1. A method comprising: performing a first data modification operation that creates a file; at a first metadata server, performing a second data modification operation on the file; generating a journal entry corresponding to the second data modification operation, wherein the journal entry includes a file identifier of the file and a journal sequence number that uniquely identifies another journal entry that corresponds to the first data modification operation that created the file, and a journal sequence number corresponding to the journal entry, and an indication of the second data modification operation; at a second metadata server, in response to determining that (a) a name of a target file matches the file identifier and (b) a second journal sequence number stored in metadata associated with the target file matches the journal sequence number that corresponds to the first data modification operation, performing a third data modification operation identified in the journal entry on the target file.