9.1. Concepts

Although users view the Coda file system as a hierarchy of directories and files, system administrators view the Coda file system as a hierarchy of volumes. Each volume contains a subtree of related directories and files which is a subtree of the entire file system. Volumes, then, parallel traditional Unix file systems. Like a Unix file system, a volume can be mounted. Thus, the root of a volume can be named within another volume at a mount point. The Coda file system hierarchy is built in this manner and is then mounted by each client using a conventional Unix mount point within the local file system. Since all internal mount points are invisible, the user sees only a single mount point for the entire Coda file system.

All system administration tasks are performed relative to a volume or a set of volumes. So, adding new users requires creating new volumes for their files and directories; quotas are enforced on volumes; and backups are performed on a per-volume basis. The volume abstraction greatly simplifies the administration of large systems.

The main volume type that is used in typical Coda environments are the read-write, replicated volumes . Read-write, replicated volumes are logical volumes which group together multiple read-write volumes. Coda provides protocols which allow read-write, replicated volumes to reside on a number of servers and to be accessed even when some servers are inaccessible.