In a network of a plurality of machines and a server, the machines have self-organized into a linearly ordered sequence in accordance with a predefined order of their respective machine identifiers. The linearly ordered sequence includes one or more local segments each include a first machine followed by a sequence of second machines. A query regarding management information of a local segment is injected into the network at the first machine of the local segment. The query is forwarded along the local segment, and each machine in the local segment responds to the query by adding its own local information to any answers already accumulated in the payload of the query. A second machine in the local segment sends a report message containing aggregated management information that has been collected in the payload of the query to the server.