Can you explain how Network Load Balancer (NLB) works in Windows Server operating system?

Network Load Balancer (NLB) in Windows Server is a network-level load balancing technology that distributes incoming traffic across multiple servers (nodes) to improve availability and performance.

Working principle:

• NLB combines multiple servers into a cluster that has a single virtual IP address.
• All requests to this IP are distributed among the cluster nodes according to a specific algorithm (usually round-robin or hashing-based).
• Each node handles its portion of traffic, with NLB monitoring the nodes' health and excluding unavailable ones from processing.
• Load balancing occurs at the IP and TCP level, without the need for additional hardware.

This allows scaling applications and ensuring fault tolerance without complex configurations.