Patent ID: 8843447

Claim:
A system comprising: a plurality of storage zones, each storage zone comprising a plurality of nodes wherein each node comprises a plurality of storage devices and a controller, the controller including a processor and memory a first node of a plurality of nodes included in a first zone of the plurality of zones, the first node having instructions stored thereon which when executed cause a first processor included in a first controller in the first node to perform actions including: receiving a storage request from a client of the system to store a data item partitioning the data item into a plurality of data objects, each object including a storage policy identifier and a data portion creating a plurality of parity objects for the data item creating reassembly instructions for the data item storing groups of some of the data objects and groups of some of the parity objects and the reassembly instructions among the nodes included in the storage zones according to a predetermined set of criteria, the storing including evaluating a latency for each storage zone to which the data item is to be stored performing the storing in lowest latency order evaluating each storage zone to determine whether the storage zone is accessible when one of the storage zones is not accessible, creating a virtual zone in the first zone to store the data objects, parity objects and reassembly instructions intended for the inaccessible storage zone checking whether the storage zone corresponding to the virtual zone is accessible when the storage zone corresponding to the virtual zone remains inaccessible, waiting a system defined amount of time repeating the checking and the waiting until the storage zone corresponding to the virtual zone becomes accessible when the storage zone corresponding to the virtual zone is accessible moving the data objects, parity objects and reassembly instructions from the virtual zone to the intended storage zone.