I have some big files inside VM which I need to copy to ESXi host datastore. What is the best/fastest method?
Right now I am using vSphere Client inside the VM. VM is running in virtual network with another VM acting as a router to the outside world. As ESXi has different public IP than te router, traffic goes out to the physical network switch and back in over the same NIC. This is connected only at 100 Mbit, so the real speed is only about 4 MB/s.
Is it somehow possible to connect a VM to the VMkernel management network, so that ESX would handle the traffic itself?
Or is it possible to mount the vmdk of VM via command-line and copy the files to datastore locally?
Best Answer
If you add another NIC to the VM and create another VMkernel port and put them on a new IP range and making sure they VM and host are on the same vSwitch.
Then from the VM connect to the EXSi on the new IP then the transfer will say within the ESXi host and not leave the out via your NIC.
You could also create a new vSwitch which is not connected to a physical NIC to make sure the traffic stays with the host.
The vSphere client can also be a bit slow at file transfers, you might find using Veeam's FastSCP speeds up the transfer.