Originally posted by: alwin7282

Need to transfer 2 Terabyte of data (PDF, Word, Doc, Excel, JPG, BMP, TXT, ZIP, DWG, etc Files) from Solaris 10 UFS file system to Aix 7.1 JFS file system. Both the servers are in same network.

Originally posted by: JLGuyot

You have several options here.

You can either use rcp, ftp, nfs, rdist, rsync.....

Originally posted by: alwin7282

When using  rsync for file transfer/sync, whether it will retain the directory structure?

Originally posted by: JLGuyot

rsync will transfer the files with the directory structure.

It will also insure that the source and destination are up to date, if you don't plan to make a stop on source/copy data/start on target scenario.

This is very useful if you want to transfer the data over time, then just a fast interruption and synchronisation.

Originally posted by: The_Doctor

while you're at it, for that much data (2 TB)....  I'd consider using a unique:

• JFS2 filesytem
• scalable Volume Group

Originally posted by: Wouter Liefting

scp and rsync both use the SSH protocol under the covers. You can greatly improve its performance by picking a fast encryption algorithm, such as blowfish. Use the -c blowfish option, or make the setting permanent in ~/.ssh/config. The default algorithm is normally 3DES which is not exactly the fastest algorithm available.

However, by far the fastest bulk data transfers can be done using netcat (nc) or ttcp, to or from which you pipe the output/input of tar. You might need to install nc or ttcp on Solaris and/or AIX but that may well be worth the effort. 

On the server: nc -l 1234 | tar -xvf -

On the client: tar -cvf - * | nc <server> 1234

ttcp works along similar lines (connect stdin to a network socket, or a network socket to stdout) but has a different syntax. And if you only have nc or ttcp on one of the boxes, but not on the other, then some clever inetd/xinetd configuration may also be a solution on that end.

Tuning your ethernet adapter (particularly setting an MTU size of 64K throughout the path) and possibly using a dedicated x-over cable may also be worth the effort. You could even go all the way and setup and 802.3ad bonding configuration.

Obviously tar will retain the directory structure, UID, GID, permissions and dates. The same applies to most, if not all of the solutions proposed. But if your filesystem has files or directories that use ACLs, then you may need to transfer or migrate these manually. Or better yet: Use the opportunity to get rid of them altogether.