1. An apparatus comprising: a plurality of logical partitions executing a plurality of processes; a datastore that includes files stored in a file system; a shared memory accessible by the plurality of processes in the plurality of logical partitions, the shared memory including a lock mechanism that guarantees only one of the plurality of processes may access a file stored in the file system at any given time; and a file system agent residing in each of the plurality of logical partitions that uses the lock mechanism to gain exclusive access to a file stored in the file system, wherein the file system agent resides in an operating system kernel in each of the plurality of logical partition.