1. An apparatus, comprising: a processor; a memory; and an interface to connect the processor, memory, and a set of logics, the set of logics comprising: a metadata controller (MDC) logic configured to selectively terminate an active File System Manager (FSM) process running on the apparatus and to selectively activate a standby FSM process available on a redundant MDC upon determining that the active FSM process has violated a timer bounded arbitration (ARB) protocol, where the timer bounded ARB protocol relies on an ARB block acting as a resource shared between the active FSM process and the standby FSM process; and an ARB logic configured to maintain single writer access to file system metadata using the ARB block, and configured to control the active FSM process and the standby FSM process to synchronize control of the ARB block by using the ARB block.