The Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation validated solution provides information on the use of NSX Advanced Load Balancer as a load balancing solution for VMware Cloud Foundation.

A VMware Validated Solution is a technical validated implementation that is built and tested by VMware and VMware partners to help customers resolve common business use cases. VMware Validated Solutions are operationally and cost-effective, performant, reliable and secure. Each solution contains a detailed design, implementation, and operational guidance.

Intended Audience

The Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation documentation is intended for cloud architects, and administrators who are familiar with and want to use NSX Advanced Load Balancer for load balancing in the VMware Cloud Foundation.

Support Matrix

The Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation validated solution is compatible with certain versions of the VMware products that are used for implementing the solution.

Note:
  1. Ensure that both the VCF BoM and the NSX Advanced Load Balancer release version are under support.

  2. For more information on End of General Support and End of Technical Guidance dates, plase visit lifecycle.vmware.com.

Software Components in Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation:

VMware Cloud Foundation Version

Product Group

Component Versions

5.1

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 5.1 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 30.1.1 or later

  • 22.1.2 or later

5.0

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 30.1.1 or later

  • 22.1.2 or later

4.5.1

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5.1 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 22.1.2 or later

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.5

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 22.1.2 or later

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.4

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.3.1

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.1 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.3.0

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.2.0

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.2 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.1.0

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.1 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

4.0

Products part of VMware Cloud Foundation

See VMware Cloud Foundation 4.0 Release Notes

Solution-added Products

NSX Advanced Load Balancer. The following versions are supported:

  • 21.1.1 or later

  • 20.1.6 or later

Before You Apply This Guidance

To design and implement the Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation validated solution, your environment must have a certain configuration.

Supported VMware Cloud Foundation Deployment

Workload Domain

Deployment Details

Management domain

Automated deployment of vCenter Server and NSX Manager cluster by using VMware Cloud Builder.

Refer the following VMware Cloud Foundation documentation:

  • For information on deploying the management domain, refer to VMware Cloud Foundation Getting Started Guide and VMware Cloud Foundation Deployment Guide.

  • For information on designing the management domain, refer to VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide for the Management Domain.

(Optional) One or more virtual infrastructure workload domains

Automated deployment of vCenter Server and NSX-T Manager cluster by using SDDC Manager.

Refer the following VMware Cloud Foundation documentation:

  • For information on deploying the VI workload domain, refer to VMware Cloud Foundation Getting Started Guide and VMware Cloud Foundation Operations and Administration Guide.

  • For information on designing the VI workload domain, refer to VMware Cloud Foundation Design Guide for a Virtual Infrastructure Workload Domain.

Note:

Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation solution currently does not support VCF Workload Domains which require load balancing on federated networks configured using NSX Federation.

Overview of Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation

By applying the Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation validated solution, you implement centralized load balancing (LB) for your application workloads within VMware Cloud Foundation and can configure enterprise grade load-balancing, global server load balancing, application security, and container ingress services.

Note:

NSX Advanced Load Balancer was formerly known as Avi. These represent the same product and are used interchangeably in this document.

Implementation Overview of Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation

Stage

Steps

Implementation Overview of Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation

Work with the technology team of your organization on configuring the network in the data center. Collect the environment details and write them down in the Planning and Preparation of Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundationworkbook.

Deploy and configure Avi Control plane

  1. Deploy NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller VMs for central management of load balancing services.

  2. Configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller cluster.

Configure infrastructure on the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller to enable fully automated load balancing

  1. Configure NSX-T Cloud on the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller.

  2. Configure NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engine Groups for application isolation.

  3. Configure a reference load-balanced application.

Update History

This Advanced Load Balancing for VMware Cloud Foundation is updated when necessary.

Revision

Description

20 Mar 2023

The validated solution now supports VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0.

30 October 2023

The validated solution now supports VMware Cloud Foundation 5.0.

11 October 2023

The validated solution now supports VMware Cloud Foundation 4.5.0, 4.5.1.

22 February 2022

The validated solution now supports VMware Cloud Foundation 4.4.0. This validated solution now supports registering NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services to consume NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services SaaS Subscriptions.

05 October 2021

The validated solution now supports VMware Cloud Foundation 4.3.1.

24 August 2021

Initial draft