diff --git a/kmod/src/inode.c b/kmod/src/inode.c
index 97a68aeb..87f270c3 100644
--- a/kmod/src/inode.c
+++ b/kmod/src/inode.c
@@ -84,6 +84,7 @@ static void scoutfs_inode_ctor(void *obj)
 	init_rwsem(&si->xattr_rwsem);
 	RB_CLEAR_NODE(&si->writeback_node);
 	scoutfs_lock_init_coverage(&si->ino_lock_cov);
+	atomic_set(&si->inv_iput_count, 0);
 
 	inode_init_once(&si->inode);
 }
@@ -313,6 +314,7 @@ int scoutfs_inode_refresh(struct inode *inode, struct scoutfs_lock *lock,
 			load_inode(inode, &sinode);
 			atomic64_set(&si->last_refreshed, refresh_gen);
 			scoutfs_lock_add_coverage(sb, lock, &si->ino_lock_cov);
+			si->drop_invalidated = false;
 		}
 	} else {
 		ret = 0;
@@ -1393,6 +1395,7 @@ struct inode *scoutfs_new_inode(struct super_block *sb, struct inode *dir,
 	si->have_item = false;
 	atomic64_set(&si->last_refreshed, lock->refresh_gen);
 	scoutfs_lock_add_coverage(sb, lock, &si->ino_lock_cov);
+	si->drop_invalidated = false;
 	si->flags = 0;
 
 	scoutfs_inode_set_meta_seq(inode);
@@ -1586,13 +1589,30 @@ clear:
 	clear_inode(inode);
 }
 
+/*
+ * We want to remove inodes from the cache as their count goes to 0 if
+ * they're no longer covered by a cluster lock or if while locked they
+ * were unlinked.
+ *
+ * We don't want unused cached inodes to linger outside of cluster
+ * locking so that they don't prevent final inode deletion on other
+ * nodes.  We don't have specific per-inode or per-dentry locks which
+ * would otherwise remove the stale caches as they're invalidated.
+ * Stale cached inodes provide little value because they're going to be
+ * refreshed the next time they're locked.  Populating the item cache
+ * and loading the inode item is a lot more expensive than initializing
+ * and inserting a newly allocated vfs inode.
+ */
 int scoutfs_drop_inode(struct inode *inode)
 {
-	int ret = generic_drop_inode(inode);
+	struct scoutfs_inode_info *si = SCOUTFS_I(inode);
+	struct super_block *sb = inode->i_sb;
 
-	trace_scoutfs_drop_inode(inode->i_sb, scoutfs_ino(inode),
-				 inode->i_nlink, inode_unhashed(inode));
-	return ret;
+	trace_scoutfs_drop_inode(sb, scoutfs_ino(inode), inode->i_nlink, inode_unhashed(inode),
+				 si->drop_invalidated);
+
+	return si->drop_invalidated || !scoutfs_lock_is_covered(sb, &si->ino_lock_cov) ||
+	       generic_drop_inode(inode);
 }
 
 /*
diff --git a/kmod/src/inode.h b/kmod/src/inode.h
index 60213d73..070d6492 100644
--- a/kmod/src/inode.h
+++ b/kmod/src/inode.h
@@ -53,6 +53,11 @@ struct scoutfs_inode_info {
 
 	struct scoutfs_lock_coverage ino_lock_cov;
 
+	/* drop if i_count hits 0, allows drop while invalidate holds coverage */
+	bool drop_invalidated;
+	struct llist_node inv_iput_llnode;
+	atomic_t inv_iput_count;
+
 	struct inode inode;
 };
 
