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ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)
ovs-vswitchd.conf.db - Open_vSwitch database schema
A database with this schema holds the configuration for one Open
vSwitch daemon. The top-level configuration for the daemon is the
Open_vSwitch table, which must have exactly one record. Records in
other tables are significant only when they can be reached
directly or indirectly from the Open_vSwitch table. Records that
are not reachable from the Open_vSwitch table are automatically
deleted from the database, except for records in a few
distinguished ``root set’’ tables.
Common Columns
Most tables contain two special columns, named other_config and
external_ids. These columns have the same form and purpose each
place that they appear, so we describe them here to save space
later.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs for configuring rarely used
features. Supported keys, along with the forms taken
by their values, are documented individually for
each table.
A few tables do not have other_config columns
because no key-value pairs have yet been defined for
them.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs for use by external frameworks that
integrate with Open vSwitch, rather than by Open
vSwitch itself. System integrators should either use
the Open vSwitch development mailing list to
coordinate on common key-value definitions, or
choose key names that are likely to be unique. In
some cases, where key-value pairs have been defined
that are likely to be widely useful, they are
documented individually for each table.
The following list summarizes the purpose of each of the tables in
the Open_vSwitch database. Each table is described in more detail
on a later page.
Table Purpose
Open_vSwitch
Open vSwitch configuration.
Bridge Bridge configuration.
Port Port configuration.
Interface One physical network device in a Port.
Flow_Table
OpenFlow table configuration
QoS Quality of Service configuration
Queue QoS output queue.
Mirror Port mirroring.
Controller
OpenFlow controller configuration.
Manager OVSDB management connection.
NetFlow NetFlow configuration.
Datapath Datapath configuration.
CT_Zone CT_Zone configuration.
CT_Timeout_Policy
CT_Timeout_Policy configuration.
SSL SSL configuration.
sFlow sFlow configuration.
IPFIX IPFIX configuration.
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set configuration.
AutoAttach
AutoAttach configuration.
Configuration for an Open vSwitch daemon. There must be exactly
one record in the Open_vSwitch table.
Summary:
Configuration:
datapaths map of string-Datapath pairs
bridges set of Bridges
ssl optional SSL
external_ids : system-id optional string
external_ids : hostname optional string
external_ids : rundir optional string
other_config : stats-update-interval
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 5,000
other_config : flow-restore-wait
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : flow-limit optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
other_config : max-idle optional string, containing an
integer, at least 500
other_config : max-revalidator
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 100
other_config : min-revalidate-pps
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
other_config : offloaded-stats-delay
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
other_config : hw-offload optional string, either true or
false
other_config : n-offload-threads
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 10
other_config : tc-policy optional string, one of none,
skip_hw, or skip_sw
other_config : dpdk-init optional string, one of false, true,
or try
other_config : dpdk-lcore-mask
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : pmd-cpu-mask
optional string
other_config : dpdk-alloc-mem
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
other_config : dpdk-socket-mem
optional string
other_config : dpdk-socket-limit
optional string
other_config : dpdk-hugepage-dir
optional string
other_config : dpdk-extra optional string
other_config : vhost-sock-dir
optional string
other_config : vhost-iommu-support
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : vhost-postcopy-support
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : per-port-memory
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : shared-mempool-config
optional string
other_config : tx-flush-interval
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 1,000,000
other_config : pmd-perf-metrics
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : smc-enable optional string, either true or
false
other_config : pmd-rxq-assign
optional string, one of cycles,
group, or roundrobin
other_config : pmd-rxq-isolate
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : n-handler-threads
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : n-revalidator-threads
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : emc-insert-inv-prob
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
other_config : vlan-limit optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
other_config : bundle-idle-timeout
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : offload-rebalance
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : pmd-auto-lb optional string, either true or
false
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-rebal-interval
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 20,000
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-load-threshold
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 100
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-improvement-threshold
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 100
other_config : pmd-sleep-max
optional string
other_config : userspace-tso-enable
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : explicit-sampled-drops
optional string, either true or
false
Status:
next_cfg integer
cur_cfg integer
dpdk_initialized boolean
Statistics:
other_config : enable-statistics
optional string, either true or
false
statistics : cpu optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
statistics : load_average
optional string
statistics : memory optional string
statistics : process_NAME
optional string
statistics : file_systems
optional string
Version Reporting:
ovs_version optional string
db_version optional string
system_type optional string
system_version optional string
dpdk_version optional string
Capabilities:
datapath_types set of strings
iface_types set of strings
Database Configuration:
manager_options set of Managers
IPsec:
other_config : private_key optional string
other_config : certificate optional string
other_config : ca_cert optional string
Plaintext Tunnel Policy:
other_config : ipsec_skb_mark
optional string
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Configuration:
datapaths: map of string-Datapath pairs
Map of datapath types to datapaths. The datapath_type
column of the Bridge table is used as a key for this map.
