Normally, every domain is assigned to a web server. Data from that server is requested when an internet user initiates access to a website by entering a URL into the browser search bar. If the server is overloaded, users receive error reports in the form of a HTTP status code revealing that the website cannot be displayed. This is where load balancing comes into play. Located upstream in the server hierarchy, load balancers make it possible for domains to be allocated to multiple servers without encountering address-related problems. Load balancers are addressed under their public domains.
Subordinate servers, or downstream servers, are designated as www1, www2, www3, etc. This practice allows load balancing to make a website available under the same URL, although these are distributed among different servers. As a result, the chances of server overload are diminished by directing outside requests to different physical computers within a given cluster. And due to the complex algorithms responsible for such distributions, visitors remain mostly unaware of the distribution of their requests.
Load balancing can also play a role aside from web servers: even for computers with multiple processors. In cases like these, the load balancer ensures that the requirements are evenly distributed across the various processors in order to generate more computing power.