diff --git a/kmod/src/lock.c b/kmod/src/lock.c
index f761ba49..ba893bfe 100644
--- a/kmod/src/lock.c
+++ b/kmod/src/lock.c
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ struct lock_info {
 	struct super_block *sb;
 	spinlock_t lock;
 	bool shutdown;
+	bool unmounting;
 	struct rb_root lock_tree;
 	struct rb_root lock_range_tree;
 	struct shrinker shrinker;
@@ -88,6 +89,9 @@ struct lock_info {
 	struct work_struct shrink_work;
 	struct list_head shrink_list;
 	atomic64_t next_refresh_gen;
+	struct work_struct inv_iput_work;
+	struct llist_head inv_iput_llist;
+
 	struct dentry *tseq_dentry;
 	struct scoutfs_tseq_tree tseq_tree;
 };
@@ -122,12 +126,53 @@ static bool lock_modes_match(int granted, int requested)
 		requested == SCOUTFS_LOCK_READ);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Final iput can get into evict and perform final inode deletion which
+ * can delete a lot of items under locks and transactions.  We really
+ * don't want to be doing all that in an iput during invalidation.  When
+ * invalidation sees that iput might perform final deletion it puts them
+ * on a list and queues this work.
+ *
+ * Nothing stops multiple puts for multiple invalidations of an inode
+ * before the work runs so we can track multiple puts in flight.
+ */
+static void lock_inv_iput_worker(struct work_struct *work)
+{
+	struct lock_info *linfo = container_of(work, struct lock_info, inv_iput_work);
+	struct scoutfs_inode_info *si;
+	struct scoutfs_inode_info *tmp;
+	struct llist_node *inodes;
+	bool more;
+
+	inodes = llist_del_all(&linfo->inv_iput_llist);
+
+	llist_for_each_entry_safe(si, tmp, inodes, inv_iput_llnode) {
+		do {
+			more = atomic_dec_return(&si->inv_iput_count) > 0;
+			iput(&si->inode);
+		} while (more);
+	}
+}
+
 /*
  * invalidate cached data associated with an inode whose lock is going
  * away.
+ *
+ * We try to drop cached dentries and inodes covered by the lock if they
+ * aren't referenced.  This removes them from the mount's open map and
+ * allows deletions to be performed by unlink without having to wait for
+ * remote cached inodes to be dropped.
+ *
+ * If the cached inode was already deferring final inode deletion then
+ * we can't perform that inline in invalidation.  The locking alone
+ * deadlock, and it might also take multiple transactions to fully
+ * delete an inode with significant metadata.  We only perform the iput
+ * inline if we know that possible eviction can't perform the final
+ * deletion, otherwise we kick it off to async work.
  */
 static void invalidate_inode(struct super_block *sb, u64 ino)
 {
+	DECLARE_LOCK_INFO(sb, linfo);
 	struct scoutfs_inode_info *si;
 	struct inode *inode;
 
@@ -141,7 +186,20 @@ static void invalidate_inode(struct super_block *sb, u64 ino)
 			scoutfs_data_wait_changed(inode);
 		}
 
-		iput(inode);
+		/* can't touch during unmount, dcache destroys w/o locks */
+		if (!linfo->unmounting)
+			d_prune_aliases(inode);
+
+		si->drop_invalidated = true;
+		if (scoutfs_lock_is_covered(sb, &si->ino_lock_cov) && inode->i_nlink > 0) {
+			iput(inode);
+		} else {
+			/* defer iput to work context so we don't evict inodes from invalidation */ 
+			if (atomic_inc_return(&si->inv_iput_count) == 1)
+				llist_add(&si->inv_iput_llnode, &linfo->inv_iput_llist);
+			smp_wmb(); /* count and list visible before work executes */
+			queue_work(linfo->workq, &linfo->inv_iput_work);
+		}
 	}
 }
 
@@ -1536,11 +1594,21 @@ static void lock_tseq_show(struct seq_file *m, struct scoutfs_tseq_entry *ent)
 }
 
