Techniques are described herein for storing instances of data among nodes of a distributed store based on hierarchical scale unit values. Hierarchical scale unit values are assigned to the respective nodes of the distributed store. A first instance (e.g., a primary instance) of a data module is stored in a first node having a first hierarchical scale unit value. A primary instance of the data module with respect to a data operation is an instance of the data module at which the data operation with respect to the data module is initiated or initially directed. A second instance (e.g., a primary or secondary instance) of the data module is stored in a second node having a second hierarchical scale unit value based on a magnitude of a difference between the first hierarchical scale unit value and the second hierarchical scale unit value. A secondary instance is essentially a “back-up” instance.