Unified Load Balancer Configuration and Administration Guide, Release 2026.02

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Unified Load Balancer traffic distribution

Overview

Provides an overview of how the Unified Load Balancer (ULB) manages traffic distribution across worker nodes and backend pods to ensure network reliability.

The Unified Load Balancer (ULB) is a Cisco proprietary network function that distributes incoming network traffic equally across all worker nodes. It ensures high availability and reliability across network infrastructures by maintaining consistent service IP addresses for ingress and egress traffic.

Key benefits

  • Traffic management: Prevents bottlenecks by balancing traffic across multiple servers.

  • Scalability: Supports horizontal scaling to handle increased traffic loads.

  • Performance: Reduces latency through Direct Server Response (DSR).