diff --git a/doc/source/admin/guides/operator-maintenance.rst b/doc/source/admin/guides/operator-maintenance.rst
index c4815a1942..f775f4d3e9 100644
--- a/doc/source/admin/guides/operator-maintenance.rst
+++ b/doc/source/admin/guides/operator-maintenance.rst
@@ -185,6 +185,10 @@ the Octavia services (except octavia-api).
 Rotating spare Amphorae
 -----------------------
 
+.. warning::
+
+    Spares pool support is deprecated as of the Victoria release.
+
 If the spare pool is enabled in Octavia, spare amphorae must be rotated
 first, so a new load balancer will use the new amphora image from a newly
 spawned spare amphora.
diff --git a/doc/source/contributor/guides/dev-quick-start.rst b/doc/source/contributor/guides/dev-quick-start.rst
index fd8bf2c404..27da5ed0ce 100644
--- a/doc/source/contributor/guides/dev-quick-start.rst
+++ b/doc/source/contributor/guides/dev-quick-start.rst
@@ -376,6 +376,11 @@ You must:
 
 Spares pool considerations
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+.. warning::
+
+    Spares pool support is deprecated as of the Victoria release.
+
 One configuration directive deserves some extra consideration in this document:
 
 Depending on the specifics of your production environment, you may decide to
diff --git a/etc/octavia.conf b/etc/octavia.conf
index 1eb862fbf7..611cd96990 100644
--- a/etc/octavia.conf
+++ b/etc/octavia.conf
@@ -420,6 +420,8 @@
 # enable_proxy_headers_parsing = False
 
 [house_keeping]
+
+# Note: Spares pools support is deprecated as of the Victoria release.
 # Interval in seconds to initiate spare amphora checks
 # spare_check_interval = 30
 # spare_amphora_pool_size = 0
diff --git a/octavia/common/config.py b/octavia/common/config.py
index a2a05f63db..14512249a7 100644
--- a/octavia/common/config.py
+++ b/octavia/common/config.py
@@ -594,9 +594,17 @@ certificate_opts = [
 
 house_keeping_opts = [
     cfg.IntOpt('spare_check_interval',
+               deprecated_for_removal=True,
+               deprecated_since='Victoria',
+               deprecated_reason='Spares Pool support will be removed in the '
+                                 'X release.',
                default=30,
                help=_('Spare check interval in seconds')),
     cfg.IntOpt('spare_amphora_pool_size',
+               deprecated_for_removal=True,
+               deprecated_since='Victoria',
+               deprecated_reason='Spares Pool support will be removed in the '
+                                 'X release.',
                default=0,
                help=_('Number of spare amphorae')),
     cfg.IntOpt('cleanup_interval',
diff --git a/releasenotes/notes/deprecating-spares-pool-9f92787ec9809a78.yaml b/releasenotes/notes/deprecating-spares-pool-9f92787ec9809a78.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4444450ccc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releasenotes/notes/deprecating-spares-pool-9f92787ec9809a78.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+deprecations:
+  - |
+    Spares pool support is deprecated, pending removal in the X release. Use of
+    the spares pool was originally recommended to increase provisioning speed,
+    but since Nova's server groups do not support adding existing VMs, Octavia
+    cannot support use of the spares pool with the Active-Standby topology.
+    Since this is our recommended topology for production deployments, and
+    speed is less essential in development/testing environments (the only place
+    we could recommend the use of Single topology), the overhead of maintaining
+    spares pool support exceeds its theoretical usefulness.