The new license enforcement model enables product enhancement to incorporate unified licensing around Service Units.

The Enterprise Edition license is based on Service Units. On upgrade to NSX Advanced Load Balancer release 20.1.1, the licenses prior to NSX Advanced Load Balancer release 20.1.1 are converted to Service Unit licenses.

If you are upgrading from version 18.x to NSX Advanced Load Balancer version 22.1.3, use the following table to understand how the various license types are converted to the Enterprise Edition licenses.

License prior to NSX Advanced Load Balancer 20.1.1 (1 unit)

Corresponding Service Unit License

Socket

5

Core (Avi Vantage Core - Prior to 2020)

1

Host

1

25 Mbps Bandwidth

0.4

200 Mbps Bandwidth

0.7
Depending on the configuration of NSX Advanced Load Balancer, the appropriate number of Service units are consumed by the SEs.

The configuration depends on the following parameters, which are explained in the later sections:

  • Bandwidth restriction

  • Per-app mode

  • Virtual Machines parameters

  • Bare-metal parameters

  • Cloud-specific configuration

The license is downloaded from the NSX Advanced Load Balancer web portal and is administered centrally by the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller to all SEs. Licenses are consumed by the SEs and not by the Controllers.

The following environments support NSX Advanced Load Balancer - Enterprise Edition:

  • Azure VMware Solution

  • Google Cloud VMware Engine

  • Oracle Cloud VMware Solution

  • VMware Cloud on AWS

The license edition provides the following advantages:

  • Aligns NSX Advanced Load Balancer with VMware price list

  • Simplifies commercial model

  • Provides flexibility – Same Service Unit license can be used on any ecosystem and using any configuration

  • Simplifies reporting and projection

Enterprise Edition License

The Enterprise Edition is a fully-featured NSX Advanced Load Balancer license that includes load balancing, GSLB, WAF, and all other features available on NSX Advanced Load Balancer.

Note:

  • Future-dated license is not supported.

  • Enterprise Edition comes with two units of a free perpetual license. This license does not include product support and is only intended for PoC or trial use.

License Duration

NSX Advanced Load Balancer is available in the following license types, based on the duration for which the license is valid.

License Type

Description

Term

  • Available for 1-year and 3-year pre-paid terms.

  • It has all the features such as load balancing, GSLB, WAF, and so on.

  • Features related to Cloud Services are not available (Cloud Services features such as Centralized Licensing are available in Subscription SKUs only).

  • Support included.

Perpetual

  • Perpetual License with features like Term.

  • Also needs additional per-year Support and Subscription (SnS).

Note:

Perpetual SKUs are deprecated in December 2021.

Subscription

  • Available for 1-year and 3-year pre-paid terms.

  • Includes all features and the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services features (such as Centralized Licensing).

  • Includes Support.

Obtaining an NSX Advanced Load Balancer License

NSX Advanced Load Balancer licenses can be downloaded by authorized persons from the customer portal or obtained by contacting the NSX Advanced Load Balancer sales team.

To activate a license, you must first add the license to the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller.

Adding a New License

You can add a new license using one of the following options: