How is "active/passive" configuration different from "load balancing"?

In an active/passive configuration, only one interface is actively handling the traffic at any given time, while the other interface remains in a standby state, ready to take over if the active one fails. This means that there is no distribution of traffic across multiple interfaces, which is a defining characteristic of active/passive setups.

In contrast, load balancing involves multiple interfaces sharing the network traffic to optimize resource use and improve performance. By distributing the traffic load, load balancing can increase throughput and provide redundancy, but this does not occur in an active/passive configuration where only one interface is utilized at any moment.

The other options do not accurately describe the distinction between these two configurations. For example, active/passive configurations do not inherently require more than two network interfaces, they are not primarily used for performance enhancement, and they do not combine multiple connections into one in the way load balancing does. Understanding these fundamental differences helps clarify how each setup is utilized in networking scenarios.