How to Create the Service Engine Groups – NSX-ALB

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Service Engines are created within a group, which contains the definition of how the SEs should be sized, placed, and made highly available. Each cloud will have at least one SE group.  The options within an SE group may vary based on the type of cloud within which they exist and its settings, such as no access versus write access mode.  SEs may only exist within one group.  Each group acts as an isolation domain.  SE resources within an SE group may be moved around to accommodate virtual services, but SE resources are never shared between SE groups.

Depending on the change, a change made to an SE group

  • May be applied immediately,
  • Only applied to SEs created after the changes are made, or
  • Require existing SEs first to be disabled before the changes can take effect.

Multiple SE groups may exist within a cloud.  A newly created virtual service will be placed on the default SE group, though this can be changed via the VS > Advanced page while creating a VS via the advanced wizard.  To move an existing virtual service from one SE group to another, the VS must first be disabled, moved, and then re-enabled.  SE groups provide data plane isolation; therefore, moving a VS from one SE group to another is disruptive to existing connections through the virtual Service.

To create Active/Active Service Engine Groups

  1. Login to the user interface of NSX-ALB.
  1. On the main navigation bar, click Applications.
  2. Navigate to Infrastructure > and click Service Engine Group
  3. Click Create.

Fill in the identified variables for each service engine group. 

  1. Select Advanced
  2. Click Save

AVI creates its own folder in vCenter when the first Service is created