This section documents the process of registering and de-registering NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services.

Process to register NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services

Follow these steps to successfully register your NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller cluster with NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services.

  1. Open a browser tab and login to your Controller using its Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN). 

  2. Navigate to Administration > Licensing.

  3. Click the gear icon and ensure that the ENTERPRISE_WITH_CLOUD_SERVICES tier is selected. 

  4. (Optional) Set the required Number of Reserved Licenses and Maximum Allowed Licenses for this NSX Advanced Load Balancer deployment.

  5. Click Save.

    Note:

    Number of Reserved Licenses allows you to partition your purchased subscriptions. The configured amount of license capacity will always be reserved for your Controller (assuming active license count is equal or greater than what is being reserved). 

    Maximum Allowed Licenses allows you to setup maximum consumption for this Controller. The Controller will never consume more capacity that what is set here.

  6. Navigate to Administration > Cloud Services.

  7. Click on the pencil icon to rename your Controller cluster from cluster-0-1 to a more representative name. This name will be used on NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services portal to identify your Controller.

  8. Click SAVE.

  9. Click REGISTER CONTROLLER.

  10. Enter your VMware CSP credentials to authenticate your Controller with NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services.

  11. Once authenticated, choose the CSP Organization to associate this Controller with. This should be the same as CSP Organization which has an active NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services subscription.

  12. Choose a service contact. This contact will be used by the Proactive Support service (if enabled) when a support case is filed.

  13. Optionally, enable other services delivered by NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services.

  14. Click SAVE to complete registration.

Note:

  1. Registered Controllers regularly send their health metrics like CPU, memory, license usage information to the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services portal. You can turn it off by disabling the inventory service using the following CLI:

    configure albservicesconfig → operations_config → inventory_config → no enable  

  2. If your Controller deployment was upgraded, existing licenses (VMware serial keys) being used on this controller will be invalidated once license tier is switched to ENTERPRISE_WITH_CLOUD_SERVICES. 

  3. After Controller registration, you can verify your subscription by using show license status command on the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller CLI. 

Note:

Re-registration might be required if the Controller was previously registered with NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services.

Validate if NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller registration is complete from the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services portal.

  1. Launch the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services portal.

  2. Authenticate using your CustomerConnect credentials.

  3. Navigate to the Controllers tab.

  4. Validate that the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller from the previous step shows as registered.

  5. After registering, you should verify that subscription is succeeded by using show license status command on the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller CLI.

Field

Value

uuid

default

name

license_status

saas_status

enabled

True

reserve_service_units

0.0

connected

False

message

SAAS SUBSCRIBED

expired

False

configpb_attributes

version

1
Note:

You can launch NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services from the CSP console at https://console.cloud.vmware.com, by navigating to the CSP Organization and clicking the service tile.

De-registering NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services

De-registering through the Controller UI

  1. Launch the NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller UI.

  2. Navigate to Administration > Cloud Services.

  3. Click DEREGISTER CONTROLLER.

  4. Click OK to confirm and complete de-registration.

De-registering through NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services Portal

  1. Open portal.avipulse.vmware.com on your browser.

  2. Navigate to Controllers tab.

  3. Select the CSP Organization that is associated with your Controller.

  4. Click Deregister.

Once de-registration is completed:

  • All Cloud services will be disconnected.

  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engines will become unlicensed. However, existing Service Engines and virtual services will not be hampered and continue to function just as they were before opting out of this service.

  • New Service Engine registrations will be blocked until tier is switched, for instance, ENTERPRISE or Central licensing is enabled again.

Note:

  • Customers should only de-register a registered Controller in the following situations:

    • Changing CSP Organization mapping for the Controller, to change where capacity is consumed from.

    • Changing licensing tier on the Controller.

  • Customers should not continue to run an NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller in a de-registered state, when it is in the ENTERPRISE_WITH_CLOUD_SERVICES Licensing Tier.

  • De-registering the Controller through NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services portal should be done only when the Controller de-registration is not feasible through the Controller UI, for instance, when the Controller is deleted or inaccessible.

  • Upon de-registration, any or all customer information, such as contact email, name will be cleared.