# Backup Pool Summary

**Purpose:** Every backup pool with its used, free, and allocated capacity and a percentage-used bar. A flat, sortable answer to which pool is closest to full, across every backup appliance in one grid.

![Backup Pool Summary grid listing pool used, free, allocated and percent used per backup pool, with array names redacted](https://visualoneintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/voi-docs-backup-pool-summary.png)

## When to use it

- Find the backup pools approaching capacity
- Compare pool utilization across several backup appliances at once
- Check whether immutable and locked pools have room for their retention
- Identify pools provisioned and never used

## Key areas and metrics

| Column | What it tells you |
| --- | --- |
| Collection Date | The snapshot the row belongs to |
| Pool | The pool name as configured on the appliance |
| Array Name | Which backup device the pool lives on |
| Pool Used | Capacity holding data |
| Free | Capacity remaining |
| Allocated | Total capacity assigned to the pool |
| % Used | Utilization, rendered as a proportional data bar |

Pool names carry meaning worth reading rather than skipping. Conventions typically encode the protection behaviour: a lock or object-lock pool is immutable storage, a dedup pool is deduplicated, a cloud or Azure pool is a tiered target, and a retention figure in the name indicates the lock period.

## Immutable pools deserve their own read

Pools holding immutable copies cannot have data deleted from them before the lock expires. That means a conventional pool nearing capacity can be relieved by expiring old data, and an immutable pool cannot. The only remedies are adding capacity or waiting out the retention.

So a locked pool at high utilization is a materially more urgent finding than a standard pool at the same percentage, and the usual response of reclaiming space is unavailable. Identify which of your pools are immutable and watch those thresholds harder.

## Common actions

- **Sort by % Used descending.** The data bars make the top of the list readable at a glance.
- **Group by Array Name** to see whether pressure is concentrated on one appliance, which changes the fix from retention tuning to hardware.
- **Look for pools at zero used with non-zero allocated.** Those are provisioned and idle, and often the cheapest capacity to redeploy.
- **Read allocated against free.** A pool with little allocated capacity will hit a threshold quickly regardless of how healthy the percentage looks today.

## Tips

> Percentage alone is misleading on small pools. A pool at 69% with a few gibibytes allocated is a lab or staging pool, not an estate risk. Sort by free capacity as well as by percentage before setting priorities.

## Related screens

[Backup Pool Trend](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/backup-pool-trend/) shows how a single pool got to its current position. [Backup Summary Trend](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/backup-summary-trend/) is the estate-wide total. [Backup Status](https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/backup-status/) carries the retention settings driving pool consumption.

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Source: https://visualoneintelligence.com/docs/backup-pool-summary/