Integrated File System Introduction

File systems in the integrated file system

A file system provides you the support to access specific segments of storage that are organized as logical units. These logical units on your server are files, directories, libraries, and objects.

Each file system has a set of logical structures and rules for interacting with information in storage. These structures and rules may be different from one file system to another. In fact, from the perspective of structures and rules, the OS/400 support for accessing database files and various other object types through libraries can be thought of as a file system. Similarly, the OS/400 support for accessing documents (which are really stream files) through the folders structure may be thought of as a separate file system.

The integrated file system treats the library support and folders support as separate file systems. Other types of file management support that have differing capabilities are also treated as separate file systems.

To see a comparison of the features and limitations of each file system, see File system comparison.

The file systems in the integrated file system are:

"root" (/)
The "root" (/) file system. This file system takes full advantage of the stream file support and hierarchical directory structure of the integrated file system. The root file system has the characteristics of the Disk Operating System (DOS) and OS/2 file systems.

QOpenSys
The open systems file system. This file system is compatible with UNIX-based open system standards, such as POSIX and XPG. Like the root file system, this file system takes advantage of the stream file and directory support that is provided by the integrated file system. In addition, it supports case-sensitive object names.

UDFS
The user-defined file system. This file system resides on the auxiliary storage pool (ASP) or independent auxiliary storage pool (ASP) of your choice. You create and manage this file system.

QSYS.LIB
The library file system. This file system supports your server's library structure. This file system provides access to database files and all of the other iSeries server object types that the library support manages in the system and basic user ASPs.

Independent ASP QSYS.LIB
The Independent ASP QSYS.LIB file system. This file system supports your server library structure in any independent auxiliary storage pools (ASPs) you create and define. This file system provides access to database files and all of the other iSeries server object types that the library support manages.

QDLS
The document library services file system. This file system provides access to documents and folders.

QOPT
The optical file system. This file system provides access to stream data that is stored on optical media.

QNetWare
The QNetWare file system. This file system provides access to local or remote data and objects that are stored on a server that runs Novell NetWare 4.10 or 4.11 or to standalone PC Servers running Novell NetWare 3.12, 4.10 4.11 or 5.0. You can dynamically mount NetWare file systems over existing local file systems.

QNTC
Windows NT Server file system. This file system provides access to data and objects that are stored on a server running Windows NT 4.0 or higher. It allows iSeries server applications to use the same data as Windows NT clients. This includes access to the data on a Windows NT Server that is running on an Integrated PC Server. See OS/400-AS/400 Integration with Windows NT Server, SC41-5439-01 (SC41-5439) for details.

QFileSvr.400
This file system provides access to other file systems that reside on remote iSeries servers.

NFS
Network File System. This file system provides you with access to data and objects that are stored on a remote NFS server. An NFS server can export a network file system that NFS clients will then mount dynamically.

You can interact with any of the file systems through a common interface. This interface is optimized for input/output of stream data, in contrast to the record input/output that is provided through the data management interfaces. The provided commands, menus and displays, and application program interfaces (APIs) allow interaction with the file systems through this common interface.

Figure 4. File systems, file servers, and the integrated file system interface

File systems, file servers, and the <a href=integrated file system interface">

For more information, refer to the following topics and publications:

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