1. A data storage system, comprising: a plurality of storage drives each comprising a Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) interface, and configured to store data and retrieve the data stored on associated storage media responsive to storage operations; a plurality of processing modules each comprising one or more processors, where a first processor is configured to receive at least a portion of the storage operations and transfer the portion of the storage operations for delivery to associated ones of the plurality of storage drives over a PCIe interface; a control processor configured to initialize the plurality of storage drives for use on the PCIe interfaces by the processors on the processing modules, assign each of the plurality of storage drives an associated unique identifier using at least a sideband communication link distinct from the PCIe interfaces, wherein the sideband communication link communicatively couples the control processor and the ones of the plurality of storage drives, and report the associated unique identifiers to the processing modules over at least an associated interface; and a monitoring system configured to identify when the first processor fails, and responsively instruct a second processor to handle further storage operations directed to storage drives associated with the first processor.