Veeam Software has upgraded its FastSCP tool to version 3.0. FastSCP is a free tool for moving around VMware ESX Server files.

Veeam is a third-party tool supplier that in 2006 gave VMware customers a drag-and-drop method of moving virtualized files from server to server. Some VMware customers were already using VMotion at the time. But for those who weren't, FastSCP became a welcome relief to the task of typing in the SCP or "secure copy" command into a Linux command line to move virtual machine files around. The base VMware management environment runs on Linux and the Linux command line.

Since then, Veeam's FastSCP has won a wide following. The Columbus, Ohio-based software company says it has 60,000 users of FastSCP and that it amounts to "a de facto standard" in VMware environments. "Almost all ESX administrators know the tool," and VMware message boards frequently show comments discussing it, said Doug Hazelman, Veeam's director of systems engineering, in an interview.

With FastSCP, an ESX administrator can drag an ESX virtual machine based on either Linux or Windows from one physical server to another, or one VMware Virtual Center to another. Administrators can now move around ESXi files -- ESXi is the free version of the ESX hypervisor -- as well as ESX files.

FastSCP 3.0 includes a built-in editor for editing ESX files. It has the option of file compression or removing empty blocks from files to improve network efficiency. It can pre-allocate disk space to a file so that a moved file doesn't end up being fragmented on disk.

Hazelman said the tool also can be used to load the combined files from a CD or DVD onto an ESX Server for use by a virtual machine resident there.

FastSCP is integrated with another Veeam tool, Veeam Backup, which it sells for $499 per server socket. The company offers another Veeam Monitor, for managing virtual machines. It became available for free in December.

FastSCP 3.0 can be downloaded from the Veeam Web site.

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