| CPC H04L 41/0803 (2013.01) | 20 Claims |

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1. A service chain component comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
defining a service chain that includes a plurality of network devices, wherein the service chain identifies a position of each network device with respect to other network devices;
generating a logical model representing the service chain, the logical model representing a backend pool of a load balancer that includes a first network device and a second network device that are of a same network device type;
storing the logical model at a storage location associated with the service chain component;
detecting a new network device becoming active on a network, wherein an identity of the network device and a network location at which the new network device belongs is unknown to the service chain component;
determining, using the logical model that the identity of the new network device is the second network device in the logical model;
determining, using the identity and the logical model, that the network location at which the new network device belongs is in the backend pool of the load balancer; and
based at least in part on the network location of the new network device being represented in the logical model as in the backend pool of the load balancer:
automatically adding the new network device to the backend pool as a target for the load balancer such that network traffic is communicated to the new network device by the load balancer.
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