Eseutil for large file copy

Having been involved in some of the data migration projects I have seen some of the folks still using windows explorer based file copy ( ctrl+c /ctrl+v) for copying large files such as Images or Package files over WAN.

Some of the most common disadvantages of using windows explorer based file coy are:

a)    Slow file copy speed due to large buffer size.

b)    No incremental file copy. If session gets disconnected one has to start the copy from the beginning & its data overwrite operation.

c)     No control in terms of scheduling /log/time stamp etc.

There are following better alternatives for windows based file copy (excluding third party products).

1. Robocopy (Robust Copy) :

Robocopy is one of the most widely used utility for file copy. It is available as a resource kit tool for Windows 200x servers. Robocopy provides variety of options such as sync directories, incremental copy etc.

It can also be used for only copying ACLs (NTFS permissions) from directories without any data copy. Robocopy is available as a command line tool as well as in with a GUI. One can script & can use robocoy for regular offline file level backups. It is also widely used with Vshadow.exe (VSS) to create snapshot backup for files which are in use or are “open”.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc733145(WS.10).aspx (Robocopy description)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx (Robocopy GUI)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530725(VS.85).aspx (Volume shadow )

2. Richcopy :

This was spotlight utility in April’s TechNet magazine. Though developed as a PSS tool in 2001 it has undergone many changes to come to its current form. With multi-threaded file copy capabilities Richcopy is one of the faster data copy utilities available today. Some of the most notable features of richcopy are – FTP copy, one-to-multi & multi-to-one destination copy , pause/restart options & file filters i.e. file inclusion / exclusion capability etc.

Check out below complete details about Richcopy.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx?pr=blog

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2009/03/22/richcopy-bulk-file-copy-tool-released-get-it-here.aspx

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=1210

3. ESEUtil :

Surprised? Exchange administrators across the globe know the importance of ESEUTIL for Exchange Database management. This is widely used for Exchange Database disaster recovery purposes such as  Database repair (Eseutil /p) or offline defragmentation (Eseutil /d ).

However Eseutil is also one of the best file copy tool. As its designed to manage large size Jet databases ,Eseutil  is particularly helpful for copying single large files such as image files.

The only flip side is availability of Eseutil. One can either copy Eseutil.exe & Ese.dll files from Exchange server or can install Exchange Management Tool on the workstation from where he intends to initiate the file copy. Its available in both x86 & x64 versions.

The syntax for ESEUTIL is: ESEUTIL /y <Sourcefile> /d <DestinationFile>.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124326(EXCHG.65).aspx

Find below KB article which gives details about how to run Eseutil on a non-Exchange server.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244525

http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/05/08/slow-large-file-copy-issues.aspx (Microsoft performance team blog about file copy)