1ovs-vswitchd(8) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-vswitchd(8)
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6 ovs-vswitchd - Open vSwitch daemon
7
9 ovs-vswitchd [database]
10
12 A daemon that manages and controls any number of Open vSwitch switches
13 on the local machine.
14 The database argument specifies how ovs-vswitchd connects to
16 ovsdb-server. database may be an OVSDB active or passive connection
17 method, as described in ovsdb(7). The default is unix:/var/run/open‐
18 vswitch/db.sock.
19 ovs-vswitchd retrieves its configuration from database at startup. It
21 sets up Open vSwitch datapaths and then operates switching across each
22 bridge described in its configuration files. As the database changes,
23 ovs-vswitchd automatically updates its configuration to match.
24 ovs-vswitchd switches may be configured with any of the following fea‐
26 tures:
27 · L2 switching with MAC learning.
29 · NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX
31 load balancing ("SLB").
32 · 802.1Q VLAN support.
34 · Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
36 · NetFlow v5 flow logging.
38 · sFlow(R) monitoring.
40 · Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
42 Only a single instance of ovs-vswitchd is intended to run at a time. A
44 single ovs-vswitchd can manage any number of switch instances, up to
45 the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
46 ovs-vswitchd does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch data‐
48 paths itself. Thus, ovs-dpctl(8) (and its userspace datapath counter‐
49 parts accessible via ovs-appctl dpctl/command) are not needed with
50 ovs-vswitchd and should not be used because they can interfere with its
51 operation. These tools are still useful for diagnostics.
52 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for ovs-vswitchd
54 to be useful. Refer to the documentation for instructions on how to
55 build and load the Open vSwitch kernel module.
56
58 --mlockall
59 Causes ovs-vswitchd to call the mlockall() function, to attempt
60 to lock all of its process memory into physical RAM, preventing
61 the kernel from paging any of its memory to disk. This helps to
62 avoid networking interruptions due to system memory pressure.
63 Some systems do not support mlockall() at all, and other systems
65 only allow privileged users, such as the superuser, to use it.
66 ovs-vswitchd emits a log message if mlockall() is unavailable or
67 unsuccessful.
68 DPDK Options
70 For details on initializing the ovs-vswitchd DPDK datapath, refer to
71 the documentation or ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for details.
72 Daemon Options
74 The following options are valid on POSIX based platforms.
75 --pidfile[=pidfile]
77 Causes a file (by default, ovs-vswitchd.pid) to be created indi‐
78 cating the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argument
79 is not specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is
80 created in /var/run/openvswitch.
81 If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
83 --overwrite-pidfile
85 By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pid‐
86 file already exists and is locked by a running process,
87 ovs-vswitchd refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to
88 cause it to instead overwrite the pidfile.
89 When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
91 --detach
93 Runs ovs-vswitchd as a background process. The process forks,
94 and in the child it starts a new session, closes the standard
95 file descriptors (which has the side effect of disabling logging
96 to the console), and changes its current directory to the root
97 (unless --no-chdir is specified). After the child completes its
98 initialization, the parent exits. ovs-vswitchd detaches only
99 after it has connected to the database, retrieved the initial
100 configuration, and set up that configuration.
101 --monitor
103 Creates an additional process to monitor the ovs-vswitchd dae‐
104 mon. If the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a pro‐
105 gramming error (SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE, SIGILL, SIG‐
106 PIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process
107 starts a new copy of it. If the daemon dies or exits for
108 another reason, the monitor process exits.
109 This option is normally used with --detach, but it also func‐
111 tions without it.
112 --no-chdir
114 By default, when --detach is specified, ovs-vswitchd changes its
115 current working directory to the root directory after it
116 detaches. Otherwise, invoking ovs-vswitchd from a carelessly
117 chosen directory would prevent the administrator from unmounting
118 the file system that holds that directory.
119 Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing
121 ovs-vswitchd from changing its current working directory. This
122 may be useful for collecting core files, since it is common
123 behavior to write core dumps into the current working directory
124 and the root directory is not a good directory to use.
125 This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
127 --no-self-confinement
129 By default daemon will try to self-confine itself to work with
130 files under well-know, at build-time whitelisted directories.
131 It is better to stick with this default behavior and not to use
132 this flag unless some other Access Control is used to confine
133 daemon. Note that in contrast to other access control implemen‐
134 tations that are typically enforced from kernel-space (e.g. DAC
135 or MAC), self-confinement is imposed from the user-space daemon
136 itself and hence should not be considered as a full confinement
137 strategy, but instead should be viewed as an additional layer of
138 security.
139 --user Causes ovs-vswitchd to run as a different user specified in
141 "user:group", thus dropping most of the root privileges. Short
142 forms "user" and ":group" are also allowed, with current user or
143 group are assumed respectively. Only daemons started by the root
144 user accepts this argument.
145 On Linux, daemons will be granted CAP_IPC_LOCK and
147 CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICES before dropping root privileges. Daemons
148 that interact with a datapath, such as ovs-vswitchd, will be
149 granted three additional capabilities, namely CAP_NET_ADMIN,
150 CAP_NET_BROADCAST and CAP_NET_RAW. The capability change will
151 apply even if the new user is root.
152 On Windows, this option is not currently supported. For security
154 reasons, specifying this option will cause the daemon process
155 not to start.
156 Service Options
158 The following options are valid only on Windows platform.
159 --service
161 Causes ovs-vswitchd to run as a service in the background. The
162 service should already have been created through external tools
163 like SC.exe.
164 --service-monitor
166 Causes the ovs-vswitchd service to be automatically restarted by
167 the Windows services manager if the service dies or exits for
168 unexpected reasons.
169 When --service is not specified, this option has no effect.
171 Public Key Infrastructure Options
173 -p privkey.pem
174 --private-key=privkey.pem
175 Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as
176 ovs-vswitchd's identity for outgoing SSL connections.
177 -c cert.pem
179 --certificate=cert.pem
180 Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the
181 private key specified on -p or --private-key to be trustworthy.
182 The certificate must be signed by the certificate authority (CA)
183 that the peer in SSL connections will use to verify it.
184 -C cacert.pem
186 --ca-cert=cacert.pem
187 Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that
188 ovs-vswitchd should use to verify certificates presented to it
189 by SSL peers. (This may be the same certificate that SSL peers
190 use to verify the certificate specified on -c or --certificate,
191 or it may be a different one, depending on the PKI design in
192 use.)
193 -C none
195 --ca-cert=none
196 Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers.
197 This introduces a security risk, because it means that certifi‐
198 cates cannot be verified to be those of known trusted hosts.
