Network Load Balancing (
NLB) is a
clustering
technology offered by
Microsoft as part of all
Windows 2000 Server and Windows
Server 2003 family
operating systems. NLB uses a distributed
algorithm to load
balance
network traffic across a number of hosts, helping to enhance the
scalability and availability of mission critical,
IP-based services, such as
Web,
Virtual Private Networking, streaming media, terminal
services,
proxy and so on.
It also provides high availability by detecting host failures and automatically
redistributing traffic to operational hosts.
