Abstract: One embodiment of the present invention provides a mechanism that associates a virtual server identifier with a process in an operating system, wherein the operating system supports multiple virtual servers running within multiple virtual environments. Upon receiving a call to an operating system function from the process, the system looks up an identifier for a virtual server associated with the process. If the identifier exists, the system uses the identifier in performing the operating system function, so that the operating system function accesses only objects defined within a virtual environment associated with the virtual server, and does not access objects defined outside the virtual environment In one embodiment of the present invention, the system receives a command to initialize a new process. If the new process is being initialized within a target virtual environment associated with a target virtual server, the system assigns an identifier for the target virtual server to the new process.