Upload BIG files via HTTP

Question

I'm trying to upload really big VM Images (5-15 Gb size) to an HTTP server using PowerShell.

I tried to use for that few methods (here links to script with net.WebClient.UploadFile and script with Invoke-webRequest)

It works well for files less than 2GB, but not for files larger than this.

I'm trying to work with httpWebRequest directly but I unable to put FileStream into it.

So my question is: how to put filestream into webrequest?

Or more generally: how to upload huge file via http with PowerShell?

$Timeout=10000000;
$fileName = "0.iso";
$data = "C:\\$fileName";
$url = "http://nexus.lab.local:8081/nexus/content/sites/myproj/$fileName";
#$buffer = [System.IO.File]::Open("$data",[System.IO.Filemode]::Open, [System.IO.FileAccess]::Read) #Err Cannot convert argument "buffer", with value: "System.IO.FileStream", for "Write" to type "System.Byte[]": 
#$buffer = gc -en byte $data # too much space in memory 
$buffer = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($data) #Limit 2gb
[System.Net.HttpWebRequest] $webRequest = [System.Net.WebRequest]::Create($url)
$webRequest.Timeout = $timeout
$webRequest.Method = "POST"
$webRequest.ContentType = "application/data"
#$webRequest.ContentLength = $buffer.Length;
$webRequest.Credentials = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential("admin", "admin123");

$requestStream = $webRequest.GetRequestStream()
$requestStream.Write($buffer, 0, $buffer.Length)
$requestStream.Flush()
$requestStream.Close()

[System.Net.HttpWebResponse] $webResponse = $webRequest.GetResponse()
$streamReader = New-Object System.IO.StreamReader($webResponse.GetResponseStream())
$result = $streamReader.ReadToEnd()
return $result
$stream.Close() 

Answer 1

By default HttpWebRequest is buffering data in memory. Just set HttpWebRequest.AllowWriteStreamBuffering property to false and you would be able to upload files with almost any size. See more details at msdn

Answer 2

Thank you @Stoune, it was last thing that helped to receive finally working solution.

One more, it is need to organize stream file reading and writing to the webrequest buffer. And it possibly to do with that piece of code:

$requestStream = $webRequest.GetRequestStream()
$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead($file)
$chunk = New-Object byte[] $bufSize
  while( $bytesRead = $fileStream.Read($chunk,0,$bufsize) )
  {
    $requestStream.write($chunk, 0, $bytesRead)
    $requestStream.Flush()
  }

And final script look like this:

$user = "admin"
$pass = "admin123"
$dir = "C:\Virtual Hard Disks"
$fileName = "win2012r2std.vhdx"
$file = "$dir/$fileName"
$url = "http://nexus.lab.local:8081/nexus/content/sites/myproj/$fileName"
$Timeout=10000000
$bufSize=10000

$cred = New-Object System.Net.NetworkCredential($user, $pass)

$webRequest = [System.Net.HttpWebRequest]::Create($url)
$webRequest.Timeout = $timeout
$webRequest.Method = "POST"
$webRequest.ContentType = "application/data"
$webRequest.AllowWriteStreamBuffering=$false
$webRequest.SendChunked=$true # needed by previous line
$webRequest.Credentials = $cred

$requestStream = $webRequest.GetRequestStream()
$fileStream = [System.IO.File]::OpenRead($file)
$chunk = New-Object byte[] $bufSize
  while( $bytesRead = $fileStream.Read($chunk,0,$bufsize) )
  {
    $requestStream.write($chunk, 0, $bytesRead)
    $requestStream.Flush()
  }

$responceStream = $webRequest.getresponse()
#$status = $webRequest.statuscode

$FileStream.Close()
$requestStream.Close()
$responceStream.Close()

$responceStream
$responceStream.GetResponseHeader("Content-Length") 
$responceStream.StatusCode
#$status