Sticky session means that when a request comes into a site from a client all further requests go to the same server initial client request accessed. I believe that session affinity is a synonym for sticky session. Both mean that when coming in to the load balancer, the request will be directed to the server that served the first request (and has the session). The problem is "sticky session" where each user is assigned to a single server and his/her state data is contained on that server exclusively throughout the duration of the session. Pros it's easy-- no app changes required. better utilizes local RAM caches (e.g. look up user profile once, cache it, and can re-use it on subsequent visits from same user) Cons · if the server goes down, session is lost. (note that this is a con of storing session info locally on the web server-- not of sticky sessions per se). if what's in the session is really important to the user (e.g. a ...