ZIP CLI to use compression within datastore ?

[atakacs]

Hello

Is there any way to invoke zip (like) compression / decompression on datastore objects using ESXi command line ?

For instance I have to upload a large virtual disk file into a datastore and it would save me quite a lot of time to zip it first, fastSCP it and finally decompress directly on the target machine.

Any pointer most welcome.

[nielse]

You could try to export your VM as an OVF template and import that.

[atakacs]

Does OVF provide buil-in compression ?

[AndreTheGiant]

ESXi include the unzip command. So you can connect with SSH and just use it to decompress an archive.

You can try to copy a static version of zip command to make compressed archives.

[atakacs]

Interresting - thanks !

As for the zip executable what distro would you get it from ?

[AndreTheGiant]

Distro is not relevent.

The requirement is that must be a static version (to avoid library dependency).

To check if a file is static linked just use ldd (on Linux).

Or you can look for download the minizip contrib package of busybox.

But remember that adding custom binaries on ESXi is officially not supported.

[atakacs]

Or you can look for download the minizip contrib package of busybox.

I'd guess it would be the "cleanest" approach... but where would I find it as an executable  ? (to be honest I don't want to build the whole thing - I don't even have a *nix box handy right now...)