Port rules determine how NLB nodes respond to incoming traffic.

The port filtering mode can be set as a single host or multiple hosts.
Multiple hosts mode allows for true load balancing, whereas single host mode
means that only one host in the cluster will take and process requests.

The number and type of rules must be exactly the same for each host in the cluster.
NLB Manager handles pushing the port rules across the hosts in the cluster.

Port rules set at the cluster level are pushed out to the hosts within. For each
host there is a host properties
dialog with a port rules tab but most settings will be greyed out. But there are
options for priority and
weight. Weight determines if a host will repond to a greater proportion of client
requests. Weight is only
available in a multiple node NLB configuration.

There is another setting in port rules called handling priority, associated with a
single node NLB config. In
this config, traffic will be directed to whichever node has been assigned the
highest priority. If this node
is offline, traffic will failover to the node with the second-highest priority.