The NSX-ALB Controller is the single point of management and control that serves as the “brain” of the entire system and for high availability is typically deployed as a three-node cluster.
As its name implies, the Controller implements the control plane. A single NSX-ALB deployment is managed from this Controller/cluster (identified by FQDN and/or cluster IP address), regardless of the number of applications being load balanced or the number of SE’s required. The Controller’s REST API provides visibility into all applications (virtual services) configured.
For a higher degree of automation, in write access mode deployments, Controllers work with the underlying orchestrator to launch new SE’s as needed. Be the SE’s automatically or manually created (as they would be in no access mode deployments), it is the Controller’s duty to place virtual services on SE’s to load balance new applications or increase the the capacity of running applications.
NSX-ALB Management and Control Plane
NSX-ALB Control Plane Clustering and Anti-affinity for HA
The controllers should be connected to an existing management network. This connectivity will provide the administrative access as well as the intra deployment communications path.
Each controller will require an Internet Protocol (IP) Address from the subnet associated with the management network. In addition to this there is a requirement for an additional IP address for the cluster.