1. A method of managing a distributed system, comprising: determining, by a master entity, a number of entities in the distributed system to be managed through the master entity, the number of entities including a plurality of first-tier entities in communication with the master entity and zero, one, or more second-tier entities in indirect communication with the master entity through one of the first-tier entities; assigning, by the master entity, a virtual slot for each first-tier entity and for each second-tier entity in the distributed system, each virtual slot identifying one of the first-tier entities as a destination entity for requests sent to that virtual slot; receiving, by the master entity, a request from a management station to submit a command to manage a given one of the entities in the distributed system; determining, by the master entity, one of the virtual slots associated with the request received from the management station; and sending, by the master entity, an RPC (remote procedure call) request to the first-tier entity identified by the virtual slot.