A node mask of a global metadata structure entry representing an MD portion in GM may be updated when an entry of a local MD table representing the MD portion is removed in response to receiving an IO operation, without negatively impacting performance of the IO operation. An update process that is independent of the process executing the IO operation may update the node mask so that performance of the IO operation is not negatively affected. In response to the entry for the MD portion being removed from the local MD table, an entry may be added to a queue. The update process may include accessing the entries in the queue, and, for each entry, updating the node mask (e.g., clearing a bit representing the processing node) and removing the entry from the queue.