I recently attended the VMware Install, Manage and Configure course for vSphere 4.0. As a part of the course I was introduced to Veeam's FastSCP client. Veeam FastSCP is a freeware program that allows you to manage your ESX / ESXi host's datastores. The application provides you with an easy to use Windows Explorer like interface that supports drag and drop functionality between hosts and from your desktop computer. This is functionality is particularly handy when uploaded ISO files or when taking a copy of a VMDK file.
One thing I found before being introduced to Veeam's FastSCP is how frustrating slow it is when copying files to and from datastores using the Datastore Browser in the vSphere client, I'm sure you'll agree it's a pretty painful experience when transferring large files over a 100 megabit network for example. For this reason I thought I would give FastSCP a try, especially when the vendors website claims it is up to six times faster than the traditional datastore browser.
After installing the software and adding my ESXi host, which was achieved by simply hitting the "Add Server" button, I was now able to browse my datastore in full.
How much quicker is FastSCP though? Well to test I am going to demonstrate the copy of a 40 gigabyte VMDK file from my datastore to a laptop computer running over a standard 100 megabit connection. This should give a good idea of any real speed advantages. First up I tested the time using the datastore browser to download the VMDK file, here is the estimated download time.
As you can see the total estimated time is 333 minutes, which is the equivalent of 5 hours and 56 minutes. Next up was testing the download of the same VMDK with Veeam's FastSCP.
As you can see with FastSCP the estimated time is 2 hours and 2 minutes, which is the equivalent of 122 minutes in total. By comparing both of these times, we can see it will take 211 minutes longer by using the datastore browser to copy the VMDK file. That's a massive 3 hours and 31 minutes longer compared to FastSCP.
If you looking for a quick, easy and fast utility to use for transferring data to and from datastores or even between hosts Veeam's FastSCP is certainly worth a try. To save you from having to register to obtain the freeware application, I have uploaded it here. More information can found on FastSCP at the following URL: http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esxi-fastscp.html
