OSF DCE Administration Guide--Core Components

Chapter 21. Restructuring a Namespace
Over time, you may need to restructure or rename certain elements of your namespace.
For example, you may want to create soft links to provide users with one or more
alternate names for an existing namespace entry. You may need to reconfigure a
directory’s replica set to modify the locations and replica types of particular replicas, or
exclude a replica from the set. Occasionally, you may want to delete certain directories
when the information that they contain is no longer needed by users. You may also need
to relocate a clearinghouse or delete a clearinghouse from a server system to perform
diagnostic or troubleshooting work on the system, or to prepare for removing the system
from your network. Finally, you may want to create a hierarchy of cells, add a cell to an
existing hierarchy, or change the structure of a cell hierarchy.
This chapter explains how to perform the following namespace restructuring tasks:
• Managing soft links
• Modifying a directory’s replica set
• Deleting a directory
• Relocating a clearinghouse
• Deleting a clearinghouse
• Creating and managing a hierarchy of cells
21.1 Managing Soft Links
A soft link is an alternate name, or alias, with which you can refer to another existing
name in a namespace. Soft links allow users and client applications to refer to a
particular directory, object entry, or soft link by more than one name.
In general, you should create soft links to assign alternate names to particular network
resources, or to make minor changes to the original names of directories in your
namespace hierarchy. You should avoid using soft links to completely redesign your
namespace.
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