The value points to a row in the Datapath table.
bridges: set of Bridges
Set of bridges managed by the daemon.
ssl: optional SSL
SSL/TLS used globally by the daemon.
external_ids : system-id: optional string
A unique identifier for the Open vSwitch’s physical host.
The form of the identifier depends on the type of the host.
external_ids : hostname: optional string
The hostname for the host running Open vSwitch. This is a
fully qualified domain name since version 2.6.2.
external_ids : rundir: optional string
In Open vSwitch 2.8 and later, the run directory of the
running Open vSwitch daemon. This directory is used for
runtime state such as control and management sockets. The
value of other_config:vhost-sock-dir is relative to this
directory.
other_config : stats-update-interval: optional string, containing
an integer, at least 5,000
Interval for updating statistics to the database, in
milliseconds. This option will affect the update of the
statistics column in the following tables: Port, Interface
, Mirror.
Default value is 5000 ms.
Getting statistics more frequently can be achieved via
OpenFlow.
other_config : flow-restore-wait: optional string, either true or
false
When ovs-vswitchd starts up, it has an empty flow table and
therefore it handles all arriving packets in its default
fashion according to its configuration, by dropping them or
sending them to an OpenFlow controller or switching them as
a standalone switch. This behavior is ordinarily desirable.
However, if ovs-vswitchd is restarting as part of a ``hot-
upgrade,’’ then this leads to a relatively long period
during which packets are mishandled.
This option allows for improvement. When ovs-vswitchd
starts with this value set as true, it will neither flush
or expire previously set datapath flows nor will it send
and receive any packets to or from the datapath. When this
value is later set to false, ovs-vswitchd will start
receiving packets from the datapath and re-setup the flows.
Additionally, ovs-vswitchd is prevented from connecting to
controllers when this value is set to true. This prevents
controllers from making changes to the flow table in the
middle of flow restoration, which could result in
undesirable intermediate states. Once this value has been
set to false and the desired flow state has been restored,
ovs-vswitchd will be able to reconnect to controllers and
process any new flow table modifications.
Thus, with this option, the procedure for a hot-upgrade of
ovs-vswitchd becomes roughly the following:
1. Stop ovs-vswitchd.
2. Set other_config:flow-restore-wait to true.
3. Start ovs-vswitchd.
4. Use ovs-ofctl (or some other program, such as an
OpenFlow controller) to restore the OpenFlow flow table
to the desired state.
5. Set other_config:flow-restore-wait to false (or remove
it entirely from the database).
The ovs-ctl’s ``restart’’ and ``force-reload-kmod’’
functions use the above config option during hot upgrades.
other_config : flow-limit: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 0
The maximum number of flows allowed in the datapath flow
table. Internally OVS will choose a flow limit which will
likely be lower than this number, based on real time
network conditions. Tweaking this value is discouraged
unless you know exactly what you’re doing.
The default is 200000.
other_config : max-idle: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 500
The maximum time (in ms) that idle flows will remain cached
in the datapath. Internally OVS will check the validity and
activity for datapath flows regularly and may expire flows
quicker than this number, based on real time network
conditions. Tweaking this value is discouraged unless you
know exactly what you’re doing.
The default is 10000.
other_config : max-revalidator: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 100
The maximum time (in ms) that revalidator threads will wait
before executing flow revalidation. Note that this is
maximum allowed value. Actual timeout used by OVS is
minimum of max-idle and max-revalidator values. Tweaking
this value is discouraged unless you know exactly what
you’re doing.
The default is 500.
other_config : min-revalidate-pps: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Set minimum pps that flow must have in order to be
revalidated when revalidation duration exceeds half of max-
revalidator config variable. Setting to 0 means always
revalidate flows regardless of pps.
The default is 5.
other_config : offloaded-stats-delay: optional string, containing
an integer, at least 0
Set worst case delay (in ms) it might take before
statistics of offloaded flows are updated. Offloaded flows
younger than this delay will always be revalidated
regardless of other_config:min-revalidate-pps.
The default is 2000.
other_config : hw-offload: optional string, either true or false
Set this value to true to enable netdev flow offload.
The default value is false. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon
Currently Open vSwitch supports hardware offloading on
Linux systems. On other systems, this value is ignored.
This functionality is considered ’experimental’. Depending
on which OpenFlow matches and actions are configured, which
kernel version is used, and what hardware is available,
Open vSwitch may not be able to offload functionality to
hardware.
