DAST

Scanning pools for self-hosted instances of Burp Suite DAST

• Last updated: October 30, 2025

• Read time: 2 Minutes

You can use scanning pools to manage your scanning machines. Scanning pools stop the problem of a scan failing because the relevant machine is busy elsewhere, or an assigned machine being unable to access a restricted site for a scan.

Some example uses for scanning pools are:

• Keeping the scanning machines and sites for one geographic area together.

• Cordoning off the resources of one team.

• Scanning sites with restricted access.

• Reserving scanning machines for specific purposes, such as a CI/CD pipeline or ad-hoc scanning.

Features of scanning pools

Each scanning machine and site is assigned to a pool. The important features of scanning pools are:

• Each scanning machine must belong to a scanning pool.

• Each site to be scanned must belong to a scanning pool.

• Only scanning machines in the same pool as a site can scan that site.

Creating a new scanning pool

To create a new scanning pool:

1. From the settings menu , select Scanning resources.

2. Under Scanning machines, click Manage scanning machines.

3. Click on the Scanning pools tab.

4. Click Create pool.

5. Enter a name and description for the new scanning pool.

6. Assign the relevant scanning machines and sites to the new pool.

7. Click Save.

Reassigning a scanning machine to a different pool

To reassign an existing scanning machine to a different pool, do the following:

1. From the settings menu , select Scanning resources.

2. Under Scanning machines, click Manage scanning machines.

3. Make sure you are on the Scanning machines tab.

4. In the list of scanning machines, select the Scanning pool drop-down menu for the scanning machine you want to reassign, and click on the name of the scanning pool to place it in that pool.

Reassigning a site to a different pool

To reassign an existing site to a different scanning pool, do the following:

1. Click on the Sites tab.

2. Select the relevant site.

3. Click on the Details tab.

4. Click Edit.

5. Under Scan settings, go to the Scanning pool tab.

6. Click on the Scanning pool drop-down and select the scanning machine pool you want the site to move to.

7. Click Save.