Connecting to vCenter Server Virtual Appliance using WinSCP fails with the error: Received too large (1433299822 B) SFTP packet. Max supported packet size is 1024000 B

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 6.0

Issue/Introduction

• Connecting to vCenter Server using WinSCP fails with the error: "Received too large (1433299822 B) SFTP packet. Max supported packet size is 1024000 B"

• Attempting to upload a file to the vCenter Server using the SCP protocol via WinSCP, PSCP or other SCP clients fail with the error: "Host is not communicating for more than 15 seconds. If the problem repeats, try turning off 'Optimize connection buffer size'"

Environment

vCenter Server Appliance all versions

Cause

• When using WinSCP, part of the operation occurs on the target system. The default Appliance Shell cannot be the remote partner of WinSCP.

• By default, VCSA is set to Appliance Shell, but SCP requires Bash shell.

Resolution

To resolve the issue, adjust the WinSCP advanced settings as follows:

• For vCenter only:

  1. Open Advanced settings in WinSCP.

  2. Select SFTP.

  3. In SFTP server, replace the default value with: shell /usr/libexec/sftp-server

Note: This method is safer than changing the vCenter bash shell, as it avoids risks associated with modifying Photon OS settings.

 

For more details, check KB How to upload or download files to or from vCenter and ESXi hosts and adjust the WinSCP advanced settings.