Question Data route from one folder on an NAS to another folder on the same NAS

[river251]

I have a gigabit TP-Link unmanaged switch connected to a gigabit port in the wall at my university, which has gigabit Ethernet everywhere.

I connected my Dell 7820 workstation to the same switch. Then I connected a Western Digital EX4100 Network Attached Storage to the same switch. On the EX4100 are two folders, folder A and folder B.

Now, sitting at my workstation, I move folder A into folder B.

What path does the data in folder A take before it ends up inside folder B?

1. It goes to the CPU on the EX4100 and then to the new folder A which is now in folder B.
2. It does not move, but the disk's listing of folders now lists folder A as moved inside of folder B.
3. It goes from the drive in the EX4100 over the Ethernet cable to the switch, and then via the Ethernet cable to the workstation, through the workstation's CPU, back over the Ethernet cable to the switch, then back to the EX4100's CPU, and then to the new location on the disk in the EX4100.
4. Just like 3, but at the switch, it goes through the Ethernet cable to the port in the wall, and thus out to the internet, and from somewhere, it comes back to the port in my wall, to the switch, and to the workstation, then back to the switch, the internet somewhere, back to the switch, to the EX4100 CPU, and to the final resting place on its disk.

Which one is correct?

Thanks
Jim

 

[McKeu]

I think that highly depends on how exactly you move the folder (Windows explorer by opening the share via "\\xyz", SSH connection, etc) and on the tec specs of your NAS.
There are several options, depending on the NAS and the accessing method.

1. The move is a simple pointer update. This would not make the files go or be transported anywhere.
2. The move is a copy and delete, in what case indeed files would be moved, I assume by your PCs RAM over Ethernet. Not 100% sure, though.

 

[McKeu]

Nothing should go over the internet, unless you access the storage via some cloudbased management platform or similar.

 

[popatim]

Depends on the location of the folders and how you do it.
I've cut n pasted within the same drive with nothing other then the NAS updating the fat tables. Across drives results in data flowing up to the pc and back down.

If copying files they will travel up to your pc and them back down

Unless you've remoted into the NAS and performed these from it's OS; then its all done within the NAS.

Can't rule out anything going over the internet anymore either. Depends on who is spying on you now. MS, Google , FBI... LoL

 

[jsmithepa]

In a perfect world, the EX4100 "notices" you are moving folder on the same drive, so it needs nothing more than updating pointers, pointers=addressing labels, so this is very fast and no actual moving data is involved.

But I have no illusion vendors, specially disparate vendors make things so efficient for you, I wager EX folder1 --> Workstation --> EX folder2. U can verify this by having the network monitor tool open and u can see in real time what is coming down and what is going back up.

Now if you are doing maintenance, the NAS box itself may have a management console that will let you do stuff like this in-box, without the intervention of an external workstation and much more efficiently but of course you will have to use the specific tool the NAS box gives u.