How FPolicy services work across SVM namespaces

ONTAP provides a unified storage virtual machine (SVM) namespace. Volumes across the cluster are joined together by junctions to provide a single, logical file system. The FPolicy server is aware of the namespace topology and provides FPolicy services across the namespace.

The namespace is specific to and contained within the SVM; therefore, you can see the namespace only from the SVM context. Namespaces have the following characteristics:

• A single namespace exists in each SVM, with the root of the namespace being the root volume, represented in the namespace as slash (/).
• All other volumes have junction points below the root (/).
• Volume junctions are transparent to clients.
• A single NFS export can provide access to the complete namespace; otherwise, export policies can export specific volumes.
• SMB shares can be created on the volume or on qtrees within the volume, or on any directory within the namespace.
• The namespace architecture is flexible.

  Examples of typical namespace architectures are as follows:

  • A namespace with a single branch off of the root
  • A namespace with multiple branches off of the root
  • A namespace with multiple unbranched volumes off of the root