Background Transfers not working as expected

Hi.

I apologize in advance if this is a n00b question. I looked on the forums and found posts from 2002 on this topic, but they didn't seem to apply anymore. I'm having a problem getting multiple, simultaneous background transfers to happen. I'm using WinSCP 4.1.4 and Serv-U FTP Server v7. I have the following options set in WinSCP:

Maximal number of background transfers: 8
Transfer on background by default: Yes

On Serv-U, I have my user account configured for no limits on simultaneous connections.

With everything configured this way, I should be able to get 8 files transferring at once, right? However, no matter if I drag multiple files or multiple folders containing multiple files, I can only get one file transferring at a time.

Am I missing something? How can I get 8 files transferring simultaneously within one session?

Thanks!

If you're connecting using one instance of the winSCP program it will transfer all files via that single connection open to the FTP server and as such queue them all up and do them one at a time.

If you load multiple instances and create connections with each it will class them all separately and will count as separate connections which can transfer files at the same time.

Another possible to do this is create multiple sessions with different names e.g. FTP1, FTP2 etc and the connect to each and do it that way.
Hopefully that makes sense.

Thanks for the clarification. I think I understand better - I need to create multiple sessions (FTP1 - FTP8) to get multiple file transfers to happen, yes?

I am trying to set up WinSCP to perform an RSYNC-like function where it launches from the local machine and syncs a local directory to a remote server (for backup purposes). If you have multiple sessions open trying to sync the same local directory, wouldn't the sessions be competing with each other?

For example, if session one starts synching:

c:\dirname\file1.txt
c:\dirname\file2.txt
c:\dirname\file3.txt

when session 2 starts, wouldn't it start at the same place? How would you avoid that?

Thanks again.

Think it depends on your data flow.

If your local directory is taking a copy from one server and the winSCP is downloading this to all your other locations then there really shouldn't be a problem. They're reading the file and it won't affect anything unless they two or more try to get write access all at the same time. I think. lol

If you're going the other way then I'd suggest making a directory per computer as each may have slightly different files. If you're looking at a kind of FTP based shared disc or folder though then just map a network drive! :P

It's not downloading it to multiple locations - it's downloading to a single server. With multiple sessions, I'm looking to maximize the amount of data that I can send simultaneously from one server to another. So, the question remains - if I am synching from one server to another (single, not multiple) server, would multiple sessions conflict with each other?

Mapping a drive would be perfect if the server wasn't on the other side of the US. :)

RebootJP wrote:

Thanks for the clarification. I think I understand better - I need to create multiple sessions (FTP1 - FTP8) to get multiple file transfers to happen, yes?

No. WinSCP takes all selected files as one transfer batch. For each batch it openes separate connection. So if you want parallel transfers, you need to drag each file (or group of files) individually.

Functionality you are looking for is tracked here.

Thanks for your response (and for this truly excellent piece of software). I tested this and it works. Is it possible to get multiple batches transferring simultaneously with a script? Ideally, I'd like to specify 8 simultaneous background threads and have WinSCP do something like:

sync \dir1\*.* to remote server
sync \dir2\*.* to remote server
sync \dir3\*.* to remote server
sync \dir4\*.* to remote server
sync \dir5\*.* to remote server
sync \dir6\*.* to remote server
sync \dir7\*.* to remote server
sync \dir8\*.* to remote server
sync \dir9\*.* to remote server
sync \dir10\*.* to remote server
sync \dir11\*.* to remote server
sync \dir12\*.* to remote server
etc...

with each dir transferring sequentially as a batch.

Also, when do you anticipate the functionality in that development thread to be implemented?

Thanks again so much for all your help.

RebootJP wrote:

Is it possible to get multiple batches transferring simultaneously with a script?

No. I do not see reason for that. You can run 8 scripts for that.

Also, when do you anticipate the functionality in that development thread to be implemented?

I hope it will get to 4.2.x. At least in the simple form mentioned in the tracker.

Ideal situation would be if I could use Windows Powershell to run winscp and tell it to start lets say: 6 threads and give it a list of folders and files I want copied and wait till they were all transferred. Each thread would always be transferring a file such that multiple threads help copy a given directory. Like FileZilla or SmartFTP does. Is this planned hopefully? This would make winscp much better imo. Thanks, Dave

codeslinger wrote:

Ideal situation would be if I could use Windows Powershell to run winscp and tell it to start lets say: 6 threads and give it a list of folders and files I want copied and wait till they were all transferred. Each thread would always be transferring a file such that multiple threads help copy a given directory. Like FileZilla or SmartFTP does. Is this planned hopefully? This would make winscp much better imo. Thanks, Dave

WinSCP does that already. Though you cannot use the feature from scripting/command-line.