Technical Specifications
This document outlines the requirements for the NGINX Management Suite and NGINX Agent, such as compatible platforms, hardware specifications, sizing advice, compatible web browsers, and more.
Overview
The NGINX Management Suite is a comprehensive family of management plane solutions that enable you to effectively scale, secure, and monitor your applications and APIs. At its core is the NGINX Management Suite Instance Manager module, which lets you track, secure, and configure your NGINX OSS and NGINX Plus instances. Instance Manager is available as a standalone product and is automatically included when you license any other NGINX Management Suite modules.
NGINX Management Suite
The guidelines in this section are applicable to the entire NGINX Management Suite gateway. Further, module-specific guidelines are highlighted in the respective sections of this document.
Supported Distributions
The NGINX Management Suite gateway supports the following Linux distributions:
| Distribution | Version | Architecture | Instance Manager | ACM | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux | 2 LTS | x86_64 | 2.0.0 and later | 1.0.0 and later | |
| CentOS | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family | x86_64 | 2.0.0 and later | 1.0.0 and later | |
| Debian | 10 11 |
x86_64 x86_64 |
2.0.0 and later 2.0.0 and later |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later |
|
| Oracle Linux | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family 8.0 and later in the 8.0.x family |
x86_64 x86_64 |
2.0.0 and later 2.6.0 and later |
1.0.0 and later Not supported |
|
| RHEL | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family 8.x and later in the 8.x family 9.x and later in the 9.x family |
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 |
2.0.0 and later 2.0.0 and later 2.6.0 and later |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later Not supported |
|
| Ubuntu | 18.04 20.04 22.04 |
x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 |
2.0.0 and later 2.0.0 and later 2.3.0 and later |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later |
Configuration Management for App Protect WAF is not compatible with Ubuntu 22.04. |
Note:
If you’re installing the API Connectivity Manager module, make sure to review the supported distributions for the Developer Portal host. That list varies slightly from this one.
Supported Deployment Environments
You can deploy the NGINX Management Suite gateway in the following environments:
- Bare Metal
- Container
- Public Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure
- Virtual Machine
Supported NGINX Versions
NGINX Management Suite supports the following NGINX versions:
| Module | Version | NGINX OSS | NGINX Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instance Manager | 2.7.0 and later 2.0.0–2.6.0 |
1.18–1.22.1 1.18–1.21.6 |
R21–R28 R21–R27 |
| ACM - Management Plane | 1.4.0 and later 1.0.0–1.3.1 |
1.18–1.22.1 1.18–1.21.6 |
R24–R28 R24–R27 |
| ACM - Data Plane and Dev Portal | 1.4.0 and later 1.0.0–1.3.1 |
Not supported Not supported |
R24–R28 R21–R27 |
Firewall Ports
The NGINX Management Suite and NGINX Agent services use the Unix domain socket by default and proxy through the gateway on port 443.
Supported Browsers
The NGINX Management Suite web interface works best on the newest versions of these browsers:
Logging
The NGINX Management Suite stores its log files in /var/log/nms. To prevent your system from running out of disk space due to log growth, we suggest creating a separate partition for the logs or enabling log rotation.
Instance Manager
Sizing Recommendations
The following sizing recommendations are the minimum sizing guidelines for Instance Manager. For improved performance, we strongly suggest using SSDs as your storage option.
Standard NGINX Configuration Deployments
The following sizing guidelines are for Instance Manager deployments with data plane instances that have standard configurations; that is, up to 40 upstream servers with associated location and server blocks.
We recommend using solid-state drives (SSDs) for better storage performance.
| # of Data Plane Instances | CPU | Memory | Network | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 2 vCPU | 4 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 100 GB |
| 100 | 2 vCPU | 4 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 1 TB |
| 1000 | 4 vCPU | 8 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 3 TB |
Large NGINX Configuration Deployments
The following sizing guidelines are for Instance Manager deployments with data plane instances that have large configurations; that is, up to 300 upstream servers with associated location and server blocks.
