Load Balancing Basics

Server load balancing is an advanced technique (using load balancing hardware or programs) designed to distribute the work load to optimize IP-based queries from the Internet or Intranet throughout a server farm.

The method most commonly used is server clusters, especially high availability clusters.

After the initial set-up, the administrator adapts these methods or scheduling rules to your specific requirements. To simplify, server load balancing is like taking several individual servers and making them appear as one giant server. This is called clustering. In the most extreme cases, you can even have several clusters of servers and load balance across these separate clusters. You might see this on a high-demand site like YouTube.

Supported Server Protocols

  • The server load balancer supports:
  • Most UDP and TCP/IP based protocols
  • DNS
  • HTTP
  • HTTPS (SSL)
  • SMTP
  • POP
  • IMAP
  • NNTP
  • FTP

How server load balancing can benefit your business

There are many reasons a company benefits by upgrading to a load-balanced solution, but the most common are scalability, high availability, and predictability. Consider a company with a website that is accessed thousands of times a day, hosted on a dedicated server. Regardless of their company's size, IT managers need to be confident:

  • The site can handle sudden and/or gradual increases in traffic;
  • The site is available all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year;
  • The site gives a consistent experience on each visit.

Applications Supported

The load balancer also supports popular applications such as:

  • Streaming Media
  • Active Server Pages (ASP)
  • SQL
  • UDP/IP-based protocols that include DNS, WAP, RADIUS, and others.

Different Methods for Server Load Balancing

There are a few methods for server load balancing and they are listed below.
NOTE: The best method for your business depends on your application and the types of servers that you have running.

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