The BigIP F5 LTM supports various load balancing methods.

These methods are categorized as either

Static or Dynamic. Dynamic load balancing methods are considered balancing methods that take the
server performance into consideration.
This article also explains how the BigIP F5 LTM can balance traffic outside of the fore-mentioned Static
and Dynamic balancing methods.

Static

Round Robin - Evenly distributes requests to all available pool members.

Ratio - Ratio allows each server to be assigned a ratio value. This is useful for pool members that have
greater or lower computing resources then others. Example : Ratio 3:2:1:1. Based upon 8 requests, 3
requests would go to 1, 2 to 2 then 1 to 1.

Dynamic

Least Connections - Traffic is balanced to servers with the least total of current connections.
Fastest - Connections are distributed to pool members based upon server response time.
Observed - This method is the same as ratio but the ratio is assigned by BigIP. Each ratio is calculated
based upon the total number of connections currently active on each pool member. A pool member
with a lower then average connection count is assigned a ratio of 3. A pool member with a higher than
average count is given ratio of 2.
Predictive - Predictive is similar to observed but ratio`s are assigned using much more aggressive ratio
values. A pool member with a lower then average connection count is assigned a ratio of 4. A pool
member with a higher then average count is given ratio of 1.

Additional

Pool Member vs Node

A Node is an IP address, and a Pool Member is an IP:Port combination. Based on this an IP could have
serval different applications and be a member of several different pools. This means for load balancing
and health monitoring even though a web service (such as tcp/80) may be not be busy, another service
such as SQL, could be. As such, Pool Member based balancing and health monitoring provides a much
more effective and logical way in which to distribute traffic.

Priority group activation

With priority group activation a backup pool of nodes is defined within a server pool. Both the primary
and backup pools are assigned priority values and priority group activation thresholds defined. At the
point the pre-configured thresholds are reached the backup pool is activated as the primary pool.

Fallback host (http only)

With fallback host a redirect is configured and sent back to the client in the event of all pool members
being offline.