diff --git a/core/net/src/main/java/org/onosproject/cluster/impl/ConfigFileBasedClusterMetadataProvider.java b/core/net/src/main/java/org/onosproject/cluster/impl/ConfigFileBasedClusterMetadataProvider.java
index 5016811..267396c 100644
--- a/core/net/src/main/java/org/onosproject/cluster/impl/ConfigFileBasedClusterMetadataProvider.java
+++ b/core/net/src/main/java/org/onosproject/cluster/impl/ConfigFileBasedClusterMetadataProvider.java
@@ -19,16 +19,14 @@
 import static org.slf4j.LoggerFactory.getLogger;
 
 import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.nio.file.FileSystems;
-import java.nio.file.Path;
-import java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds;
-import java.nio.file.WatchEvent;
-import java.nio.file.WatchKey;
-import java.nio.file.WatchService;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.net.URLConnection;
 import java.util.Set;
-import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
 import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
+import java.util.concurrent.ScheduledExecutorService;
+import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicReference;
 
 import org.apache.felix.scr.annotations.Activate;
@@ -87,11 +85,12 @@
     @Reference(cardinality = ReferenceCardinality.MANDATORY_UNARY)
     protected ClusterMetadataProviderRegistry providerRegistry;
 
-    private static final ProviderId PROVIDER_ID = new ProviderId("config", "none");
+    private static final ProviderId PROVIDER_ID = new ProviderId("file", "none");
     private final AtomicReference<Versioned<ClusterMetadata>> cachedMetadata = new AtomicReference<>();
-    private final ExecutorService configFileChangeDetector =
-            Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor(groupedThreads("onos/cluster/metadata/config-watcher", ""));
+    private final ScheduledExecutorService configFileChangeDetector =
+            Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor(groupedThreads("onos/cluster/metadata/config-watcher", ""));
 
+    private String metadataUrl;
     private ObjectMapper mapper;
     private ClusterMetadataProviderService providerService;
 
@@ -108,14 +107,8 @@
         module.addDeserializer(PartitionId.class, new PartitionIdDeserializer());
         mapper.registerModule(module);
         providerService = providerRegistry.register(this);
-        configFileChangeDetector.execute(() -> {
-            try {
-                watchConfigFile();
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-                log.warn("Failure in setting up a watch for config "
-                        + "file updates. updates to {} will be ignored", CONFIG_FILE, e);
-            }
-        });
+        metadataUrl = System.getProperty("onos.cluster.metadata.uri", "file://" + CONFIG_DIR + "/" + CONFIG_FILE);
+        configFileChangeDetector.scheduleWithFixedDelay(() -> watchUrl(metadataUrl), 100, 500, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
         log.info("Started");
     }
 
@@ -136,7 +129,7 @@
         checkState(isAvailable());
         synchronized (this) {
             if (cachedMetadata.get() == null) {
-                cachedMetadata.set(fetchMetadata());
+                cachedMetadata.set(fetchMetadata(metadataUrl));
             }
             return cachedMetadata.get();
         }
@@ -170,23 +163,45 @@
 
     @Override
     public boolean isAvailable() {
-        return CONFIG_FILE.exists();
+        try {
+            URL url = new URL(metadataUrl);
+            if (url.getProtocol().equals("file")) {
+                File file = new File(metadataUrl.replaceFirst("file://", ""));
+                return file.exists();
+            } else if (url.getProtocol().equals("http")) {
+                url.openStream();
+                return true;
+            } else {
+                // Unsupported protocol
+                return false;
+            }
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            return false;
+        }
     }
 
-    private Versioned<ClusterMetadata> fetchMetadata() {
-        ClusterMetadata metadata = null;
-        long version = 0;
+    private Versioned<ClusterMetadata> fetchMetadata(String metadataUrl) {
         try {
-            metadata = mapper.readValue(CONFIG_FILE, ClusterMetadata.class);
-            version = CONFIG_FILE.lastModified();
+            URL url = new URL(metadataUrl);
+            ClusterMetadata metadata = null;
+            long version = 0;
+            if (url.getProtocol().equals("file")) {
+                File file = new File(metadataUrl.replaceFirst("file://", ""));
+                version = file.lastModified();
+                metadata = mapper.readValue(new FileInputStream(file), ClusterMetadata.class);
+            } else if (url.getProtocol().equals("http")) {
+                URLConnection conn = url.openConnection();
+                version = conn.getLastModified();
+                metadata = mapper.readValue(conn.getInputStream(), ClusterMetadata.class);
+            }
+            return new Versioned<>(new ClusterMetadata(PROVIDER_ID,
+                                                       metadata.getName(),
+                                                       Sets.newHashSet(metadata.getNodes()),
+                                                       Sets.newHashSet(metadata.getPartitions())),
+                                   version);
         } catch (IOException e) {
-            Throwables.propagate(e);
+            throw Throwables.propagate(e);
         }
-        return new Versioned<>(new ClusterMetadata(PROVIDER_ID,
-                                                   metadata.getName(),
-                                                   Sets.newHashSet(metadata.getNodes()),
-                                                   Sets.newHashSet(metadata.getPartitions())),
-                               version);
     }
 
     private static class PartitionDeserializer extends JsonDeserializer<Partition> {
@@ -256,32 +271,16 @@
     }
 
     /**
-     * Monitors the config file for any updates and notifies providerService accordingly.
+     * Monitors the metadata url for any updates and notifies providerService accordingly.
      * @throws IOException
      */
-    private void watchConfigFile() throws IOException {
-        WatchService watcher = FileSystems.getDefault().newWatchService();
-        Path configFilePath = FileSystems.getDefault().getPath(CONFIG_DIR);
-        configFilePath.register(watcher, StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_MODIFY);
-        while (true) {
-            try {
-                final WatchKey watchKey = watcher.take();
-                for (WatchEvent<?> event : watchKey.pollEvents()) {
-                    final Path changed = (Path) event.context();
-                    log.info("{} was updated", changed);
-                    // TODO: Fix concurrency issues
-                    Versioned<ClusterMetadata> latestMetadata = fetchMetadata();
-                    cachedMetadata.set(latestMetadata);
-                    providerService.clusterMetadataChanged(latestMetadata);
-                }
-                if (!watchKey.reset()) {
-                    log.debug("WatchKey has been unregistered");
-                    break;
-                }
-            } catch (InterruptedException e) {
-                Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
-                break;
-            }
+    private void watchUrl(String metadataUrl) {
+        // TODO: We are merely polling the url.
+        // This can be easily addressed for files. For http urls we need to move to a push style protocol.
+        Versioned<ClusterMetadata> latestMetadata = fetchMetadata(metadataUrl);
+        if (cachedMetadata.get() != null && cachedMetadata.get().version() < latestMetadata.version()) {
+            cachedMetadata.set(latestMetadata);
+            providerService.clusterMetadataChanged(latestMetadata);
         }
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file