# Elastic Load Balancer as Target Host

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-load-balancer-as-target-host/176328>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** rally\
**Created:** [April 11, 2019, 6:27am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-load-balancer-as-target-host/176328 "2019-04-11T06:27:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![dliappis](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/dliappis/32/56174_2.png) [@dliappis](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/dliappis)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2019, 7:14am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/elastic-load-balancer-as-target-host/176328/3 "2019-04-11T07:14:30Z")

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Hello,

> [@rocksnslopes](#):
>
> It would be rather cumbersome to specify each node's IP address in the target-hosts param.

`--target-hosts` can also reference a json file, see [the docs here](https://esrally.readthedocs.io/en/stable/command_line_reference.html?highlight=target-hosts#id1) and you can maintain this easily. For just one cluster you only need to specify the "default" key e.g.:

```auto
{
  "default": ["127.0.0.1:39201"]
}

```

There should be no problem with limits to the array.

re: testing behind a load balancer: as @Christian_Dahlqvist said, are you sure your load balancer works correctly? This [discuss topic](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/any-limitations-with-distributed-load-drivers/107939/6) may also be useful to read.

Dimitris

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