Disconnected ingest in a distributed storage system

A data storage system comprising:

• a plurality of storage zones coupled to a network, each storage zone comprising a plurality of nodes wherein each node comprises a plurality of storage devices, a server coupled to the network, the server including a processor, memory and local storage, the local storage having instructions stored thereon which when executed cause the server to perform actions including:
• receiving a storage request from a client of the data storage system to store a data item, the storage request including a data item reference and a specified storage policy identifier;
• evaluating whether storage zones implicated by the specified storage policy identifier are available;
• when all the storage zones in the specified storage policy corresponding to the specified storage policy identifier are not available, creating a fallback storage policy for the data item specifying an available alternative storage zone;
• storing the data item as an object on storage devices in storage zones according to the fallback storage policy;
• creating an entry for the object in an object database including identifiers for both the specified storage policy and the fallback storage policy;
• providing the object identifier for the object to the client.