A file system that balances the loading of filers and the capacity of drives
that
are associated with the filers is described. The file system includes a first disk
drive that includes a first unused capacity and a second disk drive that includes
a second unused capacity, wherein the second unused capacity is smaller than the
first unused capacity. The file system further includes a first filer that is configured
to fill requests from clients through access to at least the first disk drive.
The file system further includes a second filer that is configured to fill requests
from clients through access to at least the second disk drive. The second filer
is configured to select an infrequently accessed file from the second disk drive
and to push the infrequently accessed files to the first disk drive, thereby improving
a balance of unused capacity between the first and second disk drives without substantially
affecting a loading for each of the first and second filers.