The two load balancing methods that consider all connections between the BIG-IP and each backend node
- not just connections to a specific pool member - are Least Connections (node) and Weighted Least Connections (node) .
The critical distinction here lies in the node-level scope of evaluation. A node represents the backend server ' s IP address, regardless of how many services or ports it may be serving. Therefore:
* Least Connections (node) directs new connections to the node with the fewest total active connections across all services on that server, providing a holistic connection-count perspective.
* Weighted Least Connections (node) operates identically but factors in an administrator-defined ratio weight, allowing servers with greater capacity to proportionally absorb more connections while still evaluating total node-level connection counts.
By contrast:
* Ratio (member) distributes traffic based on a static weight ratio and does not dynamically evaluate current connection counts.
* Round Robin distributes traffic sequentially in rotation, completely ignoring current connection states on any node or member.
The node-based methods are particularly valuable in environments where a single backend server hosts multiple pool members across different ports, ensuring the server ' s overall load - not just per-service load
- governs balancing decisions.
Reference: BIG-IP Administration - Data Plane Configuration, Module: Load Balancing Methods - Member vs. Node Scope.