In a CASO environment, you can group multiple managed media servers together into media server pools. If you create a pool of managed media servers, all of the device pools on those managed media servers are available for job delegation. If there are multiple devices attached to each of the managed media servers in the media server pool, you can create multiple, smaller device pools that are made up of fewer storage devices. Use this method to send some jobs to a specific device pool in the media server pool, and send other jobs to a different device pool in the same media server pool.

Media server pools can contain multiple managed media servers or just one managed media server. A managed media server can belong to more than one media server pool. The central administration server can be used as a managed media server and can be included in the media server pool.

Any managed media server or media server in a pool must be able to access the destination device for the backup. If there is no intersection between the device and the managed media server or media server pools, the job does not run. The Job Monitor displays the following status: Ready; No media server available in media server pool.

This graphic shows a media server pool.