A computer-implemented method for providing feedback information to a load balancer application for balancing load of applications executing on a plurality of virtual machines, the method comprising: monitoring , by a feedback agent, one or more performance metrics of virtual hardware components of a first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines; monitoring one or more performance metrics of hardware components of a first computing system hosting the first virtual machine; normalizing the one or more performance metrics of the virtual hardware components of the first virtual machine based on the performance metrics of the hardware components of the first computing system to generate normalized availability information for the first virtual machine providing load and status of the virtual hardware components of the first virtual machine reflecting load and status of the hardware computing components of the first computing system; and sending , over a network interface, the normalized availability information for the first virtual machine to the load balancer application so that the load balancer application can distribute computing tasks among the plurality of virtual machines based on the normalized availability information, wherein the load balancer application comprises a program executing on a second computing system, and wherein the computing tasks comprise IP network service requests, and wherein the load balancer application is configured to: assign each request to a network connection on one of the virtual machines; monitor a migration of one of the virtual machines from the first computing system to a target computing system; and selectively drop network traffic addressed to connections on the virtual machine being migrated during the migration. monitoring , by a feedback agent, one or more performance metrics of virtual hardware components of a first virtual machine, of the plurality of virtual machines; monitoring one or more performance metrics of hardware components of a first computing system hosting the first virtual machine; normalizing the one or more performance metrics of the virtual hardware components of the first virtual machine based on the performance metrics of the hardware components of the first computing system to generate normalized availability information for the first virtual machine providing load and status of the virtual hardware components of the first virtual machine reflecting load and status of the hardware computing components of the first computing system; and sending , over a network interface, the normalized availability information for the first virtual machine to the load balancer application so that the load balancer application can distribute computing tasks among the plurality of virtual machines based on the normalized availability information, wherein the load balancer application comprises a program executing on a second computing system, and wherein the computing tasks comprise IP network service requests, and wherein the load balancer application is configured to: assign each request to a network connection on one of the virtual machines; monitor a migration of one of the virtual machines from the first computing system to a target computing system; and selectively drop network traffic addressed to connections on the virtual machine being migrated during the migration. assign each request to a network connection on one of the virtual machines; monitor a migration of one of the virtual machines from the first computing system to a target computing system; and selectively drop network traffic addressed to connections on the virtual machine being migrated during the migration. <EOS>