Disclosed are a method and apparatus for retrieving and enumerating object metadata in a distributed storage system. The method includes: defining and configuring metadata of objects, and counting the number N of types of the metadata; constructing a metadata retrieval tree according to the metadata and the number N of the types of the metadata, each Mth node being associated with an Mth linked list; configuring objects in the Mth linked lists, the objects conforms to all metadata in metadata arrays in the Mth nodes; and configuring an index based on the metadata, pointing to a specified target node via the metadata retrieval tree according to the index, determining a target linked list according to the target node, and providing enumerated objects by the target linked list.