 /*
- * The caller is going to be calling _destroy soon and, critically, is
- * about to shutdown networking before calling us so that we don't get
- * any callbacks while we're destroying.  We have to ensure that we
- * won't call networking after this returns.
- *
+ * shrink_dcache_for_umount() tears down dentries with no locking.  We
+ * need to make sure that our invalidation won't touch dentries before
+ * we return and the caller calls the generic vfs unmount path.
+ */
+void scoutfs_lock_unmount_begin(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+	DECLARE_LOCK_INFO(sb, linfo);
+
+	if (linfo) {
+		linfo->unmounting = true;
+		flush_delayed_work(&linfo->inv_dwork);
+	}
+}
+
+/*
  * Internal fs threads can be using locking, and locking can have async
  * work pending.  We use ->shutdown to force callers to return
  * -ESHUTDOWN and to prevent the future queueing of work that could call
@@ -1682,6 +1750,8 @@ int scoutfs_lock_setup(struct super_block *sb)
 	INIT_WORK(&linfo->shrink_work, lock_shrink_worker);
 	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&linfo->shrink_list);
 	atomic64_set(&linfo->next_refresh_gen, 0);
+	INIT_WORK(&linfo->inv_iput_work, lock_inv_iput_worker);
+	init_llist_head(&linfo->inv_iput_llist);
 	scoutfs_tseq_tree_init(&linfo->tseq_tree, lock_tseq_show);
 
 	sbi->lock_info = linfo;
diff --git a/kmod/src/lock.h b/kmod/src/lock.h
index 5485bb35..bf9a9b8a 100644
--- a/kmod/src/lock.h
+++ b/kmod/src/lock.h
@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@ bool scoutfs_lock_protected(struct scoutfs_lock *lock, struct scoutfs_key *key,
 void scoutfs_free_unused_locks(struct super_block *sb, unsigned long nr);
 
 int scoutfs_lock_setup(struct super_block *sb);
+void scoutfs_lock_unmount_begin(struct super_block *sb);
 void scoutfs_lock_shutdown(struct super_block *sb);
 void scoutfs_lock_destroy(struct super_block *sb);
 
diff --git a/kmod/src/scoutfs_trace.h b/kmod/src/scoutfs_trace.h
index 8d1209e7..7dce85f0 100644
--- a/kmod/src/scoutfs_trace.h
+++ b/kmod/src/scoutfs_trace.h
@@ -690,15 +690,16 @@ TRACE_EVENT(scoutfs_evict_inode,
 
 TRACE_EVENT(scoutfs_drop_inode,
 	TP_PROTO(struct super_block *sb, __u64 ino, unsigned int nlink,
-		 unsigned int unhashed),
+		 unsigned int unhashed, bool drop_invalidated),
 
-	TP_ARGS(sb, ino, nlink, unhashed),
+	TP_ARGS(sb, ino, nlink, unhashed, drop_invalidated),
 
 	TP_STRUCT__entry(
 		SCSB_TRACE_FIELDS
 		__field(__u64, ino)
 		__field(unsigned int, nlink)
 		__field(unsigned int, unhashed)
+		__field(unsigned int, drop_invalidated)
 	),
 
 	TP_fast_assign(
@@ -706,10 +707,12 @@ TRACE_EVENT(scoutfs_drop_inode,
 		__entry->ino = ino;
 		__entry->nlink = nlink;
 		__entry->unhashed = unhashed;
+		__entry->drop_invalidated = !!drop_invalidated;
 	),
 
-	TP_printk(SCSBF" ino %llu nlink %u unhashed %d", SCSB_TRACE_ARGS,
-		  __entry->ino, __entry->nlink, __entry->unhashed)
+	TP_printk(SCSBF" ino %llu nlink %u unhashed %d drop_invalidated %u", SCSB_TRACE_ARGS,
+		  __entry->ino, __entry->nlink, __entry->unhashed,
+		  __entry->drop_invalidated)
 );
 
 TRACE_EVENT(scoutfs_inode_walk_writeback,
diff --git a/kmod/src/super.c b/kmod/src/super.c
index 27b2f832..5338ec65 100644
--- a/kmod/src/super.c
+++ b/kmod/src/super.c
@@ -649,6 +649,9 @@ static void scoutfs_kill_sb(struct super_block *sb)
 {
 	trace_scoutfs_kill_sb(sb);
 
+	if (SCOUTFS_HAS_SBI(sb))
+		scoutfs_lock_unmount_begin(sb);
+
 	kill_block_super(sb);
 }