This section details two NVIDIA AI Enterprise (NVAIE) License Systems, i.e., Cloud License Service (CLS) and Delegated License Service (DLS).

NVIDIA AI Enterprise (NVAIE) is licensed on a per-GPU basis with flexibile licensing options to accommodate the versatile needs of enterprise AI deployments. For more information, see NVIDIA AI Enterprise Packaging, Pricing, and Licensing Guide.

The NVIDIA License System (NLS) provides monitoring and reporting on license usage for capacity planning. NLS supports two types of service instances.
Cloud License Service (CLS)
A Cloud License Service (CLS) instance is hosted on the NVIDIA Licensing Portal. You are not required to manually download licenses from the portal and upload them to the instance. CLS instances can scale dynamically as needed. Maintenance and feature updates for a CLS instance are typically handled by NVIDIA and the cloud service provider.
Delegated License Service (DLS)
A Delegated License Service (DLS) instance is deployed on-premises within a location that is reachable from your private network, such as within your data center. Because the DLS instance is isolated from the NVIDIA Licensing Portal, you must download licenses manually from the portal and then upload them to the instance for activation.

For more information, see the NVIDIA License System User Guide.

Figure 1. Design for a Cloud License Service and a Delegated License Service


NVIDIA Licensing System Design

Table 1. Design Decisions on NVIDIA Licensing System Design for Private AI Ready Infrastructure for VMware Cloud Foundation

Decision ID

Design Decision

Design Justification

Design Implication

AIR-NVD-LIC-001

For Delegated License Service (DLS) instances, account for extra compute, storage, and network resources as part of your management domain.

DLS is deployed as a virtual appliance with specific hardware requirements. The appliance can also be configured in a high availability setup, independent from vSphere HA.
  • Increased resources for the management stack.
  • You must perform life cycle management of the DLS instance.

AIR-NVD-LIC-002

For Cloud License Service (CLS) instances, Internet access is required.

Internet access is required between a licensed client and a CLS instance. Ports 80 and 443 (Egress) must be allowed.
  • Introduces potential security risks.
  • You must enforce firewall rules, intrusion detection systems, and monitoring.