A method and system for managing a data access transaction within a hierarchical data storage system. In accordance with the method of the present invention, a data access request is delivered from a source device to multiple data storage devices within the hierarchical data storage system. The data access request includes a source path tag and a target address. At least one device identification tag is added to the source path tag, wherein the at least one device identification tag uniquely identifies a data storage device within each level of the hierarchical data storage system traversed by the data access request such that the data access transaction can be processed in accordance with source path information that is incrementally encoded within the data access request as the data access request traverses the hierarchical data storage system.