Abstract: Merging a plurality of CIMs into a merged filesystem namespace includes accessing merge configuration information that identifies a plurality of backing CIMs and a merge precedence order for the backing CIMs. Based on the merge configuration information, merged metadata is generated from metadata portions of the backing CIMs. The merged metadata defines a merged filesystem namespace comprising two or more filesystem objects from the backing CIMs. The merged metadata includes at least first and second merged metadata items that each defines a corresponding filesystem object as being part of the merged filesystem namespace. Each merged metadata item corresponds to a corresponding metadata item within a corresponding metadata portion of a different backing CIM, references a data portion of its corresponding backing CIM, and is generated based on its corresponding filesystem object having no conflict with any filesystem object from any backing CIM that has a higher merge precedence.