---
title: req.backend.healthy
summary: null
url: >-
  https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/vcl/variables/backend-connection/req-backend-healthy
---

**Type:** BOOL  
**Access:** read-only

**Available in:** all subroutines

Whether or not this backend, or recursively any of the backends under this
[director](https://www.fastly.com/documentation/reference/vcl/declarations/director/), is considered healthy.

The random director has the additional constraint that the `.quorum` threshold
must be met by the healthy backends under the director. The health state is
determined by healthcheck results, whether there is room for a new connection
to be made to the backend based on the number of currently used connections
and the backend's `max_connections` setting, and any applicable saintmode
settings.