Five Azure VMs running Windows Server 2016 are configured as web servers behind an Azure load balancer named LB1. To ensure each visitor is served by the same web server for all their requests, which setting should you configure?

Session persistence, also known as sticky sessions, ensures that all requests from a particular client are directed to the same backend instance behind a load balancer. Setting session persistence to "Client IP and Protocol" (or "Client IP") on Azure Load Balancer achieves this by hashing the client's IP address and protocol information to consistently route them to the same backend VM. This is crucial for applications that maintain session state on the server, like web applications where user login or shopping cart data needs to persist across multiple requests. Floating IP (direct server return) is used for specific scenarios like high availability port rules or when the backend server needs to send responses directly to the client, bypassing the load balancer on the return path. It doesn't manage session affinity. A health probe monitors the availability of backend instances and removes unhealthy ones from the load balancer rotation; it doesn't control session persistence.