What happens if a compute instance fails its health checks in a load balancer setup?

In a load balancer setup, if a compute instance fails its health checks, the load balancer will stop sending traffic to that instance. This is crucial for maintaining the overall availability and reliability of the service being provided. The primary goal of health checks is to ensure that only healthy instances are handling requests.

When an instance fails the health check, it is marked as unhealthy. As a result, the load balancer reroutes traffic to other healthy instances within the backend set, ensuring that users still receive a seamless experience without interruption. This mechanism helps in identifying and isolating issues while maintaining service continuity.

While other options may suggest actions like terminating or replacing the instance, those actions are not directly taken by the load balancer in response to failed health checks. Instead, the load balancer's immediate and primary function is to manage traffic by removing unhealthy instances from the active routing path.