Five VMs behind an Azure Load Balancer host a web application. You need to ensure each visitor’s requests are sent to the same backend VM across requests. Which load balancer configuration should you use?

Session persistence to Client IP and protocol, also known as source IP affinity or client IP affinity, ensures that requests from a specific client IP address are always directed to the same backend virtual machine. This is crucial for maintaining session state in web applications where a user's subsequent requests need to be handled by the same server that processed their initial request. Protocol to UDP is incorrect because it defines the transport layer protocol, not how client sessions are maintained. Session persistence to None would distribute each request independently, potentially sending a single client's requests to different backend VMs, breaking session state. Floating IP (direct server return) to Enabled is used for specific scenarios like high-availability clusters or network virtual appliances, not for maintaining client-to-server session affinity.