DYNAMIC HTTP LOAD BALANCING

A load balancer computer for configuring a load balancing program in the load balancer for a cluster of servers to dispatch client requests to the servers in the cluster. The load balancer computer includes one or more storage devices and program instructions stored on the storage devices. The program instructions are: to detect that the cluster cannot handle the client requests with a predetermined level of performance, and in response, automatically request configuration information for another server not currently active in the cluster, to configure the load balancing program for adding the other server to the cluster to handle client requests; and to automatically configure the load balancing program for the cluster to add the other server to the cluster in accordance with the configuration information received for the other server. The configuration information configures the load balancing program for the other server based on a cookie affinity rule.