Centralized load balancer with weighted hash function

A centralized load balancer for balancing loads among a plurality of virtual machines (VMs) from a central dispatcher, said load balancer comprising:

• a dispatcher for receiving data packets and for forwarding said data packets to said plurality of VMs;
• a processor and memory, said memory further comprising program instructions executable by said processor for:
• receiving a data packet at said dispatcher;
• mapping said data packet to a first VM selected from the plurality of VMs, using a weighted hash function, having an associated weighting for each VM;
• and
• forwarding said packet to said first VM,
• wherein said load balancer decrements a weighting for said first VM of said weighted hash function, responsive to an indication of the load on said first VM exceeding a first load threshold.

A tangible and non-transitory machine-readable storage medium encoded with instructions thereon for execution by a centralized load balancer, wherein the tangible and non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprises instructions for:

• receiving a data packet at said dispatcher;
• mapping said data packet to a first VM selected from the plurality of VMs, using a weighted hash function, having an associated weighting for each VM;
• forwarding said packet to said first VM;
• and
• decrementing a weighting for said first VM of said weighted hash function, responsive to an indication of the load on said first VM exceeding a first load threshold.