| # of Data Plane Instances | CPU | Memory | Network | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | 4 vCPU | 8 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 1 TB |
| 250 | 4 vCPU | 8 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 2 TB |
Support for NGINX App Protect WAF
Instance Manager supports the following versions of NGINX App Protect WAF:
| Instance Manager | NGINX App Protect WAF |
|---|---|
| 2.7.0 | Release 3.12.2 - 4.0.0 |
| 2.6.0 | Release 3.12.2 |
API Connectivity Manager
Dependencies with Instance Manager
API Connectivity Manager (ACM) depends on the platform capabilities of Instance Manager. The following table lists the minimum versions of Instance Manager required for ACM:
The following table lists the minimum versions of Instance Manager required for ACM:
| API Connectivity Manager | Instance Manager Dependency |
|---|---|
| ACM 1.4.0–1.4.1 | NIM 2.7.0–2.8.0 |
| ACM 1.3.0–1.3.1 | NIM 2.6.0 and later |
| ACM 1.1.0–1.2.0 | NIM 2.4.0 and later |
| ACM 1.0.0 | NIM 2.3.0 and later |
To ensure ACM’s new features work correctly, you may need to install or upgrade Instance Manager to the minimum version specified. If Instance Manager is not installed, ACM will install the latest version. If the installed version is below the minimum required version, ACM will upgrade Instance Manager to the latest version. Otherwise, ACM will leave Instance Manager unchanged.
Important:
If you’re installing ACM in an offline environment and the minimum required version of Instance Manager is not installed, the ACM installer will exit. You’ll need to install Instance Manager manually before installing ACM.
ACM Supported NGINX Versions
API Connectivity Manager works with the following NGINX versions:
| Module | Version | NGINX OSS | NGINX Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACM - Management Plane | 1.4.0 and later 1.0.0–1.3.1 |
1.18–1.22.1 1.18–1.21.6 |
R24–R28 R24–R27 |
| ACM - Data Plane and Dev Portal | 1.4.0 and later 1.0.0–1.3.1 |
Not supported Not supported |
R24–R28 R21–R27 |
Developer Portal Supported Distributions
The Developer Portal supports the following Linux distributions:
| Distribution | Version | Platform | ACM Developer Portal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux | 2 LTS | x86_64 | 1.0.0 and later |
| CentOS | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family | x86_64 | 1.0.0 and later |
| Debian | 10 11 |
x86_64 x86_64 |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later |
| Oracle Linux | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family | x86_64 | 1.0.0 and later |
| RHEL | 7.4 and later in the 7.x family 8.x |
x86_64 x86_64 |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later |
| Ubuntu | 18.04 20.04 |
x86_64 x86_64 |
1.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later |
Security Monitoring Module
Dependencies with Instance Manager
The Security Monitoring module requires the following versions of Instance Manager to be installed on the management plane:
| Security Monitoring | Instance Manager |
|---|---|
| 1.2.0 and later | 2.8.0 and later |
| 1.1.0 and later | 2.7.0 and later |
| 1.0.0 and later | 2.6.0 and later |
Important:
The Security Monitoring module installation does not automatically install or upgrade Instance Manager. You’ll need to manually install Instance Manager, or upgrade it to a version supported for use with Security Monitoring.
Dependencies with NGINX App Protect WAF and NGINX Plus
The Security Monitoring module requires the following versions of NGINX App Protect WAF and NGINX Plus for the data plane:
| Security Monitoring | NGINX App Protect WAF |
|---|---|
| 1.2.0 | Release 3.12.2 - 4.0.0 |
| 1.1.0 | Release 3.12.2 - 4.0.0 |
| 1.0.0 | Release 3.12.2 |
NGINX Agent (Data Plane)
Supported Distributions
The NGINX Agent can run on most environments. For the supported distributions, see the NGINX Technical Specs guide.
Supported Deployment Environments
You can deploy the NGINX Agent in the following environments:
- Bare Metal
- Container
- Public Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure
- Virtual Machine
Supported NGINX Versions
The NGINX Agent works with all versions of NGINX OSS and NGINX Plus.
Sizing Recommendations
The following table lists the minimum sizing recommendations for the NGINX Agent:
| CPU | Memory | Network | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 CPU core | 1 GB RAM | 1 GbE NIC | 20 GB |
Logging
The NGINX Agent utilizes log files and formats to collect metrics. Increasing the log formats and instance counts will result in increased log file sizes. To prevent system storage issues due to a growing log directory, it is recommended to add a separate partition for /var/log/nginx-agent and enable log rotation.