What is the purpose of a "load balancer" in a network?
2024
What is the purpose of a "load balancer" in a network?
- A.
To improve network speed
- B.
To prevent unauthorized access to a network
- C.
To distribute network traffic across multiple servers
- D.
To resolve domain names to IP addresses
Attempted by 3 students.
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Correct answer: C
Answer: To distribute network traffic across multiple servers
Explanation: A load balancer spreads incoming requests across multiple backend servers so no single server becomes a bottleneck, improving availability and reliability.
Primary functions: distribute traffic, perform health checks, and route requests to healthy servers.
Common modes: Layer 4 (transport) balancing and Layer 7 (application) balancing; can also handle SSL termination and session persistence (sticky sessions).
Typical algorithms: round-robin, least-connections, IP-hash, etc.
Key benefits: improved availability and fault tolerance, better resource utilization, and maintained performance during peak loads.