What is used to monitor the health of backend servers in an OCI load balancer?

In an OCI (Oracle Cloud Infrastructure) load balancer, health checks are crucial for ensuring the availability and reliability of backend servers. Health checks involve regularly probing the backend servers to determine their operational status. This process allows the load balancer to assess whether a server is capable of handling requests. If a server fails to respond within a specified time frame or returns an error, the load balancer will mark it as unhealthy and temporarily stop sending traffic to that server. This ensures that users are directed only to servers that are currently functioning properly, thereby enhancing the overall reliability of the application or service being deployed.

Traffic analysis, performance metrics, and server logs provide valuable data about overall system performance and user behavior, but they do not directly determine if backend servers are operational in real-time. Health checks are specifically designed for this monitoring purpose, making them the correct answer in the context of maintaining an effective and reliable load balancing setup.