Does robocopy make a local copy of the files?

3

I have a seagate NAS which I access over a shared folder. I also have 3 computers with a shared folder. I want to backup files from the 3 computers to the seagate NAS. I cannot run those tasks with the seagate NAS itself so I want to do it from a 3rd Windows Server I have running. If I tell my Windows server to copy the files from the 3 computers to the NAS (With robocopy) will it be slower, because it copies from "shared folder on computer 1,2,3" -> Windows Server -> NAS or does it copy it directly? I hope my question is clear enough for someone to answer...

user754730

Posted 2014-01-24T14:35:50.880

Reputation: 133

3It will use the server as the intermediary and flow the copy through it, yes. But not keep a copy. – TheCleaner – 2014-01-24T14:42:10.160

Answers

8

The files will go through the Windows Server box in the middle, but the server won't store a copy of the files, it happens in-memory. You can verify this by looking the the network throughput of the server while doing copying (that is, if the server isn't doing much else besides the file copy).

Trondh

Posted 2014-01-24T14:35:50.880

Reputation: 276

Ok so that means it will be a little slower than copying it directly? Thanks for your answer by the way! – user754730 – 2014-01-24T14:58:47.187

Depends, not necessarily. If it's a slow NAS for instance, that could be a bottleneck. – Trondh – 2014-01-24T15:01:57.033

Ok Thanks. So I will try to make it work another way... I have the feeling that there are just too many possible bottlenecks. – user754730 – 2014-01-24T15:03:12.407

Asked: 2014-01-24T14:35:50.880

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Active: 2014-01-29T18:22:11.740