A system comprising: a plurality of file server devices (102; 128) representing nodes (204; 206; 208; 210; 212) of a cluster, each of said devices having at least one file service (122, 134; 214, 216, 218) operable on each of said plurality of devices; a data store (138; 220) comprising files, said data store being accessible to each of said plurality of devices; a namespace definition defining an organization for said files into a share, said share being a directory structure or a portion of a directory structure in which files are stored, said namespace definition being stored in a cluster database accessible to each of said plurality of devices, said share being made available to client devices (148; 228), wherein the namespace definition includes permission settings for the share; said file service being configured to identify changes to said namespace definition and to update said namespace definition on said cluster database to an updated namespace definition, wherein each file service operates as a separate instance of a file service on the respective node, and wherein for a node that operates two instances of a file service, each instance serves a different share, wherein said file service further updates a locally cached version of said namespace definition and propagates the changes to each of the nodes that provide the same file service; the system further comprising: a second plurality of devices being a subset of said plurality of file server devices; and a second namespace definition defining a second organization for at least a subset of said files into a second share, said second namespace definition being stored in said cluster database accessible to each of said second plurality of devices, said second share being made available to client devices. a plurality of file server devices (102; 128) representing nodes (204; 206; 208; 210; 212) of a cluster, each of said devices having at least one file service (122, 134; 214, 216, 218) operable on each of said plurality of devices; a data store (138; 220) comprising files, said data store being accessible to each of said plurality of devices; a namespace definition defining an organization for said files into a share, said share being a directory structure or a portion of a directory structure in which files are stored, said namespace definition being stored in a cluster database accessible to each of said plurality of devices, said share being made available to client devices (148; 228), wherein the namespace definition includes permission settings for the share; said file service being configured to identify changes to said namespace definition and to update said namespace definition on said cluster database to an updated namespace definition, wherein each file service operates as a separate instance of a file service on the respective node, and wherein for a node that operates two instances of a file service, each instance serves a different share, wherein said file service further updates a locally cached version of said namespace definition and propagates the changes to each of the nodes that provide the same file service; the system further comprising: a second plurality of devices being a subset of said plurality of file server devices; and a second namespace definition defining a second organization for at least a subset of said files into a second share, said second namespace definition being stored in said cluster database accessible to each of said second plurality of devices, said second share being made available to client devices. a second plurality of devices being a subset of said plurality of file server devices; and a second namespace definition defining a second organization for at least a subset of said files into a second share, said second namespace definition being stored in said cluster database accessible to each of said second plurality of devices, said second share being made available to client devices.