Announcing F5 NGINX Instance Manager 2.20

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, improving 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 allows you to deploy F5 NGINX Instance Manager without requiring a ClickHouse database. While metrics and events will no longer be available without ClickHouse, all other instance management functionalities—such as certificate management, WAF, templates, and more—will work seamlessly across VM, Docker, and Kubernetes installations.

With this change, ClickHouse becomes optional for deployments. 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.

Lightweight Mode is perfect for customers who need simplified management capabilities for scenarios such as:

• Fleet Management
• WAF Configuration
• Usage Reporting as Part of Your Subscription (for NGINX Plus R33 or later)
• Certificate Management
• Managing Templates
• Scanning Instances
• Enabling API-based GitOps for Configuration Management

In testing, NGINX Instance Manager worked well without ClickHouse. It only needed 1 CPU and 1 GB of RAM to manage up to 10 instances (without App Protect). However, please note that this represents the absolute minimum configuration and may result in performance issues depending on your use case. For optimal performance, we recommend allocating more appropriate system resources.

See the updated technical specification in the documentation for more details.

 

Support for Multiple Subscriptions

Align and consolidate usage from multiple NGINX Plus subscriptions on a single NGINX Instance Manager instance. This feature is especially benficial for customers who use NGINX Instance Manager as a reporting endpoint, even in disconnected or air-gapped environments. This feature was added with NGINX Plus R33.

 

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.

 

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. 

 

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, a key part of every update to ensure 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.

 

Looking Ahead: Security, Modernization, and Kubernetes Innovations

As part of the F5 NGINX One product offering, NGINX Instance Manager continues to evolve to meet the demands of modern infrastructures. We're committed to improving security, scalability, usability, and observability to align with your needs.

Although support for the latest F5 NGINX Agent v3 is not included in this release. We are actively exploring ways to enable it later this year to bring additional value for both NGINX Instance Manager and the NGINX One Console.

Additionally, we’re exploring new ways to enhance support for data plane NGINX deployments, particularly in Kubernetes environments. Stay tuned for updates as we continue to innovate for cloud-native and containerized workloads.

We’re eager to hear your feedback to help shape the roadmap for future releases.

 

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. .

 

The NGINX Impact in F5’s Application Delivery & Security Platform 

NGINX Instance Manager is part of F5’s Application Delivery & Security Platform. It helps organizations deliver, optimize, and secure modern applications and APIs. This platform is a unified solution designed to ensure reliable performance, robust security, and seamless scalability for applications deployed across cloud, hybrid, and edge architectures.  

NGINX Instance Manager is also a key component of NGINX One, the all-in-one, subscription-based package that unifies all of NGINX’s capabilities. NGINX One brings together the features of NGINX Plus, F5 NGINX App Protect, and NGINX Kubernetes and management solutions into a single, easy-to-consume package. A cornerstone of the NGINX One package, NGINX Instance Manager extends the capabilities of open-source NGINX with features designed specifically for enterprise-grade performance, scalability, and security.