Re: cp or ftp which is faster to transfer files between iseries?

I should probably look before I say this but maybe we should create a Wiki item on this.

There is no 'one size fits all' solution here. Sure FTP sends the fastest but as you and Rob mention it requires you do work beforehand with QSYS.LIB objects. Also it tells you bupkis for errors unless you read the output log which is not simple. Can use any userID and password though, but it gets placed in a plain text spot. Can connect WAAAY back in O/S version though for IFS stuff.

SAVRST* has the overhead of starting remote jobs AND it can ONLY push (not pull) AND it requires SNA but is easy to use in a program and monitoring for error is easy. Needs same user ID and password.

I was pleased with QFileSvr.400 performance which has NOT always been this good and the old 2G filesize limit is gone, but again it's not a QSYS.LIB solution. Straight up easy to use though and setup is minimal. Does require same USERID and PASSWORD on both systems but it can push or pull.

I wouldn't use NFS for this normally as there is too much setup involved but to make an entire directory tree available to another machine for programmatic reference this would be a good choice. And can anyone actually explain NFS Security. :-)

I wouldn't use QNTC between IBM i, ever.

Surprising how much slower cp was than CPY in some uses.

- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 1/2/2016 8:13 AM, Vernon Hamberg wrote:

Thanks, Larry

Interesting results - I've always liked the convenience of the SAVRST*
commands - I'm not aware of a single-command solution, especially for
library system objects - unless one counts QFileSvr.400 and the CPY CL
command.

Of course, with FTP and library system objects, one has to put them into
a SAVF first - which takes a little time, SAVRST* commands effectively
do that on your behalf.

Cheers in the New Year!
Vern

On 1/1/2016 11:22 PM, DrFranken wrote:

Vern,

Nope. That requires SNA is all set up and in this case, it's TCP, All
TCP and Nothing bu TCP. :-)

BUT Just for you I cranked up Extenders and gave that a spin.

FTP Still fastest as I expected.

That said, SAVRST did better than I expected. With the large file
about 35% longer than FTP. With the small file it was terrible almost
7 times longer likely due to the overhead of starting communications
and starting the receiving job on the target system. That overhead is
the same amount of time with a little object or a large object.

As one further test I also saved the large object into a save file
with no compression so it's almost exactly the same size. I then used
SAVRSTOBJ to move that file and it was actually 5 seconds(5%) faster
than SAVRST of the IFS file.


- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 1/1/2016 9:26 PM, Vernon Hamberg wrote:

Larry

Did you have a shot at using SAVRSTOBJ or SAVRSTLIB or SAVRST?

Vern

On 1/1/2016 4:06 PM, DrFranken wrote:

Here you are not using NFS you are using the Netserver (/QNTC).

I did some testing at one point between two IBM i 7.1 systems. They
are local so GbE between them. The files moved were a 300MB IFS file
and a 4GB IFS File.

In order of fastest to slowest:

FTP Basline (1.0)
CPY QFileSvr.400 17% Slower (*1) (*3)
CPY over NFS 30% Slower
scp 100% Slower (*2)
cp over QNTC 300% Slower
CPY over QNTC 300% Slower
cp QFileSvr.400 325% Slower
cp with NFS 550% Slower

(*1) = each type is this percentage additional time than the baseline.
(*2) = scp was not reliable with the 4G File. Fails half the time.
(*3) = QFileSvr.400 actually won the small file by 0.3 second.

cp is the cp command in QP2TERM
CPY is the IBM i CPY command

Observations:

1) I did not expect QFileSvr.400 to be this good. It surprised me.
However look at the massive difference when using that file system
with QP2TERM! Over 3 times longer!

2) Also note how slow cp is over NFS while NFS itself was close the
performance of QFileSvr.400

3) These were not Save Files, I believe they transfer more slowly when
the target is in /QSYS.LIB

4) Your Mileage May Vary!!!


- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis

www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.

On 12/31/2015 7:47 PM, tim wrote:

im using nfs. here is example of cp command syntax. i am copying
savf to
another iseries.

STRQSH CMD('cp /qsys.lib/qgpl.lib/ftplib.file
/qntc/10.0.0.93/root/iseriesbackup/QS36F')




On 12/31/2015 6:43 PM, Vernon Hamberg wrote:

What is the context? I know of cp as a QShell or PASE command and not
aware of it being used between servers - what are you using to make
the servers visible to each other? NFS? QFileSvr.400?

Vern

On 12/31/2015 4:54 PM, tim wrote:

cp or ftp which is faster to transfer files between iseries?