Patent ID: 8819781

Claim:
A method of managing devices in a dispersed data storage network, the method comprises: receiving a device approval request from a slice server; determining whether the device approval request is to add the slice server to a dispersed data storage network (DDSN) or is to update the slice server in a device list based on replacement of a failed hard drive; when the device approval request is to add the slice server to the DDSN: initiating an approval process regarding the slice server; when the slice server is approved, updating the device list to include the slice server, wherein the slice server is one of a set of slice servers that stores data slices of an encoded data segment, wherein “m” of “n” of the stored data slices are needed to reconstruct a data segment; and when the device approval request to update the slice server in the device list based on replacement of a failed hard drive, updating the device list.