Stateless load balancer in a multi-node system for transparent processing with packet preservation

Stateless load balancing of network packets within a system avoids detection by a network client or end user for deep packet inspection or other bump-in-the-wire applications. At least one header field of a received packet is used in generating a hash value. The hash value is used to identify a processing resource within the system for processing the received packet. Before being sent to the identified resource, the received packet is encapsulated with a new header that includes an indication of ingress port. The encapsulation does not modify the original packet. On a return path from the identified processing resource, the ingress port is determined from the encapsulated packet, the encapsulated packet is decapsulated to obtain a recovered packet that is identical to the received packet, and the recovered packet is forwarded to the network through an egress port as determined from the recovered ingress port.