Methods, computing systems and computer program products implement embodiments of the present invention that include assigning multiple storage resources to a reserve pool, and defining one or more storage policy parameters that include allocation policies and deallocation policy parameters. A software defined storage (SDS) controller is initialized by allocating, from the reserve pool, one or more of the storage resources to the SDS controller, and a current state of the SDS controller is monitored. In a first embodiment, upon detecting that the state of the SDS controller meets a given allocation policy parameter, an additional storage resource from the reserve pool is allocated from the reserve pool to the SDS controller. In a second embodiment, upon detecting that the state of the SDS controller meets a given deallocation policy parameter, a given the SDS controller is deallocated from the SDS controller and released back to the storage pool.