About NetScaler BLX

Last published : Sep 22, 2026
NetScaler BLX is one of the software form factors of NetScaler. It can run natively on bare-metal Linux on commercial off-the-shelf servers (COTS).
NetScaler is an application delivery controller that does application-specific traffic analysis to intelligently distribute, optimize, and secure Layer 4-Layer 7 (L4–L7) network traffic for web applications. For example, NetScaler load balances decisions on individual HTTP requests instead of long-lived TCP connections. For more information, see Understanding NetScaler.
Related information
General architectureSupported NetScaler® featuresNetScaler BLX licensingSystem requirements

What is the difference between NetScaler BLX and other software form factors?

NetScaler BLX, CPX, and VPX are software form factors of NetScaler.
  • NetScaler BLX is a lightweight software package that runs natively on Linux systems. NetScaler BLX provides simplicity with no hypervisor or container overhead for better performance. NetScaler BLX runs as a Linux process on your hardware of choice.
  • CPX is a containerized version of NetScaler®, which must run in a container.
  • VPX is a virtual appliance and must run on a hypervisor installed on the server.

Why NetScaler BLX?

The following are the benefits of using NetScaler BLX:
  • Cloud-ready - NetScaler BLX provides day-zero support for running on the cloud. It does not require any certifications to run on the cloud because it runs as a software application on Linux virtual machines provisioned on the cloud.
  • Easy-management - You can use the standard tools of the Linux operating system to monitor and manage NetScaler BLX. You can also easily plug in NetScaler BLX to an existing orchestration setup.
  • Seamless third-party tools integration - You can seamlessly integrate open-source tools supported for Linux environments with NetScaler BLX. There is no need to develop separate plug-ins for each integration.
  • Coexistence of other applications - NetScaler BLX runs as a software application. Other Linux applications can also run on the same host.
  • DPDK support - NetScaler BLX supports Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) integration for better performance. It uses the DPDK open-source library to improve performance and overcome the Linux kernel bottleneck in packet processing.