Patent ID: 7475077

Claim:
A processor implemented method of emulating a virtual boundary of a file system for data management at a fileset granularity, wherein a file includes a filehandle that contains a file ID, a fileset ID, and a file system ID, the method comprising: dynamically assigning a fileset ID associated with a file in the file system; embedding fileset information in a filehandle exchanged between a client and an administration server to obviate maintaining the fileset information for an object at a file system server; defining the fileset as the virtual boundary of the file system; identifying the file by the file ID and the fileset ID rather than by the file ID and the file system ID; maintaining the fileset ID to fileset root object mappings in a database outside an underlying file system server, wherein fileset ID to fileset root object mappings are file system type and are platform neutral; implementing a namespace of a cell by creating and maintaining a read-write fileset, wherein the fileset exists on the administration server; creating a replica of said fileset; placing said replica on the administration server in the cell, wherein the replica thus becomes a root of the namespace; modifying and updating said fileset in response to various administrative operations, wherein the modifying and updating is done on a data management server; managing server to server data operations on the data management server; and maintaining a configuration state for said fileset within a cell and for transferring said fileset between a plurality of systems; placing the fileset ID in a unique filehandle; and providing the unique filehandle to a client, to identify the file system and to reflect the crossing of the virtual boundary.