interface is written. The class is written. The rate is written. The choice is written. And no policy was applied. If one of those fails, stop.
| Tool | What happens above the rate |
|---|---|
| Policing | Drop or remark. Delay does not grow on purpose. |
| Shaping | Queue. Delay grows so the average stays near the rate. |
| Voice | A small priority queue, not a deep shape, unless you wrote a different reason. |
Before you leave the device
Traffic Shaping vs Policing ends when the hostname on the device matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong box. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong box is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the device and does not know which interface is the uplink. You delete a line that names a device, a zone, or a prefix you did not write down.
0.0.0.0/0 is not kept because a sample included it. A source you can say is the source you keep. 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. They belong in the note. They are not prefixes you type onto a production device because they appeared in a draft.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, a community string, or a pre-shared key you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the store.
One change is the window. A VLAN and a routing protocol and a VPN do not share it. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next feature waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied config produces a device nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the device name and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the device alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not a permission to touch a network you do not administer. The pillar guide owns the wider design. This page owns one lab proof.
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