This document summarizes the differences between agent-based transfers and agentless transfers. See Sources and sinks for a list of which transfers require agents.
| Feature | Agentless transfers | Agent-based transfers | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Agents and agent pools
|
No | Required | Transfers involving file systems, including HDFS, or S3-compatible storage, require agents with root access to the file system. Agents are grouped together and managed with agent pools. See Manage agent pools to get started. |
|
Bandwidth control
|
Not supported | Supported. Set limits across all transfers in the project in MB/s increments. | See Manage network bandwidth . |
|
Event-driven transfers
|
Supported from Cloud Storage and AWS S3. See Event-driven transfers . | Not supported. | |
|
Transfer specific files by manifest
|
Supported. | Supported. | See Transfer specific files or objects using a manifest . |
|
Transfer logs
|
Supported through Cloud Logging. See Cloud Logging for Storage Transfer Service . | Supported through Cloud Logging as well as file system transfer logs . | |
|
Cloud Monitoring
|
Supported. | Supported. | See Monitor transfer jobs . |
|
Name-based source data filtering
|
Supported. See Filter by prefix . | Not supported | To specify a subset of files for an agent-based transfer, create a separate staging directory with only the files you intend to transfer, and start a transfer job with that directory as the source. |
|
Modified-time source-data filtering
|
Supported. | Not supported. | To specify a subset of files for an agent-based transfer, create a separate staging directory with only the files you intend to transfer, and start a transfer job with that directory as the source. |
