Patent ID: 7779116

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a current request from a client, wherein the current request specifies a first page; determining whether a first session associated with the current request already exists; if the determining is false, deciding whether the request will result in creation of a second session; if the deciding is true, selecting a first load-balancing metric instance associated with the first page from among a plurality of load-balancing metrics associated with a plurality of pages, wherein each of the plurality of pages is associated with a different of the plurality of load-balancing metrics, selecting a first server based on the first load-balancing metric instance associated with the first page, and sending the current request to the first server, wherein the first load-balancing metric instance comprises an algorithm and an input parameter to the algorithm and an output parameter from the algorithm, and wherein the selecting further comprises executing the algorithm, providing the input parameter to the algorithm, and performing the selecting the first server identified by the output parameter from the algorithm; and sending the first page to the client.