Optimized selection of participants in distributed data rebuild/verification

A method of selecting distributed storage units to verify an encoded data slice, the method includes:

• determining an encoded data slice to verify;
• determining a storage set of distributed storage units associated with the encoded data slice to verify;
• determining an historical performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units;
• determining an estimated performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units;
• selecting at least a decode threshold number of distributed storage units of the storage set of distributed storage units to produce selected distributed storage units;
• determining an encoded data slice partial aggregation scheme for the selected distributed storage units;
• sending encoded data slice partial request messages to the selected distributed storage units;
• and
• receiving encoded data slice partial response messages and extracting encoded data slice partials from the encoded data slice partial response messages to verify the encoded data slice.

A distributed storage network (DSN) comprises:

• a first computing device with processing circuitry configured to execute operational instructions to:
• determine an encoded data slice to rebuild;
• determine a storage set of distributed storage units associated with the encoded data slice to rebuild;
• determine an historical performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units;
• determine an estimated performance level of each distributed storage unit of the storage set of distributed storage units;
• select at least a decode threshold number of distributed storage units of the storage set of distributed storage units to produce selected distributed storage units;
• determine an encoded data slice partial aggregation scheme for the selected distributed storage units;
• send encoded data slice partial request messages to the selected distributed storage units;
• and
• receive encoded data slice partial response messages and extracting encoded data slice partials from the encoded data slice partial response messages to rebuild the encoded data slice.