---
title: "LoadBalancer"
description: "the rented load balancer in front of the ingress: ports, health check, and how the client address is passed"
section: concepts
address: /concepts/loadbalancer
contract: 0476e35e6e275db5
---

# LoadBalancer

the rented load balancer in front of the ingress: ports, health check, and how the client address is passed

[figure: LoadBalancer is a definition at platform scope. The drawing shows its fields and the objects that they point at.]

| property | value |
|---|---|
| kind | definition |
| scope | platform |
| key | its address |
| store | postgres |
| family | network |



## Fields


| field | type | required | note |
|---|---|---|---|
| `address` | `address` | yes |  |
| `ports` | `[count]` | yes | 80 and 443 |
| `health_check` | `text` | yes | the path probed on every ingress copy |
| `client_address_header` | `text` | yes | the header the ingress trusts only from this balancer; a connection without it is rejected |
| `backends` | [MachineAddress](/concepts/machineaddress) | yes |  |



## Routes that use it
No route takes or returns LoadBalancer directly. The record holds it, and the objects that point at it reach it.