diff --git a/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py b/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
index d3a68dff4a7..d828e08eeb7 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/metadata/agent.py
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ from neutron_lib.agent import topics
 from neutron_lib import constants
 from neutron_lib import context
 from neutron_lib import rpc as n_rpc
+from neutron_lib.utils import host
 from oslo_config import cfg
 from oslo_log import log as logging
 import oslo_messaging
@@ -364,9 +365,13 @@ class UnixDomainMetadataProxy(object):
     def run(self):
         server = agent_utils.UnixDomainWSGIServer(
                      constants.AGENT_PROCESS_METADATA)
+        # Set the default metadata_workers if not yet set in the config file
+        md_workers = self.conf.metadata_workers
+        if md_workers is None:
+            md_workers = host.cpu_count() // 2
         server.start(MetadataProxyHandler(self.conf),
                      self.conf.metadata_proxy_socket,
-                     workers=self.conf.metadata_workers,
+                     workers=md_workers,
                      backlog=self.conf.metadata_backlog,
                      mode=self._get_socket_mode())
         self._init_state_reporting()
diff --git a/neutron/agent/ovn/metadata/server.py b/neutron/agent/ovn/metadata/server.py
index d6c4e288b35..02daeb49507 100644
--- a/neutron/agent/ovn/metadata/server.py
+++ b/neutron/agent/ovn/metadata/server.py
@@ -199,9 +199,13 @@ class UnixDomainMetadataProxy(object):
     def run(self):
         self.server = agent_utils.UnixDomainWSGIServer(
             'neutron-ovn-metadata-agent')
+        # Set the default metadata_workers if not yet set in the config file
+        md_workers = self.conf.metadata_workers
+        if md_workers is None:
+            md_workers = 2
         self.server.start(MetadataProxyHandler(self.conf),
                           self.conf.metadata_proxy_socket,
-                          workers=self.conf.metadata_workers,
+                          workers=md_workers,
                           backlog=self.conf.metadata_backlog,
                           mode=self._get_socket_mode())
 
diff --git a/neutron/conf/agent/metadata/config.py b/neutron/conf/agent/metadata/config.py
index 4d3ccc69252..fb5675933c0 100644
--- a/neutron/conf/agent/metadata/config.py
+++ b/neutron/conf/agent/metadata/config.py
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@
 #    License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations
 #    under the License.
 
-from neutron_lib.utils import host
 from oslo_config import cfg
 
 from neutron._i18n import _
@@ -93,10 +92,10 @@ UNIX_DOMAIN_METADATA_PROXY_OPTS = [
                       "'all': set metadata proxy socket mode to 0o666, to use "
                       "otherwise.")),
     cfg.IntOpt('metadata_workers',
-               default=host.cpu_count() // 2,
                sample_default='<num_of_cpus> / 2',
                help=_('Number of separate worker processes for metadata '
-                      'server (defaults to half of the number of CPUs)')),
+                      'server (defaults to 2 when used with ML2/OVN and half '
+                      'of the number of CPUs with other backend drivers)')),
     cfg.IntOpt('metadata_backlog',
                default=4096,
                help=_('Number of backlog requests to configure the '
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/ovn-metadata_workers-1121334593ce9829.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/ovn-metadata_workers-1121334593ce9829.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9fbcfbc79be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/ovn-metadata_workers-1121334593ce9829.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+---
+upgrade:
+  - |
+    The default value for the ``metadata_workers`` configuration option
+    has changed to 2 for the ML2/OVN driver. For ML2/OVS the default
+    value remains the same. Each driver has different approaches when
+    serving metadata to the instances and the previous default value of
+    "<number of CPUs> / 2" did not make sense for ML2/OVN as the OVN
+    metadata agents are distributed running on Compute nodes instead of
+    Controller nodes. In fact, the previous default value could cause
+    scalability issues with ML2/OVN and was overwritten by the deployment
+    tools to avoid problems.