Avi Controller LicenseError: LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES in Cloud Services Tier

Products

• VMware Avi Load Balancer

Issue/Introduction

• Customers frequently receive notifications or see events within the Avi Controller reporting the alert LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES, indicating that the license limit for Service Engine (SE) Service Cores has been reached even though adequate number of licenses available in the central license portal (Pulse portal).

Environment

• Avi Controllers registered with the Cloud Services tier.

Cause

The root cause is a difference in how licenses are reported and consumed in the Cloud Services tier versus the Enterprise tier:

• Cloud Services Tier: The Avi Controller is designed to consume only the licenses it actively requires from the central license pool on the Pulse portal. The Controller does not download and consume the entire license pool upfront.

• Why 100% Utilization Reporting: Because the Controller only consumes what it needs, the number of licenses consumed on the Controller often equals the number of licenses available on the Controller. This mechanism leads to the Controller's internal license utilization metrics showing 100% utilization, which incorrectly triggers the LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES event.
  
  

  // Event Details from /var/lib/avi/log/alert_debug_notification.log
  
  At <TimeStamp> (UTC) event LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES occurred on <Node-ID> in tenant admin as 100% of total licensed ServiceEngine service cores used
  current_value: 100.0
  entity_uuid: node1.controller.local
  metric_id: controller_stats.max_num_service_cores_lic_usage
  metric_name: max_num_service_cores_lic_usage
  threshold: 90.0

 

Resolution

This event is not relevant for the Cloud Services tier and can be safely ignored.

• No Action Required on Controller: No change is needed on the Avi Controller itself.

• Primary Monitoring Location: Customers should exclusively monitor the Pulse dashboard for the actual, overall license pool exhaustion status. The Pulse portal provides the definitive view of remaining available licenses.

• Fixed Version: 31.1.1 and future maintenance release on 30.x version
  
  AV-214191: Controllers registered in the Enterprise tier with Cloud Services repeatedly report the event LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES
  
  Release Notes:
  https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-security-load-balancing/avi-load-balancer/avi-load-balancer/31-1/vmware-avi-load-balancer-release-notes/Release-Note-Section-20627.html

Additional Information

• The LICENSE_LIMIT_SE_SERVICE_CORES event is primarily designed for the Enterprise tier where licenses are managed locally on the Controller.

• The functionality described is expected behavior when using Cloud Services licensing and is not indicative of an immediate outage or lack of license availability, provided the Pulse dashboard shows available capacity.

• The license reporting anomaly is purely a cosmetic or informational issue on the Controller's local status view.