199 --bootstrap-ca-cert=cacert.pem
201 When cacert.pem exists, this option has the same effect as -C or
202 --ca-cert. If it does not exist, then ovs-vswitchd will attempt
203 to obtain the CA certificate from the SSL peer on its first SSL
204 connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is success‐
205 ful, it will immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and
206 from then on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a cer‐
207 tificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained.
208 This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle
210 attack obtaining the initial CA certificate, but it may be use‐
211 ful for bootstrapping.
212 This option is only useful if the SSL peer sends its CA certifi‐
214 cate as part of the SSL certificate chain. The SSL protocol
215 does not require the server to send the CA certificate.
216 This option is mutually exclusive with -C and --ca-cert.
218 --peer-ca-cert=peer-cacert.pem
220 Specifies a PEM file that contains one or more additional cer‐
221 tificates to send to SSL peers. peer-cacert.pem should be the
222 CA certificate used to sign ovs-vswitchd's own certificate, that
223 is, the certificate specified on -c or --certificate. If
224 ovs-vswitchd's certificate is self-signed, then --certificate
225 and --peer-ca-cert should specify the same file.
226 This option is not useful in normal operation, because the SSL
228 peer must already have the CA certificate for the peer to have
229 any confidence in ovs-vswitchd's identity. However, this offers
230 a way for a new installation to bootstrap the CA certificate on
231 its first SSL connection.
232 Logging Options
234 -v[spec]
235 --verbose=[spec]
236 Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
237 every module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list
238 of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
239 each category below:
240 · A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list com‐
242 mand on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the
243 specified module.
244 · syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change
246 to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
247 respectively. (If --detach is specified, ovs-vswitchd
248 closes its standard file descriptors, so logging to the
249 console will have no effect.)
250 On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
252 only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
253 word has no effect otherwise).
254 · off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
256 level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
257 logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
258 out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8)
259 for a definition of each log level.
260 Case is not significant within spec.
262 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file
264 will not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see
265 below).
266 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as
268 a word but has no effect.
269 -v
271 --verbose
272 Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to --ver‐
273 bose=dbg.
274 -vPATTERN:destination:pattern
276 --verbose=PATTERN:destination:pattern
277 Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
278 ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
279 -vFACILITY:facility
281 --verbose=FACILITY:facility
282 Sets the RFC5424 facility of the log message. facility can be
283 one of kern, user, mail, daemon, auth, syslog, lpr, news, uucp,
284 clock, ftp, ntp, audit, alert, clock2, local0, local1, local2,
285 local3, local4, local5, local6 or local7. If this option is not
286 specified, daemon is used as the default for the local system
287 syslog and local0 is used while sending a message to the target
288 provided via the --syslog-target option.
289 --log-file[=file]
291 Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is
292 used as the exact name for the log file. The default log file
293 name used if file is omitted is /var/log/open‐
294 vswitch/ovs-vswitchd.log.
295 --syslog-target=host:port
297 Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the
298 system syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a
299 hostname.
300 --syslog-method=method
302 Specify method how syslog messages should be sent to syslog dae‐
303 mon. Following forms are supported:
304 · libc, use libc syslog() function. This is the default
306 behavior. Downside of using this options is that libc
307 adds fixed prefix to every message before it is actually
308 sent to the syslog daemon over /dev/log UNIX domain
309 socket.
310 · unix:file, use UNIX domain socket directly. It is possi‐
312 ble to specify arbitrary message format with this option.
313 However, rsyslogd 8.9 and older versions use hard coded
314 parser function anyway that limits UNIX domain socket
315 use. If you want to use arbitrary message format with
316 older rsyslogd versions, then use UDP socket to localhost
317 IP address instead.
318 · udp:ip:port, use UDP socket. With this method it is pos‐
320 sible to use arbitrary message format also with older
321 rsyslogd. When sending syslog messages over UDP socket
322 extra precaution needs to be taken into account, for
323 example, syslog daemon needs to be configured to listen
324 on the specified UDP port, accidental iptables rules
325 could be interfering with local syslog traffic and there
326 are some security considerations that apply to UDP sock‐
327 ets, but do not apply to UNIX domain sockets.
328 Other Options
330 --unixctl=socket
331 Sets the name of the control socket on which ovs-vswitchd lis‐
332 tens for runtime management commands (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT
333 COMMANDS, below). If socket does not begin with /, it is inter‐
334 preted as relative to /var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not
335 used at all, the default socket is /var/run/open‐
336 vswitch/ovs-vswitchd.pid.ctl, where pid is ovs-vswitchd's
337 process ID.
338 On Windows a local named pipe is used to listen for runtime man‐
340 agement commands. A file is created in the absolute path as
341 pointed by socket or if --unixctl is not used at all, a file is
342 created as ovs-vswitchd.ctl in the configured OVS_RUNDIR direc‐
343 tory. The file exists just to mimic the behavior of a Unix
344 domain socket.
345 Specifying none for socket disables the control socket feature.
347 -h
349 --help Prints a brief help message to the console.
350 -V
352 --version
353 Prints version information to the console.
354
356 ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running ovs-vswitchd process. The
357 currently supported commands are described below. The command descrip‐
358 tions assume an understanding of how to configure Open vSwitch.
359 GENERAL COMMANDS
361 exit --cleanup
362 Causes ovs-vswitchd to gracefully terminate. If --cleanup is
363 specified, release datapath resources configured by
364 ovs-vswitchd. Otherwise, datapath flows and other resources
365 remains undeleted.
366 qos/show-types interface
368 Queries the interface for a list of Quality of Service types
369 that are configurable via Open vSwitch for the given interface.
370 qos/show interface
372 Queries the kernel for Quality of Service configuration and sta‐
373 tistics associated with the given interface.
374 bfd/show [interface]
376 Displays detailed information about Bidirectional Forwarding
377 Detection configured on interface. If interface is not speci‐
378 fied, then displays detailed information about all interfaces
379 with BFD enabled.
380 bfd/set-forwarding [interface] status
382 Force the fault status of the BFD module on interface (or all
383 interfaces if none is given) to be status. status can be
384 "true", "false", or "normal" which reverts to the standard
385 behavior.
386 cfm/show [interface]
388 Displays detailed information about Connectivity Fault Manage‐
389 ment configured on interface. If interface is not specified,
390 then displays detailed information about all interfaces with CFM
391 enabled.
392 cfm/set-fault [interface] status
394 Force the fault status of the CFM module on interface (or all
395 interfaces if none is given) to be status. status can be
396 "true", "false", or "normal" which reverts to the standard
397 behavior.
398 stp/tcn [bridge]
400 Forces a topology change event on bridge if it's running STP.
401 This may cause it to send Topology Change Notifications to its
402 peers and flush its MAC table. If no bridge is given, forces a
403 topology change event on all bridges.
404 stp/show [bridge]
406 Displays detailed information about spanning tree on the bridge.
407 If bridge is not specified, then displays detailed information
408 about all bridges with STP enabled.
