IP Virtual Server

IPVS (IP Virtual Server) implements transport-layer load balancing, usually called Layer 4 LAN switching, as part of the Linux kernel. It's configured via the user-space utility ipvsadm(8) tool.

ipvsadm

Stable release	1.3.1 / December 24, 2019; 5 years ago (2019-12-24)
Repository	git.kernel.org/pub/scm/utils/kernel/ipvsadm/ipvsadm.git/
Operating system	Linux kernel
Platform	Netfilter
License	GNU General Public License
Website	www.linuxvirtualserver.org/software/ipvs.html

IPVS is incorporated into the Linux Virtual Server (LVS), where it runs on a host and acts as a load balancer in front of a cluster of real servers. IPVS can direct requests for TCP- and UDP-based services to the real servers, and make services of the real servers appear as virtual services on a single IP address. IPVS is built on top of Netfilter.^[1]

IPVS is merged into versions 2.4.x and newer of the Linux kernel mainline.^[1]

See also

• Linux portal

• Netfilter and nftables
• Network scheduler