Cisco – Why does the ASA 5512-X not support traffic shaping

ciscocisco-asa

The cisco documentation claims that the ASA 5512-X does not support traffic shaping because it is a multi processor device. Why is this?

Is shaping just inherently active?

It seems like the shapper is a good feature, i don't understand why it is not available.

To add more details, the shape command is not available under the class default policy, it is located elsewhere?
Here is what I normally apply

class-map RTP-traffic
 match dscp ef 
class-map SIP-traffic
 match dscp af31 

policy-map voice-policy
 class RTP-traffic
  priority
 class SIP-traffic
  priority

policy-map outside-policy
 class class-default
  shape average 5000000
  service-policy voice-policy

service-policy outside-policy interface outside

But when I go to apply this i only see

ASAX(config-pmap-c)# policy-map outside-policy
ASAX(config-pmap)#  class class-default
ASAX(config-pmap-c)# ?

MPF policy-map class configuration commands:
  exit             Exit from MPF class action configuration mode
  help             Help for MPF policy-map class/match submode commands
  no               Negate or set default values of a command
  police           Rate limit traffic for this class
  priority         Strict scheduling priority for this class
  quit             Exit from MPF class action configuration mode
  set              Set connection values
  user-statistics  configure user statistics for identity firewall
  <cr>
  csc              Content Security and Control service module
  flow-export      Configure filters for NetFlow events
  inspect          Protocol inspection services
  ips              Intrusion prevention services

And the shape is not available.

Best Answer

Shaping is not supported at this time on the new hardware. This is a hardware limitation with multi-processor multi-core units, not a software limitation. This is not specifically detailed in the document mentioned above. I asked a Cisco product rep and he confirmed that it is not support.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2231107