409 rstp/tcn [bridge]
411 Forces a topology change event on bridge if it's running RSTP.
412 This may cause it to send Topology Change Notifications to its
413 peers and flush its MAC table. If no bridge is given, forces a
414 topology change event on all bridges.
415 rstp/show [bridge]
417 Displays detailed information about rapid spanning tree on the
418 bridge. If bridge is not specified, then displays detailed
419 information about all bridges with RSTP enabled.
420 BRIDGE COMMANDS
422 These commands manage bridges.
423 fdb/flush [bridge]
425 Flushes bridge MAC address learning table, or all learning
426 tables if no bridge is given.
427 fdb/show bridge
429 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified
430 bridge, along with the port on which it was learned and the age
431 of the entry, in seconds.
432 fdb/stats-clear [bridge]
434 Clear bridge MAC address learning table statistics, or all sta‐
435 tistics if no bridge is given.
436 fdb/stats-show bridge
438 Show MAC address learning table statistics for the specified
439 bridge.
440 mdb/flush [bridge]
442 Flushes bridge multicast snooping table, or all snooping tables
443 if no bridge is given.
444 mdb/show bridge
446 Lists each multicast group/VLAN pair learned by the specified
447 bridge, along with the port on which it was learned and the age
448 of the entry, in seconds.
449 bridge/reconnect [bridge]
451 Makes bridge drop all of its OpenFlow controller connections and
452 reconnect. If bridge is not specified, then all bridges drop
453 their controller connections and reconnect.
454 This command might be useful for debugging OpenFlow controller
456 issues.
457 bridge/dump-flows bridge
459 Lists all flows in bridge, including those normally hidden to
460 commands such as ovs-ofctl dump-flows. Flows set up by mecha‐
461 nisms such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the
462 controller since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
463 BOND COMMANDS
465 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges. To
466 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
467 detail of the bonding implementation called ``source load balancing''
468 (SLB). Instead of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to
469 slaves, the bonding implementation computes a function that maps an
470 48-bit Ethernet source addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash''
471 value). All of the Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit value
472 are then assigned to a single slave.
473 bond/list
475 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
476 bond/show [port]
478 Lists all of the bond-specific information (updelay, downdelay,
479 time until the next rebalance) about the given bonded port, or
480 all bonded ports if no port is given. Also lists information
481 about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled, the time to
482 completion of an updelay or downdelay if one is in progress,
483 whether it is the active slave, the hashes assigned to the
484 slave. Any LACP information related to this bond may be found
485 using the lacp/show command.
486 bond/migrate port hash slave
488 Only valid for SLB bonds. Assigns a given MAC hash to a new
489 slave. port specifies the bond port, hash the MAC hash to be
490 migrated (as a decimal number between 0 and 255), and slave the
491 new slave to be assigned.
492 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
494 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
495 manner.
496 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
498 bond/set-active-slave port slave
500 Sets slave as the active slave on port. slave must currently be
501 enabled.
502 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be
504 selected if slave becomes disabled.
505 bond/enable-slave port slave
507 bond/disable-slave port slave
508 Enables (or disables) slave on the given bond port, skipping any
509 updelay (or downdelay).
510 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the car‐
512 rier status of slave changes.
513 bond/hash mac [vlan] [basis]
515 Returns the hash value which would be used for mac with vlan and
516 basis if specified.
517 lacp/show [port]
519 Lists all of the LACP related information about the given port:
520 active or passive, aggregation key, system id, and system prior‐
521 ity. Also lists information about each slave: whether it is
522 enabled or disabled, whether it is attached or detached, port id
523 and priority, actor information, and partner information. If
524 port is not specified, then displays detailed information about
525 all interfaces with CFM enabled.
526 lacp/stats-show [port]
528 Lists various stats about LACP PDUs (number of RX/TX PDUs, bad
529 PDUs received) and slave state (number of time slave's state
530 expired/defaulted and carrier status changed) for the given
531 port. If port is not specified, then displays stats of all
532 interfaces with LACP enabled.
533 DPCTL DATAPATH DEBUGGING COMMANDS
535 The primary way to configure ovs-vswitchd is through the Open vSwitch
536 database, e.g. using ovs-vsctl(8). These commands provide a debugging
537 interface for managing datapaths. They implement the same features
538 (and syntax) as ovs-dpctl(8). Unlike ovs-dpctl(8), these commands work
539 with datapaths that are integrated into ovs-vswitchd (e.g. the netdev
540 datapath type).
541 Do not use commands to add or remove or modify datapaths if
543 ovs-vswitchd is running because this interferes with ovs-vswitchd's own
544 datapath management.
545 dpctl/add-dp dp [netdev[,option]...]
547 Creates datapath dp, with a local port also named dp. This will
548 fail if a network device dp already exists.
549 If netdevs are specified, ovs-vswitchd adds them to the new
551 datapath, just as if add-if was specified.
552 dpctl/del-dp dp
554 Deletes datapath dp. If dp is associated with any network
555 devices, they are automatically removed.
556 dpctl/add-if dp netdev[,option]...
558 Adds each netdev to the set of network devices datapath dp moni‐
559 tors, where dp is the name of an existing datapath, and netdev
560 is the name of one of the host's network devices, e.g. eth0.
561 Once a network device has been added to a datapath, the datapath
562 has complete ownership of the network device's traffic and the
563 network device appears silent to the rest of the system.
564 A netdev may be followed by a comma-separated list of options.
566 The following options are currently supported:
567 type=type
569 Specifies the type of port to add. The default type is
570 system.
571 port_no=port
573 Requests a specific port number within the datapath. If
574 this option is not specified then one will be automati‐
575 cally assigned.
576 key=value
578 Adds an arbitrary key-value option to the port's configu‐
579 ration.
580 ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) documents the available port types and
582 options.
583 dpctl/set-if dp port[,option]...
585 Reconfigures each port in dp as specified. An option of the
586 form key=value adds the specified key-value option to the port
587 or overrides an existing key's value. An option of the form
588 key=, that is, without a value, deletes the key-value named key.
589 The type and port number of a port cannot be changed, so type
590 and port_no are only allowed if they match the existing configu‐
591 ration.
592 dpctl/del-if dp netdev...
594 Removes each netdev from the list of network devices datapath dp
595 monitors.
596 dpctl/dump-dps
598 Prints the name of each configured datapath on a separate line.
599 dpctl/show [-s | --statistics] [dp...]
601 Prints a summary of configured datapaths, including their data‐
602 path numbers and a list of ports connected to each datapath.
603 (The local port is identified as port 0.) If -s or --statistics
604 is specified, then packet and byte counters are also printed for
605 each port.
606 The datapath numbers consists of flow stats and mega flow mask
608 stats.
