Job delegation is the automatic load balancing of jobs among the various storage devices that are attached to the Backup Exec managed media servers. The job is created on the central administration server, but can be run on any managed media server.

When the storage devices are logically grouped in device pools, and as the storage devices become available, they process jobs that are delegated from the central administration server. For example, if a device pool contains two storage devices and one is busy processing a job, the central administration server automatically delegates another job to the idle storage device.

Jobs are automatically created and submitted to the central administration server's job queue after a policy is applied to a selection list. Queued jobs are processed in priority order. Depending on job parameters and system configuration, the central administration server then delegates jobs to available storage devices in a selected device pool.

Templates within a policy can be sent to either a device pool, a specific device, or to devices in a media server pool. Device pools can consist of devices that are attached to a single managed media server, or they can consist of devices from different managed media servers. The advantage of job delegation is realized when a template is sent to a drive pool that spans managed media servers. When multiple managed media servers and their devices are available to the central administration server for job delegation, the efficiency of Backup Exec is greatly improved because job processing does not have to wait for a specific device or managed media server to become available.