I have 1 source server that contains about 30GB of files that I want to copy to 7 other servers. I currently SCP the files over to the first four servers and when that transfer is complete SCP to the last 3 servers.
Would using BitTorrent be faster to distribute the files to all 7 at once? The connection internally is already fast and consistent between each of the servers. I know it would probably take some load off the source server, but would it just take longer to distribute the files?
What's a good scriptable client I could use from the shell? I'd want everyone to stop seeding after 100%.
Best Answer
It depends on how your network is laid out and where the bottlenecks are, but yes, it can be faster to use BitTorrent. In theory, instead of sending out 7 copies of the same files, your source server should only need to send out 1 copy, split among the receivers. By the time that happens, the remaining peers will have shared the parts they didn't receive directly among themselves.
If your network supports multicast, though, it's probably easier to set up udpcast, mdp, multisend, or something like that: your source will send out a single copy of the data, and the network will route it to all the recipients.