A system and method supporting multiple independent transactional resource managers on a single logical volume, in which each resource manager is a unit of storage management. Each resource manager independently maintains metadata associated with a collection of files that are contained within the scope of a resource manager, such as the files within a subdirectory corresponding to the resource manager. A general architecture allows databases or other entities to integrate with a transactional file system volume via the resource managers, whereby each database has its files independently associated with a transactional resource manager such that database operations do not affect other operations on the volume. Having independent resource managers allows different levels of performance, reliability, feature availability, and manageability to be specified within a single volume. Functions to create, start, and shut down a resource manager are also provided, along with other functions that facilitate resource manager usage.