Migrating Data Between Storage Tiers in a Dispersed Storage Network

A computing device for a storage network comprises:

• one or more network interfaces;
• memory including operational instructions;
• and
• a processing module operably coupled to the memory and the one or more network interfaces, the processing module configured to execute the operational instructions to:
• select a plurality of storage network memory elements for utilization analysis, wherein the plurality of memory elements are configured to store one or more data objects, wherein a data object is dispersed error encoded to produce one or more sets of encoded data slices;
• determine, based on the utilization analysis, a relative utilization for each memory element of the plurality of storage network memory elements;
• in response to the relative utilization for each memory element, determine whether to migrate one or more encoded data slices of the one or more sets of encoded data slices from a first memory element of the plurality of storage network memory elements to a second memory element of the plurality of storage network memory elements;
• in response to a determination to migrate one or more encoded data slices from the first memory element to the second memory element, provide a monitoring structure to track migration of the one or more encoded data slices;
• migrate the one or more encoded data slices from the first memory element to the second memory element;
• and
• update metadata associated with the one or more encoded data slices.

A system for managing data storage in a storage network comprises:

• one or more modules of one or more processing devices;
• and
• a plurality of storage network memory elements configured to store one or more data objects, wherein a data object is dispersed error encoded to produce one or more sets of encoded data slices, wherein the one or more modules of one or more processing devices are adapted to:
• select a subset of the plurality of storage network memory elements for utilization analysis;
• determine, based on the utilization analysis, a relative utilization for each storage network memory element of the subset of storage network memory elements;
• in response to the relative utilization for each memory element, determine whether to migrate one or more encoded data slices of the one or more sets of encoded data slices from a first memory element of the subset of memory elements to a second memory element of the subset of memory elements;
• in response to a determination to migrate one or more encoded data slices from the first memory element to the second memory element, migrate the one or more encoded data slices from the first memory element to the second memory element;
• monitor the migration of the one or more encoded data slices;
• and
• update metadata associated with the one or more encoded data slices.