Section 8.3. WinSCP

8.3. WinSCP

WinSCP is a free open source tool that allows Windows machines SSH access to Linux/Unix systems. The interface for this tool is very intuitive and familiar looking if you use Norton Commander or Windows Explorer. We use this tool for transferring ISO images and other files such as .flp (floppy images) onto our ESX Server.

To get WinSCP, go to winscp.net/eng/download.php.

To use WinSCP, load it on your client system and start it.

Input the required data to log in to your ESX Server, and then click Login (see Figure 8.6).

Figure 8-6. Starting a WinSCP Session

Save the login information as a Stored Session so you don't have to type it in every time. The next time you log in to your ESX Server, you'll be prompted to select a stored session or create a new connection (see Figure 8.7).

Figure 8-7. Selecting a Stored Session

Once you're logged in to your ESX Server, it should look something like the image in Figure 8.8

Figure 8-8. Logging In to the ESX Server

You can select a file in the left pane, which is your client system. Change the default directory on your client system to wherever your file is. In this example, we'll be moving an ISO image onto the ESX Server, which is in an ISO_s directory on the root of C:. We'll move it to the /vmlib/iso_s directory on the ESX Server. Once you have your source file and target directory defined, you can press the F5 function key.

You'll be prompted to copy the file to the path shown, or you can change the path (see Figure 8.9).

Figure 8-9. WinSCP Copy

If you click the More button, you can select different options to apply to the file, including permissions placed on the file. Once you've selected any of the options you want, click Copy, and WinSCP begins copying the file over to your ESX Server (see Figure 8.10).

Figure 8-10. Selecting More Copy Options

Since the file we're copying over in this example is an ISO image, once it's copied to your ESX Server, it can be used by your virtual machines as described in the previous section.