Node vs. Member

More often than not, you're probably not going to have multiple load balanced protocols load balanced from the same server. That would be like running an FTP server on your web server. So to elaborate on Nathan's advice, if you for example have FTP and WWW services running on the same boxes, and you have separate pools for each (and FTP pool and a WWW pool), then the node vs. member decision becomes most relevant. A node is just an IP address, while a member is a service (IP and port). If you choose member, the any load balancing or health monitoring will be based on the service (irrespective of anything else that may be load balanced). If you choose node, then a load balancing or health monitoring decision will take into consideration all services being load balanced. For load balancing, that involves looking at ALL of the connections to that server (FTP and WWW). If health monitoring, a failure of one service can remove the node from both pools.