While most of the suggestions in this section are oriented toward overcoming specific obstacles, the probing feature can help in many different ways on difficult models. Probing is a technique that looks at the logical implications of fixing each binary variable to 0 or 1. It is performed after preprocessing and before the solution of the root relaxation. Probing can be expensive, so this parameter should be used selectively. On models that are in some sense easy, the extra time spent probing may not reduce the overall time enough to be worthwhile. On difficult models, probing may incur very large runtime costs at the beginning and yet pay off with shorter overall runtime. When you are tuning performance, it is usually because the model is difficult, and then probing is worth trying.

At the Probe parameter's default setting of 0, ILOG CPLEX will automatically determine the appropriate level of probing. Setting the Probe parameter to 1, 2, or 3, results in increasing levels of probing to be performed beyond the default level of probing. A setting of -1 results in no probing being performed.

To activate probing::