In order to dump HW offloaded flows use ovs-appctl
dpctl/dump-flows, ovs-dpctl doesn’t support this
functionality. See ovs-vswitchd(8) for details.
other_config : n-offload-threads: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 10
Set this value to the number of threads created to manage
hardware offloads.
The default value is 1. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon.
This is only relevant for userspace datapath and only if
other_config:hw-offload is enabled.
other_config : tc-policy: optional string, one of none, skip_hw,
or skip_sw
Specified the policy used with HW offloading. Options:
none Add software rule and offload rule to HW.
skip_sw
Offload rule to HW only.
skip_hw
Add software rule without offloading rule to HW.
This is only relevant if other_config:hw-offload is
enabled.
The default value is none.
other_config : dpdk-init: optional string, one of false, true, or
try
Set this value to true or try to enable runtime support for
DPDK ports. The vswitch must have compile-time support for
DPDK as well.
A value of true will cause the ovs-vswitchd process to
abort if DPDK cannot be initialized. A value of try will
allow the ovs-vswitchd process to continue running even if
DPDK cannot be initialized.
The default value is false. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon
If this value is false at startup, any dpdk ports which are
configured in the bridge will fail due to memory errors.
other_config : dpdk-lcore-mask: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
Specifies the CPU cores where dpdk lcore threads should be
spawned. The DPDK lcore threads are used for DPDK library
tasks, such as library internal message processing,
logging, etc. Value should be in the form of a hex string
(so ’0x123’) similar to the ’taskset’ mask input.
The lowest order bit corresponds to the first CPU core. A
set bit means the corresponding core is available and an
lcore thread will be created and pinned to it. If the input
does not cover all cores, those uncovered cores are
considered not set.
For performance reasons, it is best to set this to a single
core on the system, rather than allow lcore threads to
float.
If not specified, the value will be determined by choosing
the lowest CPU core from initial cpu affinity list.
Otherwise, the value will be passed directly to the DPDK
library.
other_config : pmd-cpu-mask: optional string
Specifies CPU mask for setting the cpu affinity of PMD
(Poll Mode Driver) threads. Value should be in the form of
hex string, similar to the dpdk EAL ’-c COREMASK’ option
input or the ’taskset’ mask input.
The lowest order bit corresponds to the first CPU core. A
set bit means the corresponding core is available and a pmd
thread will be created and pinned to it. If the input does
not cover all cores, those uncovered cores are considered
not set.
If not specified, one pmd thread will be created for each
numa node and pinned to any available core on the numa node
by default.
other_config : dpdk-alloc-mem: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Specifies the amount of memory to preallocate from the
hugepage pool, regardless of socket. It is recommended that
dpdk-socket-mem is used instead.
other_config : dpdk-socket-mem: optional string
Specifies the amount of memory to preallocate from the
hugepage pool, on a per-socket basis.
The specifier is a comma-separated string, in ascending
order of CPU socket. E.g. On a four socket system
1024,0,2048 would set socket 0 to preallocate 1024MB,
socket 1 to preallocate 0MB, socket 2 to preallocate 2048MB
and socket 3 (no value given) to preallocate 0MB.
If other_config:dpdk-socket-mem and other_config:dpdk-
alloc-mem are not specified, neither will be used and there
will be no default value for each numa node. DPDK defaults
will be used instead. If other_config:dpdk-socket-mem and
other_config:dpdk-alloc-mem are specified at the same time,
other_config:dpdk-socket-mem will be used as default.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon.
other_config : dpdk-socket-limit: optional string
Limits the maximum amount of memory that can be used from
the hugepage pool, on a per-socket basis.
The specifier is a comma-separated list of memory limits
per socket. 0 will disable the limit for a particular
socket.
If not specified, OVS will not configure limits by default.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon.
other_config : dpdk-hugepage-dir: optional string
Specifies the path to the hugetlbfs mount point.
If not specified, this will be guessed by the DPDK library
(default is /dev/hugepages). Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon.
other_config : dpdk-extra: optional string
Specifies additional eal command line arguments for DPDK.
The default is empty. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon
other_config : vhost-sock-dir: optional string
Specifies a relative path from external_ids:rundir to the
vhost-user unix domain socket files. If this value is
unset, the sockets are put directly in external_ids:rundir.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon.
other_config : vhost-iommu-support: optional string, either true
or false
vHost IOMMU is a security feature, which restricts the
vhost memory that a virtio device may access. vHost IOMMU
support is disabled by default, due to a bug in QEMU
implementations of the vhost REPLY_ACK protocol, (on which
vHost IOMMU relies) prior to v2.9.1. Setting this value to
true enables vHost IOMMU support for vHost User Client
ports in OvS-DPDK, starting from DPDK v17.11.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon.
other_config : vhost-postcopy-support: optional string, either
true or false
vHost post-copy is a feature which allows switching live
migration of VM attached to dpdkvhostuserclient port to
post-copy mode if default pre-copy migration can not be
converged or takes too long to converge. Setting this value
to true enables vHost post-copy support for all
dpdkvhostuserclient ports. Available starting from DPDK
v18.11 and QEMU 2.12.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon.
other_config : per-port-memory: optional string, either true or
false
By default OVS DPDK uses a shared memory model wherein
devices that have the same MTU and socket values can share
the same mempool. Setting this value to true changes this
behaviour. Per port memory allow DPDK devices to use
private memory per device. This can provide greater
transparency as regards memory usage but potentially at the
cost of greater memory requirements.
