Systems and methods for providing consistent metadata in a cluster database system are disclosed. Each node contains a number of LDAP server instances, as well as a monitor process. Each node contains a node shared memory, and the cluster contains a cluster shared memory stored on a directory store. When a client alters metadata in one of the LDAP server instances, the LDAP server instances writes the changes to the directory store, and provides update information, such as a version number, to the node shared memory. Other server instances on that node poll the node shared memory to determine whether updates have been made. If updates have been made, the other server instances update their on-heap caches based on the directory store. Each monitor process determines whether changes have been made to the cluster shared memory, and if so, updates the node shared memory based on the directory store.