The present invention provides a mechanism for storing and accessing attributes of a data container (e.g., characteristics such as a name of a data container used to perform a lookup operation against the data container) in cache memory within storage systems in a cluster of storage systems. Further, a mechanism is provided so that an attribute of a data container is inserted into a cache memory of preferably one storage system (in the cluster) that caches metadata of the data container (e.g., information describing the data container). As a result, a lookup operation for a data container is directed to and served by the storage system that caches the metadata and the attribute of the data container. The lookup request is not relayed to a storage system that maintains a central directory of attributes of all data containers in the cluster.