Described is a technique for distributing information about one or more groups of objects in a plurality of nodes. A first portion of group information is stored on each of said plurality of nodes. The first portion includes information about defined groups and associated group hierarchy information. A second portion of the group information is stored on each of the plurality of nodes. The second portion of group information stored on each of said plurality of nodes identifying which objects included in said one or more groups are defined at said each node.