In general, embodiments relate to a method for distributing topology information to client application nodes in a distributed system, the method comprising: creating a file system on a management node, enabling a plurality of client application nodes to access the file system on the management node, obtaining a topology file, wherein the topology file comprises information about a plurality of storage devices to enable the plurality of client application nodes to issue input/output (IO) requests directly to the plurality of storage devices, and storing, by the management node, the topology file in the file system, wherein the topology file is accessible to the plurality of client application nodes once the topology file is stored in the file system.