Server-to-server file transfers: how they save DevOps time

• Waiting twice. The upload can't start until the download has finished, so a big archive costs you the whole download time and then the whole upload time.
• One server at a time. Pushing the same release to three web servers means three uploads, one after another.
• Your disk in the middle. The files need room on your PC, and someone has to remember to delete them afterwards, including that database dump.
• Starting over. A dropped connection near the end of a large copy, with a client that can't resume, means doing it all again.

The usual workaround, letting one server sign in to the other, saves the round trip but means putting one server's password or key on the other, which is exactly the kind of standing access security reviews ask you to remove.

In the RemoteAccessApp app for Windows, a copy tab has a server on each side. Each file is read from the source and written to the destination at the same time, streaming through your PC's memory, so the upload starts with the first bytes of the download instead of after the last. Several files move in parallel, and nothing is written to your disk.

Each server signs in with its own saved details and only ever talks to your PC. Neither learns the other's password, and they don't need to be able to reach each other: a server on a private network can send to one in the cloud, as long as your PC can reach both. The help article on copying files between two servers shows the three ways to start a transfer and what each choice does.

Deploys

Upload to servers… sends a release folder from your PC or a build server to every server you tick at once, each into its own folder with its own progress, so one slow server doesn't hold up the rest. You see the full list to confirm before anything is written.

Backups

Copy a database dump or an archive from production straight to a backup server with Verify on, which compares SHA-256 checksums of the original and the copy where both sides can compute them (SFTP hosts with sha256sum).

Migrations

Moving a site to a new host? Move deletes each file from the old server only once it's safely on the new one, and files are written under a temporary name and renamed into place when complete, so there are no half files.

Logs and investigations

Pull logs from several servers onto one box for a closer look, without filling your own disk.

• Dropped connections are retried automatically, three times over about two minutes, and SFTP copies resume where they stopped.
• Pause all, Resume all, Retry failed, Clear finished and Cancel all, and closing the tab asks before stopping anything.
• Clear choices when a name is taken: Skip, Keep both or Replace, once for the whole transfer if you like.
• App updates wait until transfers finish.
• Servers that can only be reached through a SOCKS or HTTP proxy work too, with the proxy set on the host. See how to connect to SSH servers through a SOCKS or HTTP proxy.

Server-to-server copies between saved hosts are part of the free plan, which saves up to 5 hosts. Using one of your PCs as a side of the copy needs Pro. The step-by-step guide walks through a first copy, and the feature page has the details. With Pro, an AI assistant connected through the MCP Desktop Connection can run the same kind of copy between your saved SSH servers for you.