609 The "lookups" row displays three stats related to flow lookup
611 triggered by processing incoming packets in the datapath. "hit"
612 displays number of packets matches existing flows. "missed" dis‐
613 plays the number of packets not matching any existing flow and
614 require user space processing. "lost" displays number of pack‐
615 ets destined for user space process but subsequently dropped
616 before reaching userspace. The sum of "hit" and "miss" equals to
617 the total number of packets datapath processed.
618 The "flows" row displays the number of flows in datapath.
620 The "masks" row displays the mega flow mask stats. This row is
622 omitted for datapath not implementing mega flow. "hit" displays
623 the total number of masks visited for matching incoming packets.
624 "total" displays number of masks in the datapath. "hit/pkt" dis‐
625 plays the average number of masks visited per packet; the ratio
626 between "hit" and total number of packets processed by the data‐
627 path.
628 If one or more datapaths are specified, information on only
630 those datapaths are displayed. Otherwise, ovs-vswitchd displays
631 information about all configured datapaths.
632 DATAPATH FLOW TABLE DEBUGGING COMMANDS
634 The following commands are primarily useful for debugging Open vSwitch.
635 The flow table entries (both matches and actions) that they work with
636 are not OpenFlow flow entries. Instead, they are different and consid‐
637 erably simpler flows maintained by the Open vSwitch kernel module. Do
638 not use commands to add or remove or modify datapath flows if
639 ovs-vswitchd is running because it interferes with ovs-vswitchd's own
640 datapath flow management. Use ovs-ofctl(8), instead, to work with
641 OpenFlow flow entries.
642 The dp argument to each of these commands is optional when exactly one
644 datapath exists, in which case that datapath is the default. When mul‐
645 tiple datapaths exist, then a datapath name is required.
646 dpctl/dump-flows [-m | --more] [--names | --no-names] [dp] [filter=fil‐
648 ter] [type=type]
649 Prints to the console all flow entries in datapath dp's flow ta‐
650 ble. Without -m or --more, output omits match fields that a
651 flow wildcards entirely; with -m or --more, output includes all
652 wildcarded fields.
653 If filter=filter is specified, only displays the flows that
655 match the filter. filter is a flow in the form similiar to that
656 accepted by ovs-ofctl(8)'s add-flow command. (This is not an
657 OpenFlow flow: besides other differences, it never contains
658 wildcards.) The filter is also useful to match wildcarded
659 fields in the datapath flow. As an example, fil‐
660 ter='tcp,tp_src=100' will match the datapath flow containing
661 'tcp(src=80/0xff00,dst=8080/0xff)'.
662 If type=type is specified, only displays flows of a specific
664 type. type can be offloaded to display only rules offloaded to
665 the HW or ovs to display only rules from the OVS tables. By
666 default all rules are displayed.
667 dpctl/add-flow [dp] flow actions
669 dpctl/mod-flow [--clear] [--may-create] [-s | --statistics] [dp] flow
671 actions
672 Adds or modifies a flow in dp's flow table that, when a packet
673 matching flow arrives, causes actions to be executed.
674 The add-flow command succeeds only if flow does not already
676 exist in dp. Contrariwise, mod-flow without --may-create only
677 modifies the actions for an existing flow. With --may-create,
678 mod-flow will add a new flow or modify an existing one.
679 If -s or --statistics is specified, then mod-flow prints the
681 modified flow's statistics. A flow's statistics are the number
682 of packets and bytes that have passed through the flow, the
683 elapsed time since the flow last processed a packet (if ever),
684 and (for TCP flows) the union of the TCP flags processed through
685 the flow.
686 With --clear, mod-flow zeros out the flow's statistics. The
688 statistics printed if -s or --statistics is also specified are
689 those from just before clearing the statistics.
690 NOTE: flow and actions do not match the syntax used with
692 ovs-ofctl(8)'s add-flow command.
693 Usage Examples
695 Forward ARP between ports 1 and 2 on datapath myDP:
697 ovs-dpctl add-flow myDP \
699 "in_port(1),eth(),eth_type(0x0806),arp()" 2
700 ovs-dpctl add-flow myDP \
702 "in_port(2),eth(),eth_type(0x0806),arp()" 1
703 Forward all IPv4 traffic between two addresses on ports 1 and 2:
705 ovs-dpctl add-flow myDP \
707 "in_port(1),eth(),eth_type(0x800),\
708 ipv4(src=172.31.110.4,dst=172.31.110.5)" 2
709 ovs-dpctl add-flow myDP \
711 "in_port(2),eth(),eth_type(0x800),\
712 ipv4(src=172.31.110.5,dst=172.31.110.4)" 1
713 dpctl/del-flow [-s | --statistics] [dp] flow
715 Deletes the flow from dp's flow table that matches flow. If -s
716 or --statistics is specified, then del-flow prints the deleted
717 flow's statistics.
718 dpctl/get-flow [dp] ufid:ufid [-m | --more] [--names | --no-names]
720 Fetches the flow from dp's flow table with unique identifier
721 ufid. ufid must be specified as a string of 32 hexadecimal
722 characters.
723 dpctl/del-flows [dp]
725 Deletes all flow entries from datapath dp's flow table.
726 CONNECTION TRACKING TABLE COMMANDS
728 The following commands are useful for debugging and configuring the
729 connection tracking table in the datapath.
730 The dp argument to each of these commands is optional when exactly one
732 datapath exists, in which case that datapath is the default. When mul‐
733 tiple datapaths exist, then a datapath name is required.
734 N.B.(Linux specific): the system datapaths (i.e. the Linux kernel mod‐
736 ule Open vSwitch datapaths) share a single connection tracking table
737 (which is also used by other kernel subsystems, such as iptables, nfta‐
738 bles and the regular host stack). Therefore, the following commands do
739 not apply specifically to one datapath.
740 dpctl/dump-conntrack [-m | --more] [-s | --statistics] [dp] [zone=zone]
742 Prints to the console all the connection entries in the tracker
743 used by dp. If zone=zone is specified, only shows the connec‐
744 tions in zone. With --more, some implementation specific
745 details are included. With --statistics timeouts and timestamps
746 are added to the output.
747 dpctl/flush-conntrack [dp] [zone=zone] [ct-tuple]
749 Flushes the connection entries in the tracker used by dp based
750 on zone and connection tracking tuple ct-tuple. If ct-tuple is
751 not provided, flushes all the connection entries. If zone=zone
752 is specified, only flushes the connections in zone.
