This section provides general information about the data path performance of NSX Advanced Load Balancer based on configuration examples and different measured metrics from lab tests. It does not include a formal performance study and the outcome can vary if different configurations are used, but the information is imperative to understand NSX Advanced Load Balancer performance.

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Performance Datasheet for vCenterThe tests were performed with NSX Advanced Load Balancer version 20.1.6 with full access vCenter cloud. The information found within this document remains valid through the current versions and for current operating versions.

vCenter Cloud

1 Core/ 2 GB RAM

2 Core/ 2 GB RAM

4 Core/ 4 GB RAM

6 Core/ 6 GB

SSL Transactions per sec (ECC)

2900

5800

8700

12000

SSL Transactions per sec (ECC)

950

1800

2600

4000

L7 Requests per sec

58000

80000

150000

185000

L4 Connections per sec (TCP)

42000

54000

100000

132000

L4 Open Connections*

40000

80000

160000

320000

L4 Throughput**

6 Gbps

6 Gbps

9.5 Gbps

13 Gbps

L7 Throughput

5 Gbps

5.6 Gbps

11 Gbps

12 Gbps

L7 SSL Throughput

2.6 Gbps

3.8 Gbps

7.2 Gbps

10 Gbps

SE CPU Cores

1

2

4

6

SE Memory

2 GB

2 GB

4 GB

6 GB

SE Disk

15 GB

20 GB

30 GB

40 GB

  1. Tested on Intel(R) Xeon(R) Gold 6148 CPU @ 2.40GHz, supermicro, 32 CPUs x 2.4 GHz, 256 GB memory with NSX Advanced Load Balancer 20.1.6.

  2. The Service Engines were deployed on VMware vCenter, using NSX Advanced Load Balancer VMware Cloud Connector and Write Access automation.

  3. Core = Service Engine VM Core (Service Cores)

  4. Throughput measurements are virtual service throughput, calculated by aggregating the client-facing traffic only. Total throughput on the Service Engine is approximately double.

  5. SSL Tests were performed with:

    1. EC (SECP2 56R1) and RSA (2048 Bits)

    2. Cipher used:

      1. EC — TLS_ECDHE_ECDSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

      2. RSA — TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256

    3. PFS enabled, TLS version 1.2

  6. The above data is per Service Engine VM. NSX Advanced Load Balancer’s L3-based Active-Active scaling capability allows customers to scale out based on application requirements on-demand.

  7. The performed tests are done with CPU limit set to unlimited for Service Engine VM. This is the default setting for bringing up the Service Engine VM.

  8. Open Connections capacity (also known as Concurrent Connections) can be increased by adding more memory to the Service Engine.

  9. L4 Throughput on SEs with 4 core or more tested with 2 dispatcher cores.

  10. SE dispatcher/ proxy cores configuration:

    1. 1 Core and 2 Core SE — Dedicated dispatcher set to False

    2. 4 Core and 6 Core SE — Dedicated dispatcher set to True

    3. 4 Core SE — 1 dispatcher core, 3 proxy cores

      1. 2 Dispatcher and 2 proxy cores for L4-throughput tests

    4. 6 Core SE— 2 Dispatcher cores, 4 proxy cores