Client load balancing helps distribute new connections in your environment so that no one server is overwhelmed with connection requests. When client load balancing is enabled, the order in which primary and alternate database servers are tried is random. For example, suppose that client load balancing is enabled as shown in the following illustration:
First, Database Server B is tried (1). Then, Database Server C may be tried (2), followed by a connection attempt to Database Server A (3). In contrast, if client load balancing were not enabled in this scenario, each database server would be tried in sequential order, primary server first, then each alternate server based on its entry order in the alternate servers list.
Client load balancing is controlled by the Load Balancing connection option. For details on configuring client load balancing, see the appropriate driver chapter in this book.
