A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product is presented for management of a distributed data processing system. An action at a target device is requested, and the completion of the action depends upon communication protocol operations on a set of devices along a logical route through the distributed data processing system. A set of supported protocols that are common to the set of devices along the logical route are identified, and a subset of supported protocols in the set of supported protocols that can be used to complete the action is then identified. An allowable supported protocol is selected for the action based on the type of requested action, after which the requesting application may use the action in accordance with the selected allowable supported protocol, e.g., to monitor or discover the target device. A topology mapping is used to derive an endpoint-to-endpoint route for completing the requested action. A comparison of assigned priorities of each allowable supported protocol may be performed to choose the selected allowable supported protocol.