Array APV vs OpenELB
Array APV
arraynetworks.comOpenELB
openelb.ioSide by side
| Figure | Array APV | OpenELB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Load Balancing Software | 7.6 (#5) | 6.9 (#16) |
| Integrations | The x850 datasheet lists integration with OpenStack Load Balancing-as-a-Service, VMware Cloud Orchestrator, and Microsoft System Center standards. | The project lists installation guides for Kubernetes, K3s and KubeSphere. |
| Purpose | APV Series application delivery controllers provide application availability, scalability, performance, security, and traffic control. | OpenELB exposes Kubernetes LoadBalancer services to external access in bare-metal, edge, and virtualization environments. |
| Support | Array directs product usage issues to Customer Support and lists [email protected] for feedback or suggestions in the vAPV administration guide. | The project directs users to the KubeSphere Slack channel for support and discussion. |
In their own words
Array APV
Array APV is an application delivery controller series for managing application availability, scalability, performance, security, and traffic. It balances server traffic across Layers 2, 3, 4, and 7, with health checks, persistence, clustering, and failover. Administrators can configure Layer 7 policies in the WebUI or CLI and combine them for customized traffic management. APV includes SSL/TLS acceleration and offloading, connection multiplexing, caching, and compression, along with certificate and key management. The x850 datasheet describes WebWall web application security and DDoS protection. Listed integrations include OpenStack Load Balancing-as-a-Service, VMware Cloud Orchestrator, and Microsoft System Center standards. Deployment options include physical or virtual appliances, hyper-converged infrastructure, and cloud platforms; vAPV documentation names VMware ESXi, Hyper-V, KVM, Citrix XenServer, Nutanix, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Management options include secure CLI, WebUI, SSH remote management, role-based administration, and real-time monitoring. Array identifies banking, healthcare, manufacturing, government, education, and service providers among the sectors it serves. Pricing is on request.
OpenELB
OpenELB exposes Kubernetes LoadBalancer services externally in bare-metal, edge, and virtualization environments. It assigns service addresses from Eip-managed IP pools and supports BGP, Layer 2, and VIP load-balancing modes. BGP mode uses GoBGP to publish routes to peer routers and supports ECMP, while BgpConf and BgpPeer custom resources configure BGP properties. Layer 2 mode requires infrastructure that permits anonymous ARP/NDP packets. VIP mode uses VRRP for high availability. OpenELB can be installed with kubectl manifests or Helm 3 in Kubernetes 1.15 or later, and guides are listed for Kubernetes, K3s, and KubeSphere. The project currently supports IPv4 only and is not a managed service. Layer 2 and VIP modes forward through one active node, so failover can briefly interrupt services and bandwidth is limited by that node. BGP requires a router supporting BGP and ECMP. OpenELB uses Apache License 2.0.