Hi, we are using ceph version 17.2.5 on Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS. We deployed multi-mds (max_mds=4, plus standby-replay mds). Currently we statically directory-pinned our user home directories (~50k). The cephfs' root directory is pinned to '-1', ./homes is pinned to "0". All user home directories below ./homes/ are pinned to -1, 1, 2, or 3 depending on a simple hash algorithm. Cephfs is provided to our users as samba/cifs (clustered samba,ctdb). We want to try ephemeral directory pinning. We can successfully set the extended attribute "ceph.dir.pin.distributed" with setfattr(1), but cannot retrieve its setting afterwards.: # setfattr -n ceph.dir.pin.distributed -v 1 ./units # getfattr -n ceph.dir.pin.distributed ./units ./units: ceph.dir.pin.distributed: No such attribute strace setfattr reports success on setxattr setxattr("./units", "ceph.dir.pin.distributed", "1", 1, 0) = 0 strace getfattr reports lstat("./units", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0751, st_size=1, ...}) = 0 getxattr("./units", "ceph.dir.pin.distributed", NULL, 0) = -1 ENODATA (No data available) The file system is mounted rw,noatime,,name=<omitted>,mds_namespace=<omitted>.acl,recover_session=clean. The cephfs mds caps are "allow rwps". "./units" has a ceph.dir.layout="stripe_unit=4194304 stripe_count=1 object_size=4194304 pool=fs_data_units" Ubuntu's setfattr is version 2.4.48. Defining other cephfs extend attributes (like ceph.dir.pin, ceph.quota.max_bytes, etc.) works as expected. What are we missing? Should we clear all static directory pinnings in advance? Are there any experience with ephemeral directory pinning? Or should one refrain from multi-mds at all? Kind regards Uli Pralle