753 If ct-tuple is provided, flushes the connection entry specified
755 by ct-tuple in zone. The zone defaults to 0 if it is not pro‐
756 vided. An example of an IPv4 ICMP ct-tuple:
757 "ct_nw_src=10.1.1.1,ct_nw_dst=10.1.1.2,ct_nw_proto=1,icmp_type=8,icmp_code=0,icmp_id=10"
759 An example of an IPv6 TCP ct-tuple:
761 "ct_ipv6_src=fc00::1,ct_ipv6_dst=fc00::2,ct_nw_proto=6,ct_tp_src=1,ct_tp_dst=2"
763 dpctl/ct-stats-show [dp] [zone=zone] [-m | --more]
765 Displays the number of connections grouped by protocol used by
766 dp. If zone=zone is specified, numbers refer to the connections
767 in zone. With --more, groups by connection state for each pro‐
768 tocol.
769 dpctl/ct-bkts [dp] [gt=threshold]
771 For each conntrack bucket, displays the number of connections
772 used by dp. If gt=threshold is specified, bucket numbers are
773 displayed when the number of connections in a bucket is greater
774 than threshold.
775 dpctl/ct-set-maxconns [dp] maxconns
777 Sets the maximum limit of connection tracker entries to maxconns
778 on dp. This can be used to reduce the processing load on the
779 system due to connection tracking or simply limiting connection
780 tracking. If the number of connections is already over the new
781 maximum limit request then the new maximum limit will be
782 enforced when the number of connections decreases to that limit,
783 which normally happens due to connection expiry. Only supported
784 for userspace datapath.
785 dpctl/ct-get-maxconns [dp]
787 Prints the maximum limit of connection tracker entries on dp.
788 Only supported for userspace datapath.
789 dpctl/ct-get-nconns [dp]
791 Prints the current number of connection tracker entries on dp.
792 Only supported for userspace datapath.
793 dpctl/ct-set-limits [dp] [default=default_limit]
795 [zone=zone,limit=limit]...
796 Sets the maximum allowed number of connections in a connection
797 tracking zone. A specific zone may be set to limit, and multi‐
798 ple zones may be specified with a comma-separated list. If a
799 per-zone limit for a particular zone is not specified in the
800 datapath, it defaults to the default per-zone limit. A default
801 zone may be specified with the default=default_limit argument.
802 Initially, the default per-zone limit is unlimited. An unlim‐
803 ited number of entries may be set with 0 limit. Only supported
804 for Linux kernel datapath.
805 dpctl/ct-del-limits [dp] zone=zone[,zone]...
807 Deletes the connection tracking limit for zone. Multiple zones
808 may be specified with a comma-separated list. Only supported
809 for Linux kernel datapath.
810 dpctl/ct-get-limits [dp] [zone=zone[,zone]...]
812 Retrieves the maximum allowed number of connections and current
813 counts per-zone. If zone is given, only the specified zone(s)
814 are printed. If no zones are specified, all the zone limits and
815 counts are provided. The command always displays the default
816 zone limit. Only supported for Linux kernel datapath.
817 DPIF-NETDEV COMMANDS
819 These commands are used to expose internal information (mostly statis‐
820 tics) about the "dpif-netdev" userspace datapath. If there is only one
821 datapath (as is often the case, unless dpctl/ commands are used), the
822 dp argument can be omitted. By default the commands present data for
823 all pmd threads in the datapath. By specifying the "-pmd Core" option
824 one can filter the output for a single pmd in the datapath.
825 dpif-netdev/pmd-stats-show [-pmd core] [dp]
827 Shows performance statistics for one or all pmd threads of the
828 datapath dp. The special thread "main" sums up the statistics of
829 every non pmd thread.
830 The sum of "emc hits", "masked hits" and "miss" is the number of
832 packet lookups performed by the datapath. Beware that a recircu‐
833 lated packet experiences one additional lookup per recircula‐
834 tion, so there may be more lookups than forwarded packets in the
835 datapath.
836 Cycles are counted using the TSC or similar facilities (when
838 available on the platform). The duration of one cycle depends on
839 the processing platform.
840 "idle cycles" refers to cycles spent in PMD iterations not for‐
842 warding any any packets. "processing cycles" refers to cycles
843 spent in PMD iterations forwarding at least one packet, includ‐
844 ing the cost for polling, processing and transmitting said pack‐
845 ets.
846 To reset these counters use dpif-netdev/pmd-stats-clear.
848 dpif-netdev/pmd-stats-clear [dp]
850 Resets to zero the per pmd thread performance numbers shown by
851 the dpif-netdev/pmd-stats-show and dpif-netdev/pmd-perf-show
852 commands. It will NOT reset datapath or bridge statistics, only
853 the values shown by the above commands.
854 dpif-netdev/pmd-perf-show [-nh] [-it iter_len] [-ms ms_len] [-pmd core]
856 [dp]
857 Shows detailed performance metrics for one or all pmds threads
858 of the user space datapath.
859 The collection of detailed statistics can be controlled by a new
861 configuration parameter "other_config:pmd-perf-metrics". By
862 default it is disabled. The run-time overhead, when enabled, is
863 in the order of 1%.
864 — used cycles
867 — forwared packets
868 — number of rx batches
869 — packets/rx batch
870 — max. vhostuser queue fill level
871 — number of upcalls
872 — cycles spent in upcalls
873 This raw recorded data is used threefold:
875 1. In histograms for each of the following metrics:
878 — cycles/iteration (logarithmic)
879 — packets/iteration (logarithmic)
880 — cycles/packet
881 — packets/batch
882 — max. vhostuser qlen (logarithmic)
883 — upcalls
884 — cycles/upcall (logarithmic) The histograms bins
885 are divided linear or logarithmic.
886 2. A cyclic history of the above metrics for 1024 iterations
887 3. A cyclic history of the cummulative/average values per
888 millisecond wall clock for the last 1024 milliseconds:
889 — number of iterations
890 — avg. cycles/iteration
891 — packets (Kpps)
892 — avg. packets/batch
893 — avg. max vhost qlen
894 — upcalls
895 — avg. cycles/upcall
896 The command options are:
898 -nh Suppress the histograms
900 -it iter_len
902 Display the last iter_len iteration stats
903 -ms ms_len
905 Display the last ms_len millisecond stats
906 The output always contains the following global PMD statistics:
908 Time: 15:24:55.270 .br Measurement duration: 1.008 s
910 pmd thread numa_id 0 core_id 1:
912 Cycles: 2419034712 (2.40 GHz)
914 Iterations: 572817 (1.76 us/it)
915 - idle: 486808 (15.9 % cycles)
916 - busy: 86009 (84.1 % cycles)
917 Rx packets: 2399607 (2381 Kpps, 848
918 cycles/pkt)
919 Datapath passes: 3599415 (1.50 passes/pkt)
920 - EMC hits: 336472 ( 9.3 %)
921 - Megaflow hits: 3262943 (90.7 %, 1.00 subtbl
922 lookups/hit)
923 - Upcalls: 0 ( 0.0 %, 0.0 us/upcall)
924 - Lost upcalls: 0 ( 0.0 %)
925 Tx packets: 2399607 (2381 Kpps)
926 Tx batches: 171400 (14.00 pkts/batch)
927 Here "Rx packets" actually reflects the number of packets for‐
929 warded by the datapath. "Datapath passes" matches the number of
930 packet lookups as reported by the dpif-netdev/pmd-stats-show
931 command.
