About setting the preprocess interval for auto-discovery
The preprocess interval applies only to auto-discovery mode and specifies how often preprocessing occurs. When a schedule is due and NetBackup uses auto-discovery, NetBackup checks whether the previous preprocessing session has occurred within the preprocess interval.
NetBackup performs one of the following actions:
If the preprocessing session occurs within the preprocess interval, NetBackup does not run preprocessing on the client.
If the preprocessing session did not occur within the preprocess interval, NetBackup preprocesses the client and makes required changes to the streams.
If necessary, you can change the interval by using the bpconfig command. The default is 4 hours and is a good value for most of the sites that run daily backups.
If the interval is too long or too short, the following problems can occur:
Interval is too long. | Can cause missed backups because new streams are not added early enough. For example, assume that the preprocess interval is set to 4 hours and a schedule has a frequency of less than 4 hours. A new stream can be omitted from the next backup because the preprocessing interval has not expired when the backup is due. |
Interval is too short. | Can cause preprocessing to occur often enough to increase scheduling time to an unacceptable level. A short interval is most likely to be a problem when the server must contact a large number of clients for preprocessing. |
Use the following form of the bpconfig command to change the interval:
On Windows:
install_path\NetBackup\bin\admincmd\bpconfig [-prep hours]
On UNIX:
/usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpconfig [-prep hours]
For more information on the bpconfig command, see the NetBackup Commands Reference Guide.