Computer system and method for managing storage requests in a distributed storage system uses congestion signals associated with storage requests, which are generated based on congestion at local storage of the computer system that supports a virtual storage area network. The storage requests are differentiated between a first class of storage requests and at least one other class of storage requests. For a storage request of the first class of storage requests, an actual ratio of a current average bandwidth of the first class of storage requests to a current average bandwidth of a second class of storage requests is calculated and compared with an expected ratio. The congestion signal associated with the storage request is then adjusted and transmitted to at least one source of storage requests for storage request fairness control.