How load balancers route requests

Load balancers forward data packets in the same manner as Network Address Translation (NAT) devices. The packets are forwarded at the TCP level with modified address information to the target system.

To distribute client requests across each group of BMC Remedy AR System servers, the load balancer can use various scheduling policies. The following two policies are the most common:

• Round Robin — This policy directs client requests to each BMC Remedy AR System server, one at a time. Successive requests are routed to the next BMC Remedy AR System server, then the next, and this process is repeated consecutively.
• Least Connections — This policy directs client requests to the BMC Remedy AR System server that has the fewest connections.

For better throughput, most load balancers offer multiple network ports. This method avoids collisions between the incoming and outgoing routed network traffic. 

The load balancer also offers clients the ability to stick to one target system. This means that all requests from a single client are routed to the same system.