Transfer files from different CIFS under the same volume

[Johev]

Dear FreeNASers,

I have a server (Dell T20/E3-1225v3/12GB ECC RAM/3*4TB HDDs+1*1TB), with several CIFS shares.

As I only use laptops, that is why I connect to FreeNAS 9.3 stable through Wifi. This creates an issue with the current way I transfer files from different CIFS under the same volume.

What I did?
I backed up the entire hard drive of a failing laptop to a CIFS share of a user on my FreeNAS server.

What I would like to do:

Now I would like to organise these files, for example take all the movies and tv shows and move them to a CIFS share "media". However when I do a copy-paste or a cut-paste under Windows File Explorer, what actually happens is that the files are router through the Wifi of the laptop to the server again.

This makes the process very slow, as even with the 5GHz Wifi, when I look at the Wifi usage I see 8MB/s upload and 8MB/s download being used on the laptop every time I try to move something to a different share (under the same volume and vdev).

As these CIFS are all on the same server, under the same vdev and volume, would it be possible to just transfer them as it happens when I move files under the same CIFS? That way I would be limited by the HDD's and the SATA port speeds and not the network speed of the device that I am using to move the files.

I have read some older topics on this issue, however they were too old to post into that is why I've created a new one.

Many thanks in advising me on how to proceed.

 

[danb35]

You can always plug your laptop into the network, which should be faster than using WiFi by quite a bit. But the only way you can avoid the data going through the network to your laptop and back to the server is by moving the files through the CLI.

 

[anodos]

Dear FreeNASers,

I have a server (Dell T20/E3-1225v3/12GB ECC RAM/3*4TB HDDs+1*1TB), with several CIFS shares.

As I only use laptops, that is why I connect to FreeNAS 9.3 stable through Wifi. This creates an issue with the current way I transfer files from different CIFS under the same volume.

What I did?
I backed up the entire hard drive of a failing laptop to a CIFS share of a user on my FreeNAS server.

What I would like to do:

Now I would like to organise these files, for example take all the movies and tv shows and move them to a CIFS share "media". However when I do a copy-paste or a cut-paste under Windows File Explorer, what actually happens is that the files are router through the Wifi of the laptop to the server again.

This makes the process very slow, as even with the 5GHz Wifi, when I look at the Wifi usage I see 8MB/s upload and 8MB/s download being used on the laptop every time I try to move something to a different share (under the same volume and vdev).

As these CIFS are all on the same server, under the same vdev and volume, would it be possible to just transfer them as it happens when I move files under the same CIFS? That way I would be limited by the HDD's and the SATA port speeds and not the network speed of the device that I am using to move the files.

I have read some older topics on this issue, however they were too old to post into that is why I've created a new one.

Many thanks in advising me on how to proceed.

Server-side copy only works within the same share. If you copy files between shares, they will go through your client computer. There are a couple of options (other than plugging in an ethernet cable):

• Use "mount_smbfs" to mount the shares locally on the FreeNAS appliance, then use "cp" to move the files. This will use SMB1 to move the files from one share to another via the loopback adapter on the server.
• Copy files through the cp command, i.e. "cp -Rp <source> <destination>". This will probably barf up some permissions related errors, but should move the files. You may need to sanitize your permissions afterwards.

I'm sure there are some other, more esoteric ways of doing this. 10 points to whoever can think of the most convoluted way of moving around the files.

 

[Johev]

Thank you both for your assistance, especially with the code that I would have to use. The first option is something I can't use as my laptop Dell XPS 13 has no ethernet port. I would have to buy a usb3 adaptor just for that.

I have access to the server directly through the Xeon remote management tool.

Could you maybe explain what errors could come up with the permissions, as I'm not sure I would know how to solve them.

Many thanks.