In one example, a method is performed by an MDS proxy and includes receiving a remote procedure call (RPC) from a client agent, recording the RPC in a log, sending an acknowledgement of the RPC to the client agent, and scheduling the RPC for transmission to a metadata server (MDS). A time elapsed between transmission of the RPC by the client agent and receipt, by the client agent of the acknowledgement transmitted by the MDS proxy, defines a perceived latency from a perspective of the client agent.