NSX Advanced Load Balancer License Editions

Note: The Basic Edition of Avi Load Balancer (formerly known as NSX Advanced Load Balancer) has reached its End of Availability (EoA) date on Jan 30th, 2024. The changes only apply to the Basic Edition of Avi Load Balancer. For additional details, please visit https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/96386.

Overview

Starting with Avi Vantage release 20.1.2, two new license editions have been introduced. The following are the various editions supported on Avi Vantage:

  • VMware NSX Advance Load Balancer Enterprise Edition
  • VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer - Basic Edition - (introduced in Avi Vantage release 20.1.2)
  • VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer essentials for Tanzu - (introduced in Avi Vantage release 20.1.2)

The next section explains the detailed feature list for each of the editions.

Feature Comparison

Categories Feature Essentials Basic Enterprise Enterprise with Cloud Services Edition
Local Traffic Management L4 LB TCP & UDP Fast Path
No SSL/TLS
TCP & UDP Fast Path & Proxy
No L4 SSL/TLS
TCP, UDP, DNS, SIP, RADIUS
DSR, TLS support, PROXY protocol support
TCP, UDP, DNS, SIP, RADIUS
DSR, TLS support, PROXY protocol support
L7 LB X Limited to basic L7 features; no HTTP/2 HTTP/2, content rewrite, compression, caching HTTP/2, content rewrite, compression, caching
L3/4 Policies X Policies limited to connection drops
No DataScript support
Full-featured, including DataScripts and live IP Reputation Full-featured, including DataScripts and live IP Reputation
L7 Policies X Basic match and actions Match on: IPReputation DB, string groups and much more
Actions to: Rate-limit, ICAP and much more
Match on: IPReputation DB, string groups and much more
Actions to: Rate-limit, ICAP and much more
Global Traffic Management Global Server Load Balancing X X Enterprise grade GSLB Enterprise grade GSLB
Application Security SSL/TLS X Very limited feature-set Dynamic CRLs, OCSP stapling, TLSv1.3, HSM, and cert management Dynamic CRLs, OCSP stapling, TLSv1.3, HSM, and cert management
Application Rate Limiting X X Rate limiters can be applied for L4,L7, DNS and WAF Rate limiters can be applied for L4,L7, DNS and WAF
DDoS Protection X X L3,L4 and L7 DDos protection L3,L4 and L7 DDos protection
Intelligent WAF X X CRS, learning/PSM, IPReputation, application signatures CRS, learning/PSM, IPReputation, application signatures, bot detection
Container Ingress Service Type LB Yes Yes Yes Yes
Container Ingress X Available in Future (Limited) Full Ingress
DNS and GSLB integration
Multi K8s cluster and multi-AZ support
Full Ingress
DNS and GSLB integration
Multi K8s cluster and multi-AZ support
Software Defined Platform Administration Basic LB administration Basic LB administration Fully multi-tenant & granular RBAC
Rich alerts and events
Various 3rd part integrations
Integrations with various IDPs
Fully multi-tenant & granular RBAC
Rich alerts and events
Various 3rd part integrations
Integrations with various IDPs
Scale and HA Active/Standby only Active/Standby only Active/Active deployments
BGP and ECMP support
Autoscale of load balancers
Active/Active deployments
BGP and ECMP support
Autoscale of load balancers
Flexible upgrades X X Flexible LCM across tenants/clouds/se-groups Flexible LCM across tenants/clouds/se-groups
Ecosystem automation No Access Cloud
vCenter
No Access Cloud
NSX-T Cloud
Native integrations with all major public and private clouds and container orchestration platforms Native integrations with all major public and private clouds and container orchestration platforms
Pulse X X Enhanced case management
Live Security Threat Updates
Enhanced case management
Note: Proactive case creation is supported.
Live Security Threat Updates
Advanced Analytics Application Visibility/Analytics X X Advanced application telemetry
Log insights
Advanced application telemetry
Log insights

How Licensing Editions Work

The followings are the few points regarding how the licensing editions work on an Avi Controller:

  • The Enterprise Edition is the default licensing tier for an Avi Controller. A new Avi Controller is set up to be in the Enterprise Edition licensing tier.
  • Free Enterprise edition trial licenses are packaged with the Avi Controllers to be used for evaluation. Customers can utilize all features on the Avi Vantange platform using these trial licenses. Please contact your Avi Networks representative for more details.
  • An Avi Controller can be set up in any one of the license licensing tiers, but, the entire Controller cluster set-up will operate in a single license edition tier only. All applications and Service Engines would belong to that licensing tier. All applications and Service Engines would belong to that licensing tier.
  • Av Avi Controller can be configured to operate in any one of the license editions, but the entire Controller cluster set-up will only operate in that license edition.
  • License tier for the Avi Controller cluster set-up can be changed from one edition to another without any disruptions of traffic or without any downtime.
  • Free trial license with all the Avi Vantage features is available for evaluation. Please contact your Avi Networks representative for more details.

Various Licensing Editions

VMware NSX ALB Enterprise Edition

VMware NSX ALB Enterprise Edition is a fully-featured Avi Vantage license, which includes load balancing, GSLB, WAF, and all other features available on Avi Vantage.


For more information on VMware NSX ALB Enterprise edition, refer to VMware NSX ALB Enterprise Edition.

VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer - Basic Edition

Starting with Avi Vantage release 20.1.2, VMware NSX ALB - Basic edition is supported on Avi Vantage.
For more information on VMware NSX ALB Basic edition, refer to VMware NSX ALB Basic Edition.

VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer essentials for Tanzu

Starting with Avi Vantage release 20.1.2, VMware NSX ALB essentials for Tanzu edition is supported on Avi Vantage.
For more information on VMware NSX ALB Basic edition, refer to VMware NSX ALB essentials for Tanzu.

FAQ

Will existing SEs on an Avi Controller continue to function regardless of license availability?
Yes, the existing SEs on an Avi Controller continues to function regardless of license availability.

Events for License Switching

Events related to switching of license tier are available on Avi UI.

The following event is generated when the licensing change on Avi Vantage from Basic to Enterprise fails.

failed