tftp vs http for downloading big files

[hai wu]

Just for downloading files like vmlinuz/initrd.img, wouldn't it be better to
use tftp instead of using http when the image files would be very large?

[H. Peter Anvin]

Post by hai wu
Just for downloading files like vmlinuz/initrd.img, wouldn't it be
better to use tftp instead of using http when the image files would be
very large?

No, quite the opposite.

tftp is very slow for anything but very small files (it is actually
quite efficient for files that only a few kilobytes or less.)

-hpa

[Matt Causey]

Post by H. Peter Anvin

Post by hai wu
Just for downloading files like vmlinuz/initrd.img, wouldn't it be
better to use tftp instead of using http when the image files would be
very large?

No, quite the opposite.
tftp is very slow for anything but very small files (it is actually
quite efficient for files that only a few kilobytes or less.)
       -hpa

We run a large shop of thin clients that pull a 30meg ramdisk image at
boot time, and for us the switch from tftp to http meant:

* Faster download
* Easier troubleshooting
* Accurate download timing data from http server logfiles
* More efficient resource usage at high volumes of transfers (50x
concurrent transfers with tftp killed the server, whereas 100x
concurrent transfers were handled with ease with apache)

--
Matt