Using SCP to upload firmware is very slow

[Anonymous user]

I am working to upgrade some 78xx/79xx pdu's to 3.9.2 so we can get WebGui access for our server group using a modern browser (I currently use IE6 in a XP VM if I need the GUI). 

Due to firewalls and acl's FTP is not a great choice to upload with as we'd have to open FTP on a bunch of firewalls and add it to ACL's. So I've been testing out using SCP. What I'm running into is SUPER slow transfer speeds from my PC to the PDU's (4-10 KBps) depending on the cipher I use. It'll start out around 120 KBps but immediately starts dropping down to the 10 KBps range within about 8-10 seconds. I'm trying to determine if this is something on my end or if it's possibly a limitation of the PDU processor handling the SSH overhead. I tested sending one of the bin files via SCP from my PC to a cisco switch and was able to move it at 40 KBps minimum (still slower than I'd expect) so I know my PC can push faster.

Any input would be appreciated.

[voidstar_apc · Accepted solution]

The processor that runs 3xx firmware doesn't have crypto acceleration so HTTPS and SCP tend to be slow.