932 To reset the counters and start a new measurement use dpif-net‐
934 dev/pmd-stats-clear.
935 dpif-netdev/pmd-perf-log-set on|off [-b before] [-a after] [-e|-ne]
937 [-us usec] [-q qlen]
938 The userspace "netdev" datapath is able to supervise the PMD
939 performance metrics and detect iterations with suspicious sta‐
940 tistics according to the following criteria:
941 — The iteration lasts longer than usec microseconds
943 (default 250). This can be used to capture events where
944 a PMD is blocked or interrupted for such a period of time
945 that there is a risk for dropped packets on any of its Rx
946 queues.
947 — The max vhost qlen exceeds a threshold qlen (default
949 128). This can be used to infer virtio queue overruns and
950 dropped packets inside a VM, which are not visible in OVS
951 otherwise.
952 Such suspicious iterations can be logged together with their
954 iteration statistics in the ovs-vswitchd.log to be able to cor‐
955 relate them to packet drop or other events outside OVS.
956 The above command enables (on) or disables (off) supervision and
958 logging at run-time and can be used to adjust the above thresh‐
959 olds for detecting suspicious iterations. By default supervision
960 and logging is disabled.
961 The command options are:
963 -b before
965 The number of iterations before the suspicious iteration
966 to be logged (default 5).
967 -a after
969 The number of iterations after the suspicious iteration
970 to be logged (default 5).
971 -e Extend logging interval if another suspicious iteration
973 is detected before logging occurs.
974 -ne Do not extend logging interval if another suspicious
976 iteration is detected before logging occurs (default).
977 -q qlen
979 Suspicious vhost queue fill level threshold. Increase
980 this to 512 if the Qemu supports 1024 virtio queue length
981 (default 128).
982 -us usec
984 Change the duration threshold for a suspicious iteration
985 (default 250 us).
986 Note: Logging of suspicious iterations itself consumes a considerable
988 amount of processing cycles of a PMD which may be visible in the itera‐
989 tion history. In the worst case this can lead OVS to detect another
990 suspicious iteration caused by logging.
991 If more than 100 iterations around a suspicious iteration have been
993 logged once, OVS falls back to the safe default values (-b 5 -a 5 -ne)
994 to avoid that logging itself continuously causes logging of further
995 suspicious iterations.
996 dpif-netdev/pmd-rxq-show [-pmd core] [dp]
998 For one or all pmd threads of the datapath dp show the list of
999 queue-ids with port names, which this thread polls.
1000 dpif-netdev/pmd-rxq-rebalance [dp]
1002 Reassigns rxqs to pmds in the datapath dp based on their current
1003 usage.
1004 NETDEV-DPDK COMMANDS
1006 These commands manage DPDK related ports (type=dpdk*).
1007 netdev-dpdk/set-admin-state [interface] up | down
1009 Change the admin state for DPDK interface to up or down. If
1010 interface is not specified, then it applies to all DPDK ports.
1011 netdev-dpdk/detach pci-address
1013 Detaches device with corresponding pci-address from DPDK. This
1014 command can be used to detach device if it wasn't detached auto‐
1015 matically after port deletion. Refer to the documentation for
1016 details and instructions.
1017 netdev-dpdk/get-mempool-info [interface]
1019 Prints the debug information about memory pool used by DPDK
1020 interface. If called without arguments, information of all the
1021 available mempools will be printed. For additional mempool sta‐
1022 tistics enable CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_MEMPOOL_DEBUG while building
1023 DPDK.
1024 DATAPATH DEBUGGING COMMANDS
1026 These commands query and modify datapaths. They are are similar to
1027 ovs-dpctl(8) commands. dpif/show has the additional functionality,
1028 beyond dpctl/show of printing OpenFlow port numbers. The other com‐
1029 mands are redundant and will be removed in a future release.
1030 dpif/dump-dps
1032 Prints the name of each configured datapath on a separate line.
1033 dpif/show
1035 Prints a summary of configured datapaths, including statistics
1036 and a list of connected ports. The port information includes
1037 the OpenFlow port number, datapath port number, and the type.
1038 (The local port is identified as OpenFlow port 65534.)
1039 dpif/dump-flows [-m] dp
1041 Prints to the console all flow entries in datapath dp's flow ta‐
1042 ble. Without -m, output omits match fields that a flow wildcards
1043 entirely; with -m output includes all wildcarded fields.
1044 This command is primarily useful for debugging Open vSwitch.
1046 The flow table entries that it displays are not OpenFlow flow
1047 entries. Instead, they are different and considerably simpler
1048 flows maintained by the datapath module. If you wish to see the
1049 OpenFlow flow entries, use ovs-ofctl dump-flows.
1050 dpif/del-flows dp
1052 Deletes all flow entries from datapath dp's flow table and
1053 underlying datapath implementation (e.g., kernel datapath mod‐
1054 ule).
1055 This command is primarily useful for debugging Open vSwitch. As
1057 discussed in dpif/dump-flows, these entries are not OpenFlow
1058 flow entries.
1059 OFPROTO COMMANDS
1061 These commands manage the core OpenFlow switch implementation (called
1062 ofproto).
1063 ofproto/list
1065 Lists the names of the running ofproto instances. These are the
1066 names that may be used on ofproto/trace.
1067 ofproto/trace [options] [dpname] odp_flow [packet]
1069 ofproto/trace [options] bridge br_flow [packet]]
1070 ofproto/trace-packet-out [options] [dpname] odp_flow [packet] actions
1071 ofproto/trace-packet-out [options bridge br_flow [packet] actions
1072 Traces the path of an imaginary packet through switch and
1073 reports the path that it took. The initial treatment of the
1074 packet varies based on the command:
1075 · ofproto/trace looks the packet up in the OpenFlow flow
1077 table, as if the packet had arrived on an OpenFlow port.
1078 · ofproto/trace-packet-out applies the specified OpenFlow
1080 actions, as if the packet, flow, and actions had been
1081 specified in an OpenFlow ``packet-out'' request.
1082 The packet's headers (e.g. source and destination) and metadata
1084 (e.g. input port), together called its ``flow,'' are usually all
1085 that matter for the purpose of tracing a packet. You can spec‐
1086 ify the flow in the following ways:
1087 dpname odp_flow
1089 odp_flow is a flow in the form printed by ovs-dpctl(8)'s
1090 dump-flows command. If all of your bridges have the same
1091 type, which is the common case, then you can omit dpname,
1092 but if you have bridges of different types (say, both
1093 ovs-netdev and ovs-system), then you need to specify a
1094 dpname to disambiguate.
