1. A method of managing devices in a dispersed data storage network, the method comprises: receiving a device approval request from a slice server, wherein the slice server is one of a set of slice servers that stores data slices of an encoded data segment, wherein “m” of “n” of the stored data slices are needed to reconstruct a data segment; determining whether the device approval request is to add the slice server to a dispersed data storage network (DDSN); when the device approval request is to add the slice server to the DDSN: initiating an approval process regarding the slice server; and subsequent to when the slice server is approved: updating a device list to include the slice server; determining that the device approval request includes an update of hardware characteristics of the slice server including storage capacity of the slice server, wherein the storage capacity includes one or more of: a number of hard drives, an amount of total storage, or an amount of memory; updating a device list to include the hardware characteristics; receiving, by the set of slice servers, a read request for the encoded data segment; and sending, by the slice server in response to the read request, a read response that includes one of the n stored data slices.