NSX Advanced Load Balancer licenses are based on annual or multi-year subscription. The licenses are valid for a year and can be renewed on a yearly basis.

Note:

For complete information on procuring, installing, and managing a license, see Licensing.

NSX Advanced Load Balancer License Types

License Type

Infrastructure

Description

Data Plane (NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engine)

vCPU

VMs, Baremetal, Container, Cisco CSP, Private, and public cloud

Defines the maximum number of vCPUs (cores) across all SEs. This is the default license mode. The SE vCPU allocation is configured in the SE group.

  • For example, a 10-vCPU license allows up to ten 1-vCPU SEs, or five 2-vCPU SEs, or a mix of four 1-vCPU SEs and three 2-vCPU SEs (across two SE groups), and so on.

Per-VS license mode: If an SE group is configured in per-app SE mode, a vCPU counts at a 25% rate for licensing usage. For example, a 2-vCPU SE in the per-app SE group utilizes a 0.5 vCPU license (2 * 0.25). Per-app SE mode is limited to a maximum of two virtual services per SE. This mode is suitable for deployments with dedicated per-application load balancers. Per-VS license mode is not supported for DNS virtual services.

Socket

Baremetal, Cisco CSP

Defines the total number of sockets that an SE can be deployed on. This license is applicable for processors with up to 14 cores.

High-core socket

Baremetal, Cisco CSP

Defines the total number of sockets that an SE can be deployed on. This license is applicable for processors with 16 cores or more.

Bandwidth

VMs, Baremetal, Container, Cisco CSP, Private, and public cloud

Defines bandwidth license applicable to a single SE. Available in the options of 25Mbps, 200Mbps, and 1Gbps (for public cloud only). Multiple Bandwidth licenses cannot be aggregated on a single SE.

Container-Core

Container East-West

Defines the maximum number of vCPUs (cores) across all SEs deployed for East-West traffic in a Container Cluster. This license is used for East-West traffic in a service mesh.

Control Plane (NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller)

SaaS unit

SaaS

Defines the number of NSX Advanced Load Balancer SaaS units needed in the SaaS instance to support the required number of SEs and application instances.
Note:

A free trial license with all features supported by an enterprise license is available for evaluation. Contact the NSX Advanced Load Balancer representative for more details.

License Overage Allowance

The NSX Advanced Load Balancer allows an overage allowance for the vCPU and bandwidth licenses.

The main features of the overage allowance are as follows:

  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer provides an allowance of 10% of the configured license capacity. This allowance can be utilized once the regular capacity of the license is exhausted.

  • If the 10% allowance results in a fractional number, it is rounded up to the next higher integer.

  • In the case of bandwidth licenses, the allowance is for each bandwidth license SKU separately (25M, 200M, 1G BW).

  • For an NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller having 15 vCPU licenses, the overage allowance is 1.5 vCPU (10% of 15vCPU). This value will be rounded up to two vCPUs. The effective license value when the overage allowance is active is 17 vCPUs.

  • For a Controller having 15 25M bandwidth licenses and ten 200M bandwidth licenses, the allowance is 1.5 additional 25M bandwidth licenses (rounded up to two bandwidth licenses) and one additional 200M bandwidth license.