What does the TR7 Load Balancer - ADC module cover, and what does it not cover?

Short answer

Load Balancer - ADC (TR7 ADC) covers L3-L4-L7 load balancing, SSL/TLS termination, health checks, persistence and traffic management with Condition - Actions. WAF - WAAP for web application and API protection, AGS - AAM for authentication and MFA, and GTM for DNS-based global routing are separately licensed products. The scope of reporting and DDoS protection is extended with add-ons.

What It Covers

Area	Included with Load Balancer - ADC
Receiving traffic	Three vService types: HTTP (L7), L7 TCP and Network (L3/L4)
Targets	Backend Service and Backend Group; Weight, Connection limit, Backup service, Maintenance mode
Health and distribution	Health Checks profiles, load balancing algorithms, persistence
Encryption	SSL/TLS termination on the vService; re-encryption to the Backend Service (SSL Service)
Traffic management	Conditional Backend Services (Content Switching), header editing, URL redirection and error pages with Conditions and Actions
Access control	The Source IP condition (IP, country, ASN) with the Block and Quarantine actions
Performance	Cache, Compression, Timeouts and vService Limits profiles
Monitoring	vService Dashboard, logs, Live Stats; basic reporting

Separate Products and Add-ons

The following are not included in the Load Balancer - ADC license and are licensed separately. WAF - WAAP and AGS - AAM, when licensed, are put into service on the same vService.

Need	Product / add-on	Type
OWASP rules, API protection, bot management, data masking	WAF - WAAP	Separate product
Authentication, MFA, Backend SSO, session protection	AGS - AAM	Separate product
Routing between data centers and geographic (DNS-based) routing, Disaster Recovery	GTM	Separate product
Extending reporting to more vServices	L7 Reporting	Add-on
Extending application-layer DDoS protection to more vServices	L7 DDoS Protection	Add-on
Protecting the traffic entering the route table at the packet and connection layer	L4 DDoS Protection	Add-on

Basic reporting and standard DDoS protection come with the product license; add-ons extend this scope. License models, bundle contents and capacity options are on the tr7.com license pages.

Platform Components

The following are not a separate product; they are platform components that all products use in common:

Component	Scope
Certificates & PKI	SSL/TLS certificates, TLS security profiles, certificate authorities and ACME
Network	Interfaces, IP addresses, routing and route tables
Settings	System, user, log and backup settings
Web CLI and REST API	Command line and programmatic management

Common Misconceptions

• "When Load Balancer - ADC is purchased, WAF comes with it." WAF - WAAP is a separately licensed product. Load Balancer - ADC on its own offers access controls such as IP and country restriction with conditions and actions.
• "Load Balancer is enough for load balancing between data centers." Load Balancer - ADC distributes within a data center. Routing between data centers and geographic routing are done at the DNS layer with GTM.
• "Certificate management is licensed separately." Certificates are managed under Certificates & PKI; this is a platform component, not a separate product.

How it is done in the documentation

• Products & Licensing · Products
• Products & Licensing · Add-ons
• Products & Licensing · Platform Components
• Load Balancer - ADC · Key Features

Related questions

• What is a load balancer and what does it do?
• What is the difference between Load Balancer and GTM; which one should I use?
• How much security does the Load Balancer module provide on its own; when do I need a WAF?
• How do I attach WAF, L7 DDoS & Threat Protection and AGS to a vService?