Licensed Add-ons in Varnish Enterprise Announcement

With the release of Varnish Enterprise 6.0.14r6, we are streamlining access to Licensed Add-ons — advanced modules that extend Varnish beyond core Content Delivery use cases.

While Add-ons such as DeviceAtlas, Akamai Connector, and WAF have been available for some time in separate repositories, this release marks the first step in making certain Add-ons directly available as part of the Varnish Enterprise software packages, simplifying deployment and evaluation for customers with the appropriate licenses.

This release includes the following new Add-ons:

• vmod_kv: in-memory key-value storage with optional multi-node sharing
• vmod_ratelimit: distributed request rate limiting
• vmod_otel: OpenTelemetry integration for observability and tracing

These modules will be installed as part of the 6.0.14r6 upgrade. Users not relying on these features will see no changes to their current configuration or usage.

Please note: Use of Licensed Add-ons in production requires a separate license. These modules are not included under standard or site-based Varnish Enterprise subscriptions, which focus on core Content Delivery functionality. If you are interested in enabling Add-ons, please contact your Varnish representative.

Important: If you use Licensed Add-ons and downgrade to an earlier version, you will need to update your configuration accordingly, as those modules will no longer be available after downgrade.

This change is part of our ongoing effort to make advanced capabilities more accessible while ensuring clear operational and licensing boundaries. It enables greater flexibility for customers exploring new use cases — without affecting the base Varnish experience.

For full release details, refer to the changelog.