lbmethod

lbmethod is a term used in load balancing software to designate the algorithm that selects which backend server will handle each incoming request. It essentially determines how traffic is distributed across a pool of servers, and selecting an appropriate method can affect performance, fairness, and session behavior.

Common categories of lbmethod include round robin, least connections, weighted variants, and hashing-based strategies. Round robin cycles through available servers to spread requests evenly, while least connections routes each new request to the server with the fewest active connections. Weighted methods bias distribution toward higher-capacity servers, and hashing-based approaches map requests to specific backends based on attributes such as client or destination information. Hash-based methods can provide session affinity, ensuring that a given client or session tends to be served by the same backend.

In many systems, lbmethod is a configurable parameter on virtual servers or services that use load balancing. The chosen method influences how new connections are assigned and can interact with session persistence, cache locality, and back-end capacity planning. Administrators typically select lbmethod based on traffic patterns, backend heterogeneity, and requirements for sticky sessions or failover behavior. Changes to the method may require monitoring and testing to confirm that overall load distribution remains stable and meets performance goals.

See also: load balancing, Linux Virtual Server (LVS), ipvsadm, HAProxy, Nginx.