A method includes receiving an DSN access request, identifying an DSN address of the DSN access request, identifying one or more DS processing units affiliated with the DSN address. The method further includes selecting a DS processing unit of the one or more DS processing units based on DS processing attributes, determining if the selected DS processing unit is associated with a favorable availability level and, when it is determined that a favorable availability level does not exist, deterministically selecting another of the one or more DS processing units and, when it is determined that a favorable availability level does exist, forwarding the DSN access request to the selected DS processing unit to be processed for storage in one or more DSN storage units.