Patent ID: 8886711

Claim:
A method for execution by a computer, the method comprises: receiving an access request packet regarding a set of data slices, wherein a file object is information dispersal algorithm (IDA) encoded to produce the set of data slices and wherein the set of data slices are stored in slice servers of a dispersed data storage network (DDSN); when the access request packet is regarding reading the file object from the DDSN: accessing a root directory of a file system based on the access request packet to identify next directory metadata of a next directory; when the next directory is not cached: issuing, based on the next directory metadata, commands to one or more of the slice servers to retrieve IDA encoded slices of the next directory; and decoding the IDA encoded slices of the next directory to recover the next directory; when the next directory is the home directory for the set of data slices, accessing file object metadata regarding the set of data slices from the next directory; issuing, based on the file object metadata, a set of commands to the slice servers regarding the set of data slices; and decoding at least a threshold number of data slices of the set of data slices to recover the file object.