What load balancing methods does Nginx support?
Round-robin (default, distributes in order), least_conn (sends to server with fewest connections), ip_hash (same client always goes to same server, good for sessions), and weighted (distribute based on server capacity with weight parameter).
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More FAQs in Nginx Load Balancing Running Multiple Node.js Instances for High Availability
Node.js is single-threaded and uses only one CPU core. Running multiple instances (with PM2 cluster mode or Nginx load balancing) lets you use all CPU cores, provides high availability if one crashes, enables zero-downtime deployment, and increases throughput.
Define an upstream block with multiple server entries (e.g., server 127.0.0.1:3000; server 127.0.0.1:3001;), then use proxy_pass http://upstream_name in the location block. Nginx distributes requests using round-robin by default.
Use ip_hash in the upstream block to ensure the same client always connects to the same Node.js instance. Add the Upgrade and Connection headers in the /socket.io/ location block for WebSocket support.
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