Hello All.
We’re thrilled to announce the release of F5 NGINX Instance Manager 2.20, now available for download. This update focuses on improving accessibility, simplifying deployments, enhancing observability, and enriching the user experience based on valuable customer feedback.
What’s New in This Release?
Lightweight Mode for NGINX Instance Manager
Reduce resource usage with the new Lightweight Mode, which lets you deploy NGINX Instance Manager without a ClickHouse database, significantly lowering CPU, memory, and storage requirements—to as little as 1 CPU and 2 GB memory for basic deployments. While metrics and events will no longer be available when ClickHouse is not installed, all other instance management functionalities, such as fleet management, certificate management, WAF, usage reporting, GitOps configuration management, and more, will work seamlessly across VM, Docker, and Kubernetes installations.
Customers who require metrics and events should continue to include ClickHouse in their setup. For those focused on basic use cases, Lightweight Mode offers a streamlined deployment that reduces system complexity while maintaining core functionality for essential tasks. This is perfect for customers who need simplified management capabilities.
See the updated technical specification in the documentation for more details and sizing guides.
Support for Multiple Subscriptions
Align and consolidate usage from multiple NGINX Plus subscriptions on a single NGINX Instance Manager deployment. This functionality is especially beneficial for customers using NGINX Instance Manager as a reporting endpoint, even in disconnected or air-gapped environments, a capability introduced with NGINX Plus R33.
Enhanced User Interface
We’ve modernized the NGINX Instance Manager UI to streamline navigation and make it consistent with the F5 NGINX One Console. Features are now grouped into submenus for easier access. Additionally, breadcrumbs have been added to all pages for improved usability.
Improved Licensing and Reporting for Disconnected Environments
Managing NGINX Instance Manager in environments with no outbound internet connectivity is now simpler. Customers can configure NGINX Instance Manager to use a forward proxy for licensing and reporting. For truly air-gapped environments, we’ve improved offline licensing: upload your license JWT to activate all features, and enjoy a 90-day grace period to submit an initial report to F5. We’ve also revamped the usage reporting script to be more intuitive and backwards-compatible with older versions.
Instance Export Enhancements
We’ve added the ability to export instances and instance groups, simplifying the process of managing and sharing configuration details. This improvement makes it easier to keep track of large deployments and maintain consistency across environments.
Performance and Stability Improvements
With this release, we’ve made performance and stability improvements, which are a key part of every update to ensure that NGINX Instance Manager runs smoothly in all environments. We’ve addressed multiple bug fixes in this release to improve stability and reliability. For more details on all the fixes included, please visit the release notes.
Platform Improvements and Helm Chart Migration
We’ve made significant enhancements to the Helm charts to simplify the installation process for NGINX Instance Manager in Kubernetes environments. Starting with this release, the Helm charts have moved to a new repository: nginx-stable/nim with chart version 2.0.
Note: NGINX Instance Manager versions 2.19 or lower will remain in the old repository, nms-stable/nms-hybrid . Be sure to update your configurations accordingly when upgrading to version 2.20 or later.
Get Started Now
To explore the new lightweight mode, enhanced UI, and updated features, download NGINX Instance Manager 2.20 . For more details on bug fixes and performance improvements, check out the full release notes .
Also, check out the NGINX Instance Manager 2.20 detailed blog on F5 DevCentral