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NFS can be configured into the system as a Dynamically Loadable Module (DLM). DLMs are kernel modules (such as device drivers, filesystems, and streams modules) that can be loaded into and unloaded from the system during runtime.
By using DLMs, system administrators can avoid the work that was previously necessary (doing an idbuild, shutting down the system, bringing it back up, and so on) every time they install or remove a new kernel module.
DLMs also conserve system resources by providing a mechanism for loading kernel modules only when they are needed in the system. When a loaded kernel module is no longer in use, the DLM feature can unload the module to reclaim the resources it occupied.
For example, if NFS is configured as a DLM and it is being accessed infrequently, the DLM mechanism provides for dynamically unloading the NFS kernel modules. Then, when NFS is needed in the system again, the DLM mechanism provides for dynamically loading the NFS kernel modules from disk.
Dynamic loading and unloading can be performed on demand by the system administrator or automatically by the kernel. For more information about the DLM feature, see ``Managing dynamically loadable kernel modules''.