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 API Connectivity Manager App Delivery Manager
Notes
Amazon Linux 2 LTS x86_64 2.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later 4.0.0 and later
CentOS 7.4 and later in the 7.x family x86_64 2.0.0 and later 1.0.0 and later 4.0.0 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
Not supported
4.0.0 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
1.3.0 and later
Not supported
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
1.3.0 and later
Not supported
4.0.0 and later
4.0.0 and later
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
4.0.0 and later
4.0.0 and later
4.0.0 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
API Connectivity Manager - 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
API Connectivity Manager - Data Plane and Dev Portal 1.4.0 and later
1.0.0–1.3.1
Not supported
Not supported
R24–R28
R21–R27
App Delivery Manager 4.0.0 and later Not supported R24–R28

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 and up to 350 associated certificates.

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
2.10.0–2.10.1 Release 4.0.0–4.2.0
2.9.0 Release 3.12.2–4.2.0
2.8.0 Release 3.12.2–4.1.0
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 depends on the platform capabilities of Instance Manager. The following table lists the minimum versions of Instance Manager required for API Connectivity Manager:

API Connectivity Manager Instance Manager Dependency
1.6.0 2.10.0–2.10.1
1.5.0 2.9.0 and later
1.4.0–1.4.1 2.7.0 and later
1.3.0–1.3.1 2.6.0 and later
1.1.0–1.2.0 2.4.0 and later
1.0.0 2.3.0 and later

To ensure API Connectivity Manager’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, API Connectivity Manager will install the latest version. If the installed version is below the minimum required version, API Connectivity Manager will upgrade Instance Manager to the latest version. Otherwise, API Connectivity Manager will leave Instance Manager unchanged.

Important:
If you’re installing API Connectivity Manager in an offline environment and the minimum required version of Instance Manager is not installed, the API Connectivity Manager installer will exit. You’ll need to install Instance Manager manually before installing API Connectivity Manager.
Important:
If you’re installing API Connectivity Manager in an offline environment and the minimum required version of Instance Manager is not installed, the API Connectivity Manager installer will exit. You’ll need to install Instance Manager manually before installing API Connectivity Manager.

API Connectivity Manager 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

App Delivery Manager

Dependencies with Instance Manager

App Delivery Manager relies on the platform features provided by NGINX Management Suite, specifically those included with Instance Manager.

When installing App Delivery Manager, you may need a newer version of NGINX Management Suite. The installation process will notify you of any version requirements before installing App Delivery Manager and any dependent packages, including NGINX Management Suite. You may cancel the installation process if a backup of the NGINX Management Suite is needed before upgrading.

The following table lists the minimum versions of Instance Manager required by App Delivery Manager:

App Delivery Manager Instance Manager Dependency
4.0.0 2.10.1
Important:
If you’re installing App Delivery Manager in an offline environment and the minimum required version of Instance Manager is not installed, the App Delivery Manager installer will exit. You’ll need to install Instance Manager manually before installing App Delivery Manager.

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
1.4.0 2.10.0–2.10.1
1.3.0 2.9.0
1.2.0 2.8.0
1.1.0 2.7.0
1.0.0 2.6.0
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
1.4.0 4.2.0
1.3.0 Release 3.12.2 - 4.2.0
1.2.0 Release 3.12.2 - 4.1.0
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.