How to enable Per-app SE mode for a Service Engine group

Background

Per-app SE mode enables cost-effective deployment of load balancers, on a dedicated LB-per-application basis with a high degree of application isolation. This setting is at an SE group level. When an SE group is configured in per-app SE mode, a vCPU counts at 25% rate for licensing usage. For example, each 2-vCPU SE in a per-app SE group utilizes half a vCPU license (2 * 0.25).

Per-app SE mode is limited to a maximum of 2 virtual services per SE, so that customers can also enable HA. All HA modes are supported.

Per-app SE mode is available from the Avi UI and CLI starting with version 16.2. Figure 1 illustrates its location in the Avi UI.

Avi Vantage Service Engine editor Figure 1. In the Avi UI, per-app SE mode is represented by a checkbox in the SE group editor.

Instructions

Configuring Per-App SE Mode in the Avi UI

  1. Navigate to Infrastructure > Service Engine Groups. Select the SE group to be edited. Click the pencil (edit) icon as highlighted in figure 2.

    Avi Vantage Service Engine editor Figure 2. List of SE groups
  2. Per-app SE mode is available under High Availability & Placement Setting, as shown in figure 3. By default, per-app SE mode is disabled for any SE group.

    Avi Vantage Service Engine editor Figure 3. Per-app SE mode option
  3. Click the check box to enable per-app SE mode and then click Save.

    Avi Vantage Service Engine editor Figure 4. Enable per-app SE mode

Note that the displayed value of Virtual Services per Service Engine automatically changes to 2.

Configuring Per-App SE Mode in the Avi CLI

Invoke the following commands from the Avi Controller’s shell prompt to enable per-app SE mode when defining any SE group.


[admin Controller]: > configure serviceenginegroup <name-of-the-SE-group>
[admin Controller]: serviceenginegroup> per_app
Overwriting the previously entered value for per_app
[adminController]: serviceenginegroup> save
per_app | True

Restriction

One can only set per-app SE mode when first defining an SE group. It can’t be toggled on a pre-existing setup. Any attempt to toggle the option will be ignored, and an error message will be displayed.

Avi Vantage Service Engine editor Figure 5. Error message