Load balancing distributes network traffic or workloads across multiple servers to prevent overload on any single server. These 6 algorithms define how that distribution happens:
🔷 Round Robin (RR)
▪️ Cycles through servers sequentially.
▪️ Best for non-session-persistent workloads.
▪️ Simple but assumes equal server capacity, which can cause imbalance.
🔷 Random
▪️ Distributes traffic randomly across servers.
▪️Works well in test environments or when balancing precision isn’t critical.
▪️Over time, traffic balances statistically.
🔷 Least Connections (LC)
▪️Directs requests to the server with the fewest active connections.
▪️Great for applications with variable session lengths.
▪️Requires real-time monitoring for efficiency.
🔷 Weighted Round Robin (WRR)
▪️Extends Round Robin by assigning weights to servers.
▪️Distributes more requests to higher-capacity servers.
▪️Useful when servers have different processing power.
🔷 IP Hash
▪️Maps requests to servers based on client IP.
▪️Ensures session persistence without cookies.
▪️May cause imbalance if some IPs dominate traffic.
Least Response Time (LRT)
▪️Sends traffic to the server with the lowest response time.
▪️Best for latency-sensitive applications.
▪️Requires constant performance monitoring.
⚠️ Best Practices for Implementation
▪️Real-time monitoring: Ensure server health and performance tracking.
▪️Failover strategies: Plan for seamless recovery during failures.
▪️Dynamic adjustments: Continuously optimize weights and thresholds.
▪️Session persistence: Handle edge cases like shared NAT IPs
