Patent ID: 8621268

Claim:
A method for execution by a dispersed storage processing module, the method comprises: determining a write threshold based on at least one of: selecting a slicing pillar width as the write threshold when storage requirements indicate retrieval reliability preference over write availability; selecting a read threshold as the write threshold when the storage requirements indicate the write availability preference over the retrieval reliability; and selecting the write threshold to be between the slicing pillar width and the read threshold when the storage requirements indicate that the write availability preference is comparable to the retrieval reliability; sending a plurality of dispersed storage (DS) write commands to plurality of dispersed storage (DS) units for storing a plurality of encoded data slices; receiving, within a time period, acknowledgements from at least some of the plurality of DS units to produce received acknowledgements; determining whether a number of received acknowledgements compares favorably to the write threshold; and when the number of received acknowledgements does not compare favorably to the write threshold, changing at least one of the write threshold and at least one of the plurality of DS units.