Central Licensing enables zero-touch capacity management and cloud bursting for globally distributed NSX Advanced Load Balancer deployments.

Feature Highlights

  • Global capacity pool

  • Eliminate duplicate licenses for Disaster Recovery

  • Move licenses with your Apps

  • Enable seamless Cloud Bursting

Data Collection and Retention Policy

Data Collection:

No data other than specifically outlined in Privacy document is collected by and for this service. As and when capacity is required on NSX Advanced Load Balancer deployments, request for capacity tokens originate from the Controller which are made available by the Central Licensing Service.

Data Retention:

Does not apply to this service.

  • This service does not store or exchange any customer data.

  • This service has no access to customer infrastructure, including NSX, vCenter, and others.

  • This service does not read or write any configurations on the registered NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controllers.

How to enable this service

This is a mandatory service and is enabled by default when a Controller is setup in the ENTERPRISE_WITH_CLOUD_SERVICES tier, and is registered with Cloud Services. Refer to the Registering NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller with Cloud Services section.

Service Details

Central Licensing Service is available with NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services subscription. When a customer onboards a purchased subscription and maps it to a CSP Organization, the said purchased subscription capacity is deposited into the Central Licensing Service.

Central Licensing Service then handles distribution of capacity across all registered Controller deployments. When capacity is required on Controller deployments, a request is made to Central Licensing Service to grant a capacity token. This capacity token is then used by the Controller to license Service Engines. These capacity tokens are automatically refreshed by the Controller. Capacity deposited in Central Licensing Service across different CSP Organizations is fully sandboxed and isolated.

NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller deployments can 'reserve' required capacity upfront. Refer How to enable this service section for details.

Central Licensing Service grants a 10% built in buffer. For instance, if Customer-A purchases 100 units of NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services subscription; 110 units of capacity will be deposited into Central Licensing Service.

Note:

Capacity is deposited into CSP Organizations within Central Licensing. For instance, if Customer-A purchases 100 units of NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services and maps it to Org-1 and purchases another 50 units of NSX Advanced Load Balancer with Cloud Services and maps it to Org-2; NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller deployments mapped to Org-1 can in total consume up to 110 units and deployments mapped to Org-2 can in total consume up to 55 units (10% buffer).

Subscription Expiry

During the term of the purchased subscription, customer has access to the new software releases (including software patches) published by VMware for NSX Advanced Load Balancer and access to 24/7 support. At the end of the specific SaaS subscription period, customer can purchase a new software SaaS subscription (annual or multi-year term). If a SaaS subscription expires, the following behavior applies:  

  • Existing operational virtual services that are deployed continue to operate for perpetuity.

  • Ability to use the software within its existing configuration does not expire. 

  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller does not automatically disable configuration. 

  • NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller prevents creation of any new virtual services or Service Engines. 

  • VMware will not provide support for NSX Advanced Load Balancer. 

  • Access to all services delivered through NSX Advanced Load Balancer Cloud Services is halted including live security threat feeds. 

Events of Interests

The following events are generated on the Controller for Central Licensing:

  1. LICENSE_SUBSCRIBED: Controller successfully subscribed with portal for licenses.

  2. LICENSE_SUBSCRIPTION_FAILURE: Controller failed to subscribe with portal.

  3. LICENSE_UNSUBSCRIBED: Controller unsubscribed from portal for licenses.

  4. LICENSE_REFRESH_SUCCESS: Controller refreshed portal issued license sucessfully.

  5. LICENSE_REFRESH_FAILURE: Controller failed to refresh portal issued license.

Impact of Unavailability

During the period that Central Licensing service is down, for the first seven days:

  1. All existing NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engines and the hosted load balanced applications will continue to function without any disruption for perpetuity.

  2. New NSX Advanced Load Balancer Service Engines can continue to be created up to 100% of available active subscription capacity per registered NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controller with an additional 10% buffer.

After seven days the license lease expires and the Controller will not be able to pull new SU from the Central Licensing service.

Note:

Registered NSX Advanced Load Balancer Controllers can reserve required capacity upfront during registration and be protected from any Central Licensing availability impact.