diff --git a/lustre/include/obd_support.h b/lustre/include/obd_support.h
index fd4d87f467f569f6e7b96cf8e6d6f47c7c5a7b78..57d1c33d7e5034624f9d9a66e2a121e090c78f32 100644
--- a/lustre/include/obd_support.h
+++ b/lustre/include/obd_support.h
@@ -75,8 +75,9 @@ int obd_alloc_fail(const void *ptr, const char *name, const char *type,
                    size_t size, const char *file, int line);
 
 /* Timeout definitions */
-#define OBD_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT 100
-#define LDLM_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT 20
+#define OBD_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT             100
+#define LDLM_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT            20
+#define MDS_LDLM_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT        6
 /* Time to wait for all clients to reconnect during recovery */
 /* Should be very conservative; must catch the first reconnect after reboot */
 #define OBD_RECOVERY_FACTOR (3) /* times obd_timeout */
diff --git a/lustre/mdt/mdt_handler.c b/lustre/mdt/mdt_handler.c
index 67918fe79c9562695f0ed49b2c1e0cebd81ddc2b..de3166d0848c34c27ae743ba8eee026e8e0178fa 100644
--- a/lustre/mdt/mdt_handler.c
+++ b/lustre/mdt/mdt_handler.c
@@ -4008,8 +4008,10 @@ static int mdt_init0(const struct lu_env *env, struct mdt_device *m,
 
         mdt_init_capa_ctxt(env, m);
 
+        /* we use a shorter ldlm_timeout on MDS for keep bumping on
+         * might-be slow processing OST */
         if (ldlm_timeout == LDLM_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT)
-                ldlm_timeout = 6;
+                ldlm_timeout = MDS_LDLM_TIMEOUT_DEFAULT;
 
         RETURN(0);