Spreading load for highly popular content with asynchronous counted writes

1. A method for execution by one or more processing modules of one or more computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the method comprises:

receiving a store data object request including a data object for storage and an instance count N from a requesting entity;

initiating storage of N instances of the data object in a storage set;

issuing a status response to the requesting entity when detecting that M instances have been successfully stored; and

sending a selected instance i of the instance count N of instances of the data object to the requesting entity when the selected instance i is available.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the initiating storage of N instances includes: dispersed storage error encoding the data object to produce sets of encoded data slices, and for each instance, generating one or more unique sets of slice names, replicating sets of encoded data slices to produce N replicated sets of encoded data slices, and sequentially storing each of the replicated sets of encoded data slices from instance 1 to instance N.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the issuing a status response includes: interpreting received write responses to identify a successfully stored instance, generating and sending the status response when a number of successfully stored instances is at least the same as an instance threshold number.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprises issuing the status response when receiving a status request from the requesting entity.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the status response includes a number M<=N indicating a total number of instances that have been stored thus far.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprises, if a request ID of the requesting entity is no longer known, returning a response indicating that the request ID is unknown.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the request ID is unknown because it is any of: incorrect or the storage completed.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the sending an instance i of the data object to the requesting entity includes: receiving a read instance request, determining whether the instance i has been successfully written, and when successfully written, recovering the instance i and sending the selected instance i to the requesting entity.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the recovering includes: retrieving at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices for each of a plurality of sets of encoded data slices associated with the instance i, and for each set, dispersed storage error decoding the retrieved at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices to reproduce a data segment.

10. A computing device of a group of computing devices of a dispersed storage network (DSN), the computing device comprises:

an interface;

a local memory; and

a processing module operably coupled to the interface and the local memory, wherein the processing module functions to:

receive a store data object request including a data object for storage and an instance count N from a requesting entity;

initiate storage of N instances of the data object in a storage set;

issue a status response to the requesting entity when detecting that M instances have been successfully stored; and

send a selected instance i of the instance count N of instances of the data object to the requesting entity when the selected instance i is available.

11. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the initiating storage of N instances includes: dispersed storage error encoding the data object to produce sets of encoded data slices, and for each instance, generating one or more unique sets of slice names, replicating sets of encoded data slices to produce N replicated sets of encoded data slices, and sequentially storing each of the replicated sets of encoded data slices from instance 1 to instance N.

12. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the issuing a status response includes: interpreting received write responses to identify a successfully stored instance, generating and sending the status response when a number of successfully stored instances is at least the same as an instance threshold number.

13. The computing device of claim 10 further comprises the processing module functioning to issue the status response when receiving a status request from the requesting entity.

14. The computing device of claim 13 wherein the status response includes a number M<=N indicating a total number of instances that have been stored thus far.

15. The computing device of claim 13 further comprises, if a request ID of the requesting entity is no longer known, returning a response indicating that the request ID is unknown.

16. The computing device of claim 15 wherein the request ID is unknown because it is any of: incorrect or the storage completed.

17. The computing device of claim 10 , wherein the sending an instance i of the data object to the requesting entity includes: receiving a read instance request, determining whether the instance i has been successfully written, and when successfully written, recovering the instance i and sending the selected instance i to the requesting entity.

18. The computing device of claim 17 , wherein the recovering includes: retrieving at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices for each of a plurality of sets of encoded data slices associated with the instance i, and for each set, dispersed storage error decoding the retrieved at least a decode threshold number of encoded data slices to reproduce a data segment.