1095 bridge br_flow
1097 br_flow is a flow in the form similar to that accepted by
1098 ovs-ofctl(8)'s add-flow command. (This is not an Open‐
1099 Flow flow: besides other differences, it never contains
1100 wildcards.) bridge names of the bridge through which
1101 br_flow should be traced.
1102 These commands support the following options:
1104 --generate
1106 Generate a packet from the flow (see below for more
1107 information).
1108 --l7 payload
1110 --l7-len length
1111 Accepted only with --generate (see below for more infor‐
1112 mation).
1113 --consistent
1115 Accepted by ofproto-trace-packet-out only. With this
1116 option, the command rejects actions that are inconsistent
1117 with the specified packet. (An example of an inconsis‐
1118 tency is attempting to strip the VLAN tag from a packet
1119 that does not have a VLAN tag.) Open vSwitch ignores
1120 most forms of inconsistency in OpenFlow 1.0 and rejects
1121 inconsistencies in later versions of OpenFlow. The
1122 option is necessary because the command does not ordinar‐
1123 ily imply a particular OpenFlow version. One exception
1124 is that, when actions includes an action that only Open‐
1125 Flow 1.1 and later supports (such as push_vlan), --con‐
1126 sistent is automatically enabled.
1127 --ct-next flags
1129 When the traced flow triggers conntrack actions,
1130 ofproto/trace will automatically trace the forked packet
1131 processing pipeline with user specified ct_state. This
1132 option sets the ct_state flags that the conntrack module
1133 will report. The flags must be a comma- or space-sepa‐
1134 rated list of the following connection tracking flags:
1135 · trk: Include to indicate connection tracking has
1137 taken place.
1138 · new: Include to indicate a new flow.
1140 · est: Include to indicate an established flow.
1142 · rel: Include to indicate a related flow.
1144 · rpl: Include to indicate a reply flow.
1146 · inv: Include to indicate a connection entry in a
1148 bad state.
1149 · dnat: Include to indicate a packet whose destina‐
1151 tion IP address has been changed.
1152 · snat: Include to indicate a packet whose source IP
1154 address has been changed.
1155 When --ct-next is unspecified, or when there are fewer
1157 --ct-next options than ct actions, the flags default to
1158 trk,new.
1159 Most commonly, one specifies only a flow, using one of the forms
1161 above, but sometimes one might need to specify an actual packet
1162 instead of just a flow:
1163 Side effects.
1165 Some actions have side effects. For example, the normal
1166 action can update the MAC learning table, and the learn
1167 action can change OpenFlow tables. The trace commands
1168 only perform side effects when a packet is specified. If
1169 you want side effects to take place, then you must supply
1170 a packet.
1171 (Side effects when tracing do not have external conse‐
1173 quences. Even if a packet is specified, a trace will not
1174 output a packet or generate sFlow, NetFlow or controller
1175 events.)
1176 Incomplete information.
1178 Most of the time, Open vSwitch can figure out everything
1179 about the path of a packet using just the flow, but in
1180 some special circumstances it needs to look at parts of
1181 the packet that are not included in the flow. When this
1182 is the case, and you do not supply a packet, then a trace
1183 command will tell you it needs a packet.
1184 If you wish to include a packet as part of a trace operation,
1186 there are two ways to do it:
1187 --generate
1189 This option, added to one of the ways to specify a flow
1190 already described, causes Open vSwitch to internally gen‐
1191 erate a packet with the flow described and then to use
1192 that packet. If your goal is to execute side effects,
1193 then --generate is the easiest way to do it, but --gener‐
1194 ate is not a good way to fill in incomplete information,
1195 because it generates packets based on only the flow
1196 information, which means that the packets really do not
1197 have any more information than the flow.
1198 By default, for protocols that allow arbitrary L7 pay‐
1200 loads, the generated packet has 64 bytes of payload. Use
1201 --l7-len to change the payload length, or --l7 to specify
1202 the exact contents of the payload.
1203 packet This form supplies an explicit packet as a sequence of
1205 hex digits. An Ethernet frame is at least 14 bytes long,
1206 so there must be at least 28 hex digits. Obviously, it
1207 is inconvenient to type in the hex digits by hand, so the
1208 ovs-pcap(1) and ovs-tcpundump(1) utilities provide easier
1209 ways.
1210 With this form, packet headers are extracted directly
1212 from packet, so the odp_flow or br_flow should specify
1213 only metadata. The metadata can be:
1214 skb_priority
1216 Packet QoS priority.
1217 pkt_mark
1219 Mark of the packet.
1220 ct_state
1222 Connection state of the packet.
1223 ct_zone
1225 Connection tracking zone for packet.
1226 ct_mark
1228 Connection mark of the packet.
1229 ct_label
1231 Connection label of the packet.
1232 tun_id The tunnel ID on which the packet arrived.
1234 in_port
1236 The port on which the packet arrived.
1237 The in_port value is kernel datapath port number for the first
1239 format and OpenFlow port number for the second format. The num‐
1240 bering of these two types of port usually differs and there is
1241 no relationship.
1242 Usage examples:
1244 Trace an unicast ICMP echo request on ingress port 1 to destination
1246 MAC 00:00:5E:00:53:01
1247 ofproto/trace br in_port=1,icmp,icmp_type=8,\
1248 dl_dst=00:00:5E:00:53:01
1249 Trace an unicast ICMP echo reply on ingress port 1 to destination
1251 MAC 00:00:5E:00:53:01
1252 ofproto/trace br in_port=1,icmp,icmp_type=0,\
1253 dl_dst=00:00:5E:00:53:01
1254 Trace an ARP request on ingress port 1
1256 ofproto/trace br in_port=1,arp,arp_op=1
1257 Trace an ARP reply on ingress port 1
1259 ofproto/trace br in_port=1,arp,arp_op=2
1260 VLOG COMMANDS
1262 These commands manage ovs-vswitchd's logging settings.
1263 vlog/set [spec]
1265 Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for
1266 every module and destination to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list
1267 of words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from
1268 each category below:
1269 · A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list com‐
1271 mand on ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the
1272 specified module.
1273 · syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level change
1275 to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
1276 respectively.
1277 On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is
1279 only useful along with the --syslog-target option (the
1280 word has no effect otherwise).
1281 · off, emer, err, warn, info, or dbg, to control the log
1283 level. Messages of the given severity or higher will be
1284 logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
1285 out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8)
1286 for a definition of each log level.
1287 Case is not significant within spec.
1289 Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file
1291 will not take place unless ovs-vswitchd was invoked with the
1292 --log-file option.
1293 For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as
1295 a word but has no effect.
