scp speed test between servers

scp-speed-test.sh

#!/bin/bash
# scp-speed-test.sh
#
# Usage:
#   ./scp-speed-test.sh user@hostname [test file size in MBs]
#
#############################################################

ssh_server=$1
test_file=".scp-test-file"

# Optional: user specified test file size in MBs
if test -z "$2"
then
  # default size is 10MB
  test_size="10"
else
  test_size=$2
fi


# generate a file of all zeros
echo "Generating $test_size MB test file..."
dd if=/dev/zero of=$test_file bs=$(echo "$test_size*1024*1024" | bc) \
  count=1 &> /dev/null
# upload test
echo "Testing upload to $ssh_server..."
up_speed=$(scp -v $test_file $ssh_server:$test_file 2>&1 | \
  grep "Bytes per second" | \
  sed "s/^[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\)[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\).*$/\1/g")
up_speed=$(echo "($up_speed/1000000)" | bc)

# download test
echo "Testing download from $ssh_server..."
down_speed=$(scp -v $ssh_server:$test_file $test_file 2>&1 | \
  grep "Bytes per second" | \
  sed "s/^[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\)[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\).*$/\2/g")
down_speed=$(echo "($down_speed/1000000)" | bc)

# clean up
echo "Removing test file on $ssh_server..."
ssh $ssh_server "rm $test_file"
echo "Removing test file locally..."
rm $test_file


# print result
echo ""
echo "Upload speed:   $up_speed MBps"
echo "Download speed: $down_speed MBps"

Thanks)

Very helpful. Thank you.

Awesome, thanks a lot!

Thanks for this!

Should read:

echo "Upload speed:   $up_speed MBps"
echo "Download speed: $down_speed MBps"

As we're measuring in bytes and not bits.

Very nice! Here is an addition:

If someone has Compression yes in their ~/.ssh/config, as I do, then scp will do compression by default and these numbers will be misinforming.
Add the following to every scp command, just in case, to force no compression, -o 'Compression no'.

Also, some connections might not be faster than a MBps, so you should let decimals count.
Replace /1000000)" | bc with /1000000.)" | bc -l

Also, some connections might not already be in acknowledged_hosts so you may want to add -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking no' to all the scp commands.

I added some features such as argument parsing, checking if the server is reachable, the option to skip the download speed test, and a destination folder. Here it is,

#!/bin/bash

test_file=".scp-test-file"

# usage function
function usage()
{
   cat << HEREDOC
   Usage: $progname --server=<ip address> [--test_size=<MB> --do_download=<0/1> --server_dir=<server side dir>]
   optional arguments:
     -h, --help           show this help message and exit
HEREDOC
}

# initialize variables and defaults
progname=$(basename $0)
server=
server_dir=./
do_download=1
test_size=10

###
# all args
L=(server \
do_download \
test_size \
server_dir)

arg_parse_str="help"
for arg in "${L[@]}"; do
    arg_parse_str=${arg_parse_str},${arg}:
done
#echo $arg_parse_str

OPTS=$(getopt -o "h" --long ${arg_parse_str} -n "$progname" -- "$@")
if [ $? != 0 ] ; then echo "Error in command line arguments." >&2 ; usage; exit 1 ; fi
eval set -- "$OPTS"

while true; do
  # uncomment the next line to see how shift is working
  # echo "\$1:\"$1\" \$2:\"$2\""
  case "$1" in
    -h | --help ) usage; exit; ;;
    -- ) shift; break ;;
  esac
  found=
  for arg in "${L[@]}"; do
    if [ "$1" == "--$arg" ]; then
        declare ${arg}="$2";
        shift 2;
        found=1
        break
    fi
  done
  if [ -z "$found" ]; then
    break
  fi
done

if [ -z "$server" ]
then
    usage;
    exit;
fi

#[[ -z $(nc -W 1 -w 10 $server 22 2>/dev/null) ]] && echo "$server unreachable" && exit 0
#if your nc complains about not having -i command line option then use the line above
[[ -z $(nc -i 1 -w 10 $server 22 2>/dev/null) ]] && echo "$server unreachable" && exit 0


# generate a file of all zeros
echo "Generating $test_size MB test file..."
dd if=/dev/zero of=$test_file bs=$(echo "$test_size*1024*1024" | bc) \
  count=1 &> /dev/null
# upload test

echo "Testing upload to $server..."
up_speed=$(scp -v -o 'Compression no' -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking no' $test_file $server:$server_dir/$test_file 2>&1 | \
  grep "Bytes per second" | \
  sed "s/^[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\)[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\).*$/\1/g")
up_speed=$(echo "($up_speed/1000)" | bc)
echo "Upload speed:   $up_speed KBps on $server"

if [ "$do_download" == "1" ]; then
    # download test
    echo "Testing download from $server..."
    down_speed=$(scp -v -o 'Compression no' -o 'StrictHostKeyChecking no' $server:$server_dir/$test_file $test_file 2>&1 | \
      grep "Bytes per second" | \
      sed "s/^[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\)[^0-9]*\([0-9.]*\).*$/\2/g")
    down_speed=$(echo "($down_speed/1000)" | bc)
    echo "Download speed: $down_speed KBps on $server"
fi

# clean up
echo "Removing test file, $server:$server_dir/$test_file..."
ssh $server "rm $server_dir/$test_file"
echo "Removing test file locally..."
rm $test_file

Instead of uploading files, why not use dd to send junk data?

Upload

dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1024 status=progress \
  | ssh -o Compression=no workspace "cat > /dev/null"

Download

ssh -o Compression=no workspace \
  "dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1024" \
  | dd of=/dev/null bs=1M status=progress