A method begins by a processing module generating metadata for a data object. The method continues by a first disperse storage error encoding the metadata to produce a set of metadata slices. The method continues by partitioning the data to produce a plurality of data segments. The method continues by a second disperse storage error encoding the plurality of data segments to produce a plurality of sets of encoded data slices. The method continues by applying a distributed agreement protocol function to a data object identifier for the data object to produce ranked scoring information with regards to a plurality of storage sets. The method continues by selecting a storage set of the plurality of storage sets based on the ranked scoring information. The method continues by facilitating storage of the set of metadata slices and the plurality of sets of encoded data slices in the selected storage set.