Load Balancing

Definition
Having a pool of identical servers, pick on of them to do the task.
Load balancing architecture diagram

How does it work?

To scale horizontally one can add more servers that do the same job. An extra server (load balancer) is needed to assign an incoming task to one of them.

Examples

  • A load balancer server

When should you use it?

  • Use it when to load can get too high for a single machine, given that the process can be copied onto other machines.

Problems

  • Extra infrastructure may need to be set up for load balancing.

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