A system, method and computer program product for implementing a distributed file system architecture requiring no direct access to user data from a metadata manager in a data storage network. Metadata operations requiring user volume access are performed via a proxy on a storage manager server that is a distributed file system client. Management of metadata can be isolated from user data because the metadata manager requires no capability to see the storage for user volumes. This allows for a distributed file management system to support heterogeneous environments without requiring any single point in the system to see all the storage.