1. A method for accessing a distributed storage system, the defining storage-level access control rules for a plurality of clients and a plurality of first file system objects of the distributed storage system; receiving a file system request from a particular client among the clients to access a second file system object in a particular first file system object among the first file system objects at a distributed file system; performing a storage-level access control process, at the distributed file system, to determine whether the particular client has access to the particular first file system object using an identifier of the particular client and the storage-level access control rules; allowing the particular client access to the second file system object in the particular first file system object when the particular client has been determined to have access to the particular first file system object according to the storage-level access control rules; and prior to performing the storage-level access control process, performing a client-level access control process to determine whether a user has access to the second file system object in the particular first file system object, wherein the client-level access control process is implemented using first client-server mechanisms that connect the clients to the distributed file system and the storage-level access control process is implemented using second client-server mechanisms that connect the distributed file system to the distributed storage system, and wherein performing the storage-level access control process includes determining an access capability for an access relationship between the particular client and the particular first file system object using the storage-level access control rules.