10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the peer manager is configured to maintain a plurality of communications channels via a corresponding one of local MDS peer instances for exchanging metadata with a plurality of remote peers, respectively.
10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the peer manager is configured to maintain a plurality of communications channels via a corresponding one of local MDS peer instances for exchanging metadata with a plurality of remote peers, respectively. 12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises: receiving a second signal from the local client indicating that the second communications channel is no longer needed; and in response to the second signal, destroying by the peer manager the second local MDS peer instance to shut down the second communications channel.