This section explains the system requirements of various clouds.

VMware Ecosystems

The following are the VMware vCenter versions supported by the NSX Advanced Load Balancer:

NSX Advanced Load Balancer ControllerVersion

VMware Ecosystems

Virtual Hardware Version 10

17.2.x

5.5, 6.0, 6.4, 6.5, or 6.7

10.0

18.1.x

5.5, 6.0, 6.4, 6.5, or 6.7

10.0

20.1.1 to 20.1.5

5.5, 6.0, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0

10.0

20.1.6

6.0, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0

11.0

21.1.x

6.0, 6.4, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0

11.0
Note:

When upgrading across releases having different virtual hardware versions, the existing SEs which are created with a previous virtual hardware versions continue to work. However, new SEs are spawned with the updated virtual hardware version.

NSX Advanced Load Balancer only works with the following switches in a vCenter Cloud:

  • Standard Virtual Switch (vSwitch)

  • Distributed Virtual Switch (vDS)

Also, the deployment of the Controller and SE OVA directly on an ESX host (for a no-access or other cloud-connector types) is not supported. They must be deployed using the vCenter UI, as the deployment requires Open Virtualization Format (OVF) properties to be configured.

  • VMXNET3 network adapter is required for SE to operate in DPDK mode in VMware.

NSX-T - NSX Advanced Load Balancer Support Matrix

NSX-T Version

Minimum NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller Version

2.5.1+

20.1.1

3.0.0+

20.1.1

3.1.0+

20.1.3

Jumbo-Drivers Supported

Supported Drivers

Unsupported Drivers

i40e, mlx5, bnxt, vmxnet3

ixgbe

  • Jumbo frames are supported for non-DPDK mode and on VLAN interfaces for supported driver families. However, the jumbo frames are not supported on CSP.

    Note:

    vmxnet3 interface will flap during MTU change.

  • KNI MTU cannot exceed 1500 even when NIC MTU is configured.

  • se_mtu vs global_mtu: global_mtu is an SE property that is used to configure the interface MTU. This can be used to accommodate any encapsulation overhead, that can enlarge the packet beyond the 1500 MTU.

  • You can replace global_mtu with se_mtu as se_mtu supports jumbo frame. The se_mtu configuration parameter/ field always overrides global_mtu, if configured. For instance, if you configure se_mtu to 9000, then the system does not depend on global_mtu value.

    • Note:

      The global_mtu is retained only for backward compatibility, i.e., if you configure global_mtu in an earlier release and do an upgrade, then global_mtu should still take effect unless you configure se_mtu later.

OpenStack Version Support

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller Versions

Supported OpenStack Versions

20.1.1+

Queens, Rocky, Stein, Train

20.1.3+

Ussuri + All releases supported in 20.1.1

20.1.5+

Victoria + All releases supported in 20.1.3

21.1.2+

Wallaby + All releases supported in 20.1.5
Note:

NSX Advanced Load Balancer does not support Neutron DVR mode. It supports Keystone v3 in NSX Advanced Load Balancer Heat resources.

No-Access Mode

No-Orchestrator KVM (Red Hat/CentOS- 7.6 and Ubuntu 16.04) with SR-IOV NICs only.

Bare Metal (Linux Server Cloud)

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller Version

Bare Metal Hosts

18.1.2

  • OEL 6.9, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5

  • RHEL 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5

  • CentOS 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5

18.1.5

  • OEL 7.6

  • RHEL 7.6

  • CentOS 7.6

18.2.6

  • OEL 7.7

  • RHEL 7.7

  • CentOS 7.7

18.2.9, 20.1.1

  • OEL 7.8

  • RHEL 7.8

  • CentoS 7.8

  • In 18.2.x: version 18.2.12 onwards

  • In 20.1.x: version 20.1.3 onwards

  • OEL 7.9

  • RHEL 7.9

  • CentoS 7.9

21.1

  • Ubuntu 18.04

  • Ubuntu 20.04

All versions

Ubuntu 16.04
Note:

  • For OpenShift/Kubernetes Clouds, the host OS on OpenShift/Kubernetes nodes can have RHEL 7.9 from version 18.2.12 onwards.

  • Rollback operation is not supported once host OS is upgraded to RHEL 8.

For more information on Kernel supported version in bare metal hosts, see Kernel Supported Versions in the Bare metal section.

Bare-Metal NICs

  • For non-DPDK mode, NSX Advanced Load Balancer supports any server NIC.

  • For DPDK mode (recommended), NSX Advanced Load Balancer has qualified:

NICs Name

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Version

Intel NICs

  • All 18.2.x and 20.1.x releases - 82599, X520, X540, X550, X552, X710, XL710, XXV710.

  • Starting from NSX Advanced Load Balancer version 18.2.2 and all 20.1.x releases - XXV710.

Mellanox NICs

  • NICs Supported:

    • All 18.2.x and 20.1.x releases - ConnectX-4 25G and ConnectX-4 40G.

    • All 18.2.x and 20.1.x releases - MCX4121A-ACAT ConnectX-4 Lx EN 25G NICs.

    • Mellanox Technologies MT27800 Family [ConnectX-5] (introduced in 20.1.6 and 21.1.1 releases).

  • MLNX_OFED version (tested and qualified for NSX Advanced Load Balancer version 21.1.1 onwards) - MLNX_OFED_LINUX-5.1-2.5.8.0 (OFED-5.1-2.5.8).

Broadcom NICs

  • BCM574XX NetXtreme-E family — Starting from NSX Advanced Load Balancer version 18.2.8 and all 20.1.x releases.

  • Firmware version — 219.0.111.0/pkg 21.90.13.50.

IPAM / DNS

The following IPAM DNS are supported:

  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer DNS

  • AWS Route 53

  • Infoblox

  • Microsoft Azure

Hardware Security Module (HSM)

The following HSM are supported:

  • SafeNet Network HSM Client Software Release 5.4.1 for 64-bit Linux

  • AWS CloudHSM v2