diff --git a/userspace/marsadm b/userspace/marsadm
index e64b2c54..c30dc27d 100755
--- a/userspace/marsadm
+++ b/userspace/marsadm
@@ -679,6 +679,7 @@ sub __read_cache {
 sub _read_cache {
   return 0 if no_mountpoint($mars);
   return 0 if $kernel_strategy_version < 4;
+  return 0 unless -d "$mars/actcual-$real_host";
   my $inval_path = "$cache_dir/invalid";
   if (-l $inval_path) {
     _reset_resources();
@@ -741,6 +742,7 @@ sub __write_cache {
 
 sub _write_cache {
   return 0 if no_mountpoint($mars);
+  return 1 unless -d "$mars/actual-$real_host";
   mkdir($cache_dir);
   my $ok =
   __write_cache("$cache_dir/total_resources.cache", \%total_resources) &&
@@ -2594,12 +2596,6 @@ sub get_global_versions {
   }
   unless (defined($ARGV[0]) && $ARGV[0] =~ m/cluster|cat/) {
     my $act_dir = "$mars/actual-$host";
-    unless (-d $act_dir) {
-      my $not_mounted = no_mountpoint($mars);
-      if (defined($not_mounted) && !$not_mounted) {
-	mkdir($act_dir);
-      }
-    }
     $kernel_version = get_alive_link("tree", $host, 2);
     if ($kernel_version && $user_version != $kernel_version) {
       lwarn "kernel_version=$kernel_version user_version=$user_version\n";