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iTayb
Asked: 2011-03-09 13:54:35 +0800 CST

Fastest way to move files from a guest VM to the host?

  • 772

I'm looking for the fastest way to copy files from a VM to physical servers.

Setting up a network between them isn't a thing I'd like to do. I believe it is much more secure when not having one.

VMware suggests using the Copy-VMGuestFile cmdlet from their PowerCLI interface, however I find it slow (Running at approximately 1.5MB/s).

I thought of the following:

  • Creating a new virtual hard drive, moving the files in, and download the .vmdk file from the server, then extracting it locally. It is possible, however will not work with working VMs, and I don't want to shut-down the VM every time I want to move files.
  • Use the virtual floppy device and download the .flp file. It works even if the VM is running, but it is limited to 2.8MB.

Do I have any other way?

I'm using ESXi 4.1.

Thanks.

vmware-esxi

8 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    ESXi 4.1 supports USB passthrough, which would allow you to connect a USB harddrive. I have not performed speed tests, but it did the job for me.

    Other than that, connecting via network is the only option, IMO.

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  2. You could use and NFS mount to connect to via the VMWare host and the guest VM.

    This would be the easiest solution outside of using the VMWare utilities.

    • 1

  3. Veeam FastSCP might be the answer you are looking for. at least with ESX its really fast. and its free

    • 1

  4. I had this same problem and found a very simple solution

    1. Turn on Network discovery on the guest VM (control panel > Network and sharing center > Advanced Sharing settings
    2. From the host, browse to the IP of the guest machine eg. "\10.0.0.50\c$\"
    3. Copy and paste the required file to the desktop :)
    • 1

  5. Installing a virtual nic on the guest, and connecting to the host over SSH will be the fastest while still being secure.

    • 0

  6. Creating a new virtual hard drive, moving the files in, and download the .vmdk file from the server, then extracting it locally. It is possible, however will not work with working VMs, and I don't want to shut-down the VM every time I want to move files.

    Why do you have to shutdown the VM? Hard drives are hot swappable.

    If you don't want to setup another network or use the existing one, I don't know of another way.

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  7. Create a raw disk and assign it to a VM in your system. Upload files to this disk and then you can detach / attach to whatever machine you need. The files remains untouched. Be sure to bring the volume offline in the VM before detaching.

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  8. if the vm has the relevant vm tools package installed then you should be able to browse the physical server from the vm like another folder/hard drive, with this you could copy files direct to and from the vm onto the physical server, only thing i am not 100% sure of is that you are using ESXi so may not work - if you have a test vm test install the vmware tools package

    only faster way is setting up a network

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