1296 vlog/set PATTERN:destination:pattern
1298 Sets the log pattern for destination to pattern. Refer to
1299 ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for pattern.
1300 vlog/list
1302 Lists the supported logging modules and their current levels.
1303 vlog/list-pattern
1305 Lists logging patterns used for each destination.
1306 vlog/close
1308 Causes ovs-vswitchd to close its log file, if it is open. (Use
1309 vlog/reopen to reopen it later.)
1310 vlog/reopen
1312 Causes ovs-vswitchd to close its log file, if it is open, and
1313 then reopen it. (This is useful after rotating log files, to
1314 cause a new log file to be used.)
1315 This has no effect unless ovs-vswitchd was invoked with the
1317 --log-file option.
1318 vlog/disable-rate-limit [module]...
1320 vlog/enable-rate-limit [module]...
1321 By default, ovs-vswitchd limits the rate at which certain mes‐
1322 sages can be logged. When a message would appear more fre‐
1323 quently than the limit, it is suppressed. This saves disk
1324 space, makes logs easier to read, and speeds up execution, but
1325 occasionally troubleshooting requires more detail. Therefore,
1326 vlog/disable-rate-limit allows rate limits to be disabled at the
1327 level of an individual log module. Specify one or more module
1328 names, as displayed by the vlog/list command. Specifying either
1329 no module names at all or the keyword any disables rate limits
1330 for every log module.
1331 The vlog/enable-rate-limit command, whose syntax is the same as
1333 vlog/disable-rate-limit, can be used to re-enable a rate limit
1334 that was previously disabled.
1335 MEMORY COMMANDS
1337 These commands report memory usage.
1338 memory/show
1340 Displays some basic statistics about ovs-vswitchd's memory
1341 usage. ovs-vswitchd also logs this information soon after
1342 startup and periodically as its memory consumption grows.
1343 COVERAGE COMMANDS
1345 These commands manage ovs-vswitchd's ``coverage counters,'' which count
1346 the number of times particular events occur during a daemon's runtime.
1347 In addition to these commands, ovs-vswitchd automatically logs coverage
1348 counter values, at INFO level, when it detects that the daemon's main
1349 loop takes unusually long to run.
1350 Coverage counters are useful mainly for performance analysis and debug‐
1352 ging.
1353 coverage/show
1355 Displays the averaged per-second rates for the last few seconds,
1356 the last minute and the last hour, and the total counts of all
1357 of the coverage counters.
1358 OPENVSWITCH TUNNELING COMMANDS
1360 These commands query and modify OVS tunnel components.
1361 ovs/route/add ipv4_address/plen output_bridge [GW]
1363 Adds ipv4_address/plen route to vswitchd routing table. out‐
1364 put_bridge needs to be OVS bridge name. This command is useful
1365 if OVS cached routes does not look right.
1366 ovs/route/show
1368 Print all routes in OVS routing table, This includes routes
1369 cached from system routing table and user configured routes.
1370 ovs/route/del ipv4_address/plen
1372 Delete ipv4_address/plen route from OVS routing table.
1373 tnl/neigh/show
1375 tnl/arp/show
1377 OVS builds ARP cache by snooping are messages. This command
1378 shows ARP cache table.
1379 tnl/neigh/set bridge ip mac
1381 tnl/arp/set bridge ip mac
1383 Adds or modifies an ARP cache entry in bridge, mapping ip to
1384 mac.
1385 tnl/neigh/flush
1387 tnl/arp/flush
1389 Flush ARP table.
1390 tnl/egress_port_range [num1] [num2]
1392 Set range for UDP source port used for UDP based Tunnels. For
1393 example VxLAN. If case of zero arguments this command prints
1394 current range in use.
1395
1397 This section documents aspects of OpenFlow for which the OpenFlow spec‐
1398 ification requires documentation.
1399 Packet buffering.
1401 The OpenFlow specification, version 1.2, says:
1402 Switches that implement buffering are expected to expose,
1404 through documentation, both the amount of available buffering,
1405 and the length of time before buffers may be reused.
1406 Open vSwitch does not maintains any packet buffers.
1408 Bundle lifetime
1410 The OpenFlow specification, version 1.4, says:
1411 If the switch does not receive any OFPT_BUNDLE_CONTROL or
1413 OFPT_BUNDLE_ADD_MESSAGE message for an opened bundle_id for a
1414 switch defined time greater than 1s, it may send an
1415 ofp_error_msg with OFPET_BUNDLE_FAILED type and OFPBFC_TIMEOUT
1416 code. If the switch does not receive any new message in a bun‐
1417 dle apart from echo request and replies for a switch defined
1418 time greater than 1s, it may send an ofp_error_msg with
1419 OFPET_BUNDLE_FAILED type and OFPBFC_TIMEOUT code.
1420 Open vSwitch implements default idle bundle lifetime of 10 seconds.
1422 (This is configurable via other-config:bundle-idle-timeout in the
1423 Open_vSwitch table. See ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for details.)
1424
1426 We believe these limits to be accurate as of this writing. These lim‐
1427 its assume the use of the Linux kernel datapath.
1428 · ovs-vswitchd started through ovs-ctl(8) provides a limit of
1430 65535 file descriptors. The limits on the number of bridges and
1431 ports is decided by the availability of file descriptors. With
1432 the Linux kernel datapath, creation of a single bridge consumes
1433 three file descriptors and adding a port consumes "n-handler-
1434 threads" file descriptors per bridge port. Performance will
1435 degrade beyond 1,024 ports per bridge due to fixed hash table
1436 sizing. Other platforms may have different limitations.
1437 · 2,048 MAC learning entries per bridge, by default. (This is
1439 configurable via other-config:mac-table-size in the Bridge ta‐
1440 ble. See ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for details.)
1441 · Kernel flows are limited only by memory available to the kernel.
1443 Performance will degrade beyond 1,048,576 kernel flows per
1444 bridge with a 32-bit kernel, beyond 262,144 with a 64-bit ker‐
1445 nel. (ovs-vswitchd should never install anywhere near that many
1446 flows.)
1447 · OpenFlow flows are limited only by available memory. Perfor‐
1449 mance is linear in the number of unique wildcard patterns. That
1450 is, an OpenFlow table that contains many flows that all match on
1451 the same fields in the same way has a constant-time lookup, but
1452 a table that contains many flows that match on different fields
1453 requires lookup time linear in the number of flows.
1454 · 255 ports per bridge participating in 802.1D Spanning Tree Pro‐
1456 tocol.
1457 · 32 mirrors per bridge.
1459 · 15 bytes for the name of a port. (This is a Linux kernel limi‐
1461 tation.)
1462
1464 ovs-appctl(8), ovsdb-server(1).
1465Open vSwitch 2.10.0 ovs-vswitchd(8)