A method and apparatus is presented for maintaining a logical composite repository of Object Identifier (OID) tree structures on a server in a distributed data processing system. Each OID subtree repository has been programmed to interface with an application programming interface (API) associated with an OID abstraction layer for the logical composite repository. An OID subtree structure can be added to the logical composite repository resulting in registration with the OID abstraction layer. Any query from a requester in the distributed data processing system about an object contained in the logical composite repository associated with the server is processed by the OID abstraction layer. The query must be in a protocol, such as SNMP, LDAP, and CIM/XML, recognized by the OID abstraction layer. The repository associated with the object of the query is determined from the OID abstraction layer registry. The query is formatted to be consistent with the API associated with the OID abstraction layer and sent to the repository associated with the object. When a reply is received from the repository, it is formatted in the protocol of the original query and sent to the requester in the distributed data processing system.