A distributed storage method includes offline merging, by a first thread service of a distributed storage system, M small files in a file system; generating, by the first thread service, M pieces of metadata in the offline merging process; loading, by a second thread service of the distributed storage system, the M pieces of metadata into a metadata set; searching, by the second thread service, the metadata set for metadata of a first small file when the second thread service receives a first instruction; and performing, by the second thread service, the operation corresponding to the first instruction when the second thread service finds the metadata of the first small file in the metadata set.