The following are the various editions supported on NSX Advanced Load Balancer:
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer Enterprise with Cloud Services Edition
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer Enterprise Edition
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer – Basic Edition
VMware NSX Advanced Load Balancer Essentials for Tanzu
The next section explains the detailed feature list for each of the editions.
Feature Comparison
Categories |
Feature |
Essentials |
Basic |
Enterprise |
Enterprise with Cloud Services Edition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Local Traffic Management |
L4 LB |
TCP & UDP Fast Path No SSL/TLS |
TCP & UDP Fast Path & ProxyNo L4 SSL/TLS |
TCP, UDP, DNS, SIP, RADIUS DSR, TLS support, PROXY protocol support |
TCP, UDP, DNS, SIP, RADIUS DSR, TLS support, PROXY protocol support |
L7 LB |
X |
Limited to basic L7 features and no HTTP/2 |
HTTP/2, content rewrite, compression, caching |
HTTP/2, content rewrite, compression, caching |
|
L3/4 Policies |
X |
Policies limited to connection drops No DataScript support |
Full-featured, including DataScripts and live IP Reputation |
Full-featured, including DataScripts and live IP Reputation |
|
L7 Policies |
X |
Basic match and actions |
Match on: IP Reputation DB, string groups, and so on Actions to: Rate-limit, ICAP, and so on |
Match on: IP Reputation DB, string groups, and so on Actions to: Rate-limit, ICAP, and so on |
|
Global Traffic Management |
Global Server Load Balancing |
X |
X |
Enterprise grade GSLB |
Enterprise grade GSLB |
Application Security |
SSL/TLS |
X |
Very limited feature-set |
Dynamic CRLs, OCSP stapling, TLSv1.3, HSM, and cert management |
Dynamic CRLs, OCSP stapling, TLSv1.3, HSM, and cert management |
Application Rate Limiting |
X |
X |
Rate limiters can be applied for L4, L7, DNS, and WAF |
Rate limiters can be applied for L4, L7, DNS, and WAF |
|
DDoS Protection |
X |
X |
L3, L4, and L7 DDoS protection |
L3, L4, and L7 DDoS protection |
|
Intelligent WAF |
X |
X |
CRS, learning/PSM, IPReputation, application signatures |
CRS, learning/PSM, IPReputation, application signatures, bot detection For more information on bot detection, see BOT Management Service topic in the VMware NSX Advanced Load BalancerCloud Services Guide |
|
Container Ingress |
Service Type LB |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Container Ingress |
X |
Limited Ingress |
Full Ingress DNS and GSLB integration Multi K8s cluster & multi-AZ support |
Full Ingress DNS and GSLB integration Multi K8s cluster & multi-AZ support |
|
Software Defined Platform |
Administration |
Basic LB administration |
Basic LB administration |
Fully multi-tenant & granular RBAC Rich alerts and events Various 3rd part integrations Integrations with various IDPs |
Fully multi-tenant & granular RBAC Rich alerts and events Various 3rd part integrations Integrations with various IDPs |
Scale and HA |
Active/Standby only |
Active/Standby only |
Active/Active deployments BGP and ECMP support Autoscale of load balancers |
Active/Active deployments BGP and ECMP support Autoscale of load balancers |
|
Flexible upgrades |
X |
X |
Flexible LCM across tenants/clouds/se-groups |
Flexible LCM across tenants/clouds/se-groups |
|
Ecosystem automation |
No Access Cloud vCenter |
No Access Cloud NSX-T Cloud |
Native integrations with all major public & private clouds and container orchestration platforms |
Native integrations with all major public & private clouds and container orchestration platforms |
|
Pulse |
X |
X |
Enhanced case management Live Security Threat Updates |
Enhanced case management
Note:
Proactive case creation is supported. For more information on Proactive case creation, see Proactive Support topic in the VMware NSX Advanced Load BalancerCloud Services Guide Live Security Threat Updates |
|
Advanced Analytics |
Application Visibility/Analytics |
X |
X |
Advanced application telemetry Log insights |
Advanced application telemetry Log insights |
Functioning of Licensing Editions
The following are a few points on how the licensing editions work in the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller:
The Enterprise with Cloud Services Edition is the default licensing tier for an NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller. A new Controller is set up to be in the Enterprise with Cloud Services Edition licensing tier.
Customers can request trial service units (saas units) valid for up to 90 days to try out features in the Cloud Services edition. Contact the NSX Advanced Load Balancer representative for more details.
VMware continues to ship trial licenses for the Enterprise edition as part of the packaging. The customer must change the license tier to Enterprise to utilize these licenses.
The NSX Advanced Load Balancer can be set up in any one of the licensing tier. However, the entire Controller cluster operates in the same license edition tier to which all applications and SEs belong..
The License tier for the Controller can be changed from one edition to another without any disruptions of traffic or downtime.
