Moving files in-out of a vCD VM

[Goatie]

I'd like to know how people are moving files in and out of isolated lab environments? With vCD you can create many isolated environments quickly and I'd like to know how people handle this core functional requirement.

I'm looking at using vCD to replace our current Lab environments and to make multiple, isolated labs.

One thing we have constant issues with, even now with just one isolated Lab, is being able to move different types of files in and out of isolated environments.

At the moment we use RDC sessions and that allows movement of files up to a few hundred MB with reasonable reliability. When things get either large or high number of files, RDC file moving becomes hard and FTP becomes easier.

With vCD, it looks like the recommended access method is through the vCD Web GUI rather than having to set up NATs and DNS entries for people to access environments. Too manual.

VMware Workstation lets you drag/drop files into a VM, does vCD let you do this?

How are people moving files in and out of isolated environments in a vCD installation? Will I have to set up an FTP server for each new environment I create?

At the moment, we use RDC in general; One FTP server for larger files; VMDK moves for really large files (100GB+)

- FTP server :

Pros: fast, efficient

Cons: Have to manually set it up and configure, external IP address NATting and DNS etc, User access is not easy w/out an FTP client; double move: move to FTP server, then within the environment I move the file to the intended machine.

- RDC:

Pros: drag-drop copy is easy

Cons: We'll be using vCD to connect, have to set up NATs for RDC to work

- Burn an ISO

Pros: easy and quick to move up to 3-4 GB of info

Cons: can only use it to get files into an environment, >4GB can't do it.

- Create a VMDK, copy files ot it, use ESXi to move the files between environments and mount to a VM.

Pros: Can move vast quantities of data (SQL DB backups are a frequent request)

Cons: Only vCenter Admins can perform this

Any ideas or how do you do it at your place?

[JonT]

I don't believe the new VMRC supports drag-n-drop but you can attach USB media to a VM via the client. Perhaps you could use an actual USB or virtual USB device mounted locally to share the files within the VM? That would at least get you to 8 and 16GB maximums. The only other thing I would suggest is setup a dual-homed permanent machine. We have done that in one of our isolated networks and it works pretty well. The dual-homed machine is on the corporate domain, with an interface on the private segment (using ONLY an IP and mask, nothing else including disable of DNS registration).

If a dual-homed machine isnt an option, you could always consider changing your "internal" network to a routed network, and set the firewall up so that nothing leaves the network and only in/out FTP traffic is allowed.

Hope this helps!