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I got a 200GB .tgz file on server A(RHEL 5.2). I wanna transfer that file to server B (RHEL 5.3). Server B is on ESXi 4 Update1. Server B VM is with 4 vCPUs, with 10GB RAM.

Both Server A and Server B are connected with an ethernet cable with local IP addies (no switch involved)

scp gives me about 3Mbps. Is there a way to get 400Mbps?

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4 Answers 4

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To be real down and dirty you can use netcat.

On the sender

cat {filename} | nc -l 3333

On the receiver

nc {sender_ip_address} 3333 > {filename}

Since there will be nearly no application overhead, you should only be limited by IO, whether disk or network.

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    +1 for netcat - the best tool for this kind of thing IMO
    – squircle
    Mar 31, 2010 at 20:37
  • The proper syntax on the receive side is cat filename | nc -l -p 3333 Otherwise it will silently bind a random port...
    – b0fh
    Mar 31, 2010 at 21:41
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    useless use of cat ;) nc -l 3333 < {filename}
    – James
    Mar 31, 2010 at 21:46
  • @james: Yeah, it's a personal preference thing. Using cat is what I first learned and got used to. Similarly, retraining myself to using 'sudo -i' instead of 'sudo su -' has been fun :)
    – Scott Pack
    Apr 1, 2010 at 11:38
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    @b0fh: The -p option specifies source port, and the man page specifically points out that, "It is an error to use this option in conjunction with the -l option."
    – Scott Pack
    Apr 2, 2010 at 22:56
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Use an unencrypted transfer method that doesn't do compression. I'd suggest FTP, given how simple it is to setup and the lack of chatty protocol, like Samba

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Good points from Matt again, you might also consider ensuring you have the latest VMtools installed on Server B.

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You need a FTP server that supports Mode Z compression or bzip compression such as NULL FTP Server . I don't know what the Linux equivilant would be. With compression you can increase the efficiency/speed by up to 75%, depending on what you are doing.

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  • Compression over a LAN is a bad idea. The amount of time the CPU spends compressing the data could be better spent sending it across the wire.
    – Matt Simmons
    Mar 31, 2010 at 21:21
  • I dunno. Most modern systems will do gzip compression (not bzip) at 100MB/sec+ - wire speed basically - so compression can be a net win depending on the data. We compress over the LAN for certain workloads and it actually speeds things up hugely.
    – James
    Mar 31, 2010 at 21:45
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    Yes, except for he is transferring an already gzipped file. I assume he won't be able to get it any smaller.
    – Earlz
    Mar 31, 2010 at 22:00
  • Very good point
    – James
    Mar 31, 2010 at 22:30

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