Exhibit:

A BIG-IP Administrator configured a virtual server with a pool of 3 members and selected the Round Robin load balancing method to evenly distribute traffic across the pool members. During initial testing, traffic was not evenly distributed and the pool member 172.16.20.3 received more traffic than the other pool members.
Refer to the exhibit and the virtual server configuration provided below:
Plaintext
ltm virtual http.vs {
destination 10.10.1.100:http
ip-protocol tcp
mask 255.255.255.255
persist {
source_addr { default yes }
}
pool http.pool
profiles {
tcp{}
}
serverssl-use-sni disabled
source 0.0.0.0/0
source-address-translation {
type automap
}
translate-address enabled
}
What is the most likely cause of this behavior?
The primary reason for the uneven traffic distribution is the presence of a Persistence Profile in the virtual server configuration.
Load Balancing vs. Persistence: While the Round Robin method is designed to distribute new connections sequentially among pool members, Persistence overrides this logic for existing clients.
Source Address Persistence: The configuration shows source_addr persistence is enabled. This ensures that once a client (identified by their source IP) is mapped to a pool member, all subsequent connections from that same IP will be sent to the same member for the duration of the persistence record.
Uneven Distribution Logic: If one source IP address generates significantly more connections or longer-lived sessions than others---or if many clients appear behind a single NAT/Proxy IP---that specific pool member (in this case, 172.16.20.3) will receive a disproportionate amount of traffic compared to the others.
Evaluating Other Options:
Automap (Option A): SNAT Automap changes the source IP between the BIG-IP and the pool member. It does not impact the BIG-IP's ability to load balance incoming client requests.
Ratio Settings (Option B): In the provided exhibit, the pool members have a Ratio of 1, 2, and 3 respectively. While a higher ratio does direct more traffic to a member, the question asks for the 'most likely cause' in the context of the provided ltm virtual configuration, which explicitly highlights the persistence override.
HTTP Profile (Option C): Round Robin is a Layer 4 load balancing algorithm and does not require a Layer 7 HTTP profile to function.
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