System and program for maintaining a namespace of filesets accessible to clients over a network

An article of manufacture comprising a computer readable storage medium including code executed to communicate with clients and storage pools over a network, wherein the article of manufacture is enabled to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• maintaining zone information on at least one zone, wherein each zone associates at least one client, at least one fileset of a plurality of filesets in a namespace, and at least one storage pool, wherein for each zone, the associated at least one fileset and at least one storage pool are accessible to the at least one client associated in said each zone;
• receiving a request from one of the clients for filesets accessible to the at least one client in the namespace;
• determining from the zone information the at least one zone associating the requesting client with the at least one fileset and the at least one storage pool;
• providing the requesting client with the zone information on the at least one fileset indicated in the determined at least one zone associating the client;
• receiving one rule identifying a condition and storage pools in which to store files if the condition is satisfied;
• determining whether the storage pools identified in the received rule are included in multiple zones;
• and
• rejecting the received rule in response to determining that a specified fileset in the condition is not included in one zone including the storage pools identified in the received rule.

A computer readable storage medium, comprising:

• zone information on at least one zone, wherein each zone associates at least one client, at least one of a plurality of filesets in a namespace, and at least one storage pool, wherein for each zone, the associated at least one fileset and at least one storage pool are accessible to the at least one client associated in the zone;
• wherein in response to receiving a request from one of the clients for filesets in the namespace accessible to the client, a determination is made from the zone information of at least one zone associating the requesting client with at least one fileset and at least one storage pool and the requesting client is provided with the information on the at least one fileset indicated in the determined at least one zone accessible to the client;
• and
• a rule identifying a condition and storage pools in which to store files if the condition is satisfied, wherein a determination is made whether the storage pools identified in the received rule are included in multiple zones, and wherein the received rule is rejected in response to determining that a specified fileset in the condition is not included in one zone including the storage pools identified in the received rule.