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What a load balancer does
A load balancer sits between clients and a group of destinations, often called targets or servers. Instead of sending every request to one destination, it directs requests or connections across the group. Targets may include virtual machines, containers, or IP addresses. AWS describes Elastic Load Balancing as distributing traffic across targets in one or more Availability Zones and adjusting capacity as traffic changes: AWS Elastic Load Balancing overview.
The goal is to spread work and route requests to available destinations. A load balancer is not, by itself, a guarantee of high availability: the targets, health checks, configuration, and the rest of the service architecture all affect whether an application remains available.
How health checks affect traffic
A load balancer can monitor registered targets and use health information when routing. In AWS Elastic Load Balancing, an unhealthy target stops receiving traffic; routing can resume when it becomes healthy again. See how Elastic Load Balancing works.
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This helps avoid routing requests to a destination that the configured checks identify as unhealthy. It cannot fix the target, guarantee that every failure is detected, or ensure that other parts of the application are functioning. The result depends on the health-check design and the targets available to take traffic.
Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing
Layer 4 and Layer 7 describe different levels of network traffic handling. The choice affects what a balancer can inspect and which routing decisions it can make.
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| Approach | Traffic and signals | Example from the sources |
|---|---|---|
| Layer 4 | Handles transport-level traffic such as TCP connections. It does not make routing decisions based on HTTP request details in the way an application-layer balancer can. | Cloudflare documents Layer 4 TCP load balancing. Cloudflare traffic policies |
| Layer 7 | Handles application traffic such as HTTP or HTTPS and can route using request information, including headers, URI, cookies, or data type. | Cloudflare documents HTTP/HTTPS load balancing; AWS Application Load Balancers are an AWS product category. Cloudflare traffic policies · AWS product overview · Cloudflare explanation of load balancing |
These are useful distinctions, not a universal product checklist. Providers package capabilities differently, so check the relevant service documentation for supported protocols, routing rules, health checks, and steering options.
Provider-specific types and reachability
AWS currently lists Application, Network, and Gateway Load Balancers as its load-balancer types and identifies Classic Load Balancers as previous generation. These are AWS product names, not a complete taxonomy that every provider uses. Cloudflare documents HTTP/HTTPS Layer 7, DNS-only, and TCP Layer 4 options; its categories likewise describe Cloudflare’s offerings rather than a universal standard. See AWS types and Cloudflare traffic policies.
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Reachability is another key choice. AWS distinguishes internet-facing load balancers, which have public IP addresses and route requests from internet clients, from internal load balancers, which have private IP addresses and serve clients with access to the VPC. The right arrangement depends on which clients should be able to reach the service; see AWS load-balancer architecture details.
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Compare options against the traffic and architecture you need, rather than treating one type as best in every case:
- Protocol and layer: Decide whether the service needs TCP handling, HTTP/HTTPS application routing, or another supported traffic type.
- Routing signals: Check whether routing should use connection information, HTTP request details, or provider-specific steering policies.
- Health behavior: Review what is checked, how unhealthy targets are treated, and what happens when too few healthy targets remain.
- Network exposure: Determine whether the balancer should be internet-facing or privately reachable by clients inside the network.
- Operational model: Confirm how the provider configures targets, health checks, scaling, and traffic policies for the specific product.
A load balancer is useful when traffic needs to be directed across multiple destinations or away from targets that fail health checks. Its benefits depend on having suitable targets and a configuration that matches the application; adding the component alone does not make a service failure-proof.
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