What is the difference (pros and cons) to use Load balancer vs using multiple connection string in xcc for Marklogic Corbs

Question

We have a 3 nodes ML cluster.

In order to make CoRB2 or MLCP work with it, there are two ways to configure it.

1. Use a load balancer (eg. F5) as the single host for CoRB connection. (Load balancer should be configured for that XCC port for that ML cluster environment.)
2. Follow below link to set up multiple XCC hosts to directly connect to the 3 nodes.

Which way is recommended and why?

Answer 1

A load balancer lets you hide the server-side details from the connecting clients but requires an extra thing to setup and manage. It's worth the headache to keep some flexibility for a long-term deployment.

But you just want to run something quickly? List the hosts at the client and go.