1. A method comprising: receiving, at a local backup daemon executing on a first node of a cluster of a plurality of nodes, a backup operation from a backup manager, the backup operation directed to a data container previously served by the first node of the cluster, wherein the local backup daemon interfaces with the backup manager to interpret the backup operation; determining that the first node previously served the data container by querying a volume location database (VLDB) on the first node; and in response to determining that the first node previously served the data container: forwarding the backup operation from the local backup daemon to a remote backup daemon executing on a second node of the cluster configured to service the data container, and performing the backup operation directed to the data container by the remote backup daemon executing on the second node in the cluster, wherein the local backup daemon acts as a proxy between the backup manager and the remote backup daemon by communicating via one or more remote procedure calls to complete the backup operation by the second node in the cluster.