Patent ID: 8688949

Claim:
A method for execution by a dispersed storage (DS) unit, the method comprises: determining an imbalance between inode memory utilization of an inode memory and data storage memory utilization of a data storage memory, wherein the data storage memory stores data objects in a data object section and stores data blocks in a data block section, and wherein the inode memory stores object mapping information that associates object directory information of the data objects with object storage location information of the data objects and stores block mapping information that associates block directory information of the data objects with block storage location information of the data blocks; when the imbalance between the inode memory utilization and the data storage memory utilization compares unfavorably to an imbalance threshold, determining whether the inode memory utilization is out of balance with respect to the data storage memory utilization or whether the data storage memory utilization is out of balance with respect to the inode memory utilization; and when the inode memory utilization is out of balance with respect to the data storage memory utilization: transferring a set of data objects from the data object section to the data block section; and transferring object mapping information of the set of data objects into block mapping information for the set of data objects.