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon if dpdk-
init has already been set to true.
other_config : shared-mempool-config: optional string
Specifies dpdk shared mempool config.
Value should be set in the following form:
other_config:shared-mempool-config=<
user-shared-mempool-mtu-list>
where
• <user-shared-mempool-mtu-list> ::= NULL | <non-
empty-list>
• <non-empty-list> ::= <user-mtus> | <user-mtus> ,
<non-empty-list>
• <user-mtus> ::= <mtu-all-socket> | <mtu-socket-pair>
• <mtu-all-socket> ::= <mtu>
• <mtu-socket-pair> ::= <mtu> : <socket-id>
Changing this value requires restarting the daemon if dpdk-
init has already been set to true.
other_config : tx-flush-interval: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 1,000,000
Specifies the time in microseconds that a packet can wait
in output batch for sending i.e. amount of time that packet
can spend in an intermediate output queue before sending to
netdev. This option can be used to configure balance
between throughput and latency. Lower values decreases
latency while higher values may be useful to achieve higher
performance.
Defaults to 0 i.e. instant packet sending (latency
optimized).
other_config : pmd-perf-metrics: optional string, either true or
false
Enables recording of detailed PMD performance metrics for
analysis and trouble-shooting. This can have a performance
impact in the order of 1%.
Defaults to false but can be changed at any time.
other_config : smc-enable: optional string, either true or false
Signature match cache or SMC is a cache between EMC and
megaflow cache. It does not store the full key of the flow,
so it is more memory efficient comparing to EMC cache. SMC
is especially useful when flow count is larger than EMC
capacity.
Defaults to false but can be changed at any time.
other_config : pmd-rxq-assign: optional string, one of cycles,
group, or roundrobin
Specifies how RX queues will be automatically assigned to
CPU cores. Options:
cycles Rxqs will be sorted by order of measured processing
cycles before being assigned to CPU cores.
roundrobin
Rxqs will be round-robined across CPU cores.
group Rxqs will be sorted by order of measured processing
cycles before being assigned to CPU cores with
lowest estimated load.
The default value is cycles.
Changing this value will affect an automatic re-assignment
of Rxqs to CPUs. Note: Rxqs mapped to CPU cores with
pmd-rxq-affinity are unaffected.
other_config : pmd-rxq-isolate: optional string, either true or
false
Specifies if a CPU core will be isolated after being pinned
with an Rx queue.
Set this value to false to non-isolate a CPU core after it
is pinned with an Rxq using pmd-rxq-affinity. This will
allow OVS to assign other Rxqs to that CPU core.
The default value is true.
This can only be false when pmd-rxq-assign is set to group.
other_config : n-handler-threads: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
Attempts to specify the number of threads for software
datapaths to use for handling new flows. Some datapaths may
choose to ignore this and it will be set to a sensible
option for the datapath type.
This configuration is per datapath. If you have more than
one software datapath (e.g. some system bridges and some
netdev bridges), then the total number of threads is
n-handler-threads times the number of software datapaths.
other_config : n-revalidator-threads: optional string, containing
an integer, at least 1
Attempts to specify the number of threads for software
datapaths to use for revalidating flows in the datapath.
Some datapaths may choose to ignore this and will set to a
sensible option for the datapath type.
Typically, there is a direct correlation between the number
of revalidator threads, and the number of flows allowed in
the datapath. The default is the number of cpu cores
divided by four plus one. If n-handler-threads is set, the
default changes to the number of cpu cores minus the number
of handler threads.
This configuration is per datapath. If you have more than
one software datapath (e.g. some system bridges and some
netdev bridges), then the total number of threads is
n-handler-threads times the number of software datapaths.
other_config : emc-insert-inv-prob: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Specifies the inverse probability (1/emc-insert-inv-prob)
of a flow being inserted into the Exact Match Cache (EMC).
On average one in every emc-insert-inv-prob packets that
generate a unique flow will cause an insertion into the
EMC. A value of 1 will result in an insertion for every
flow (1/1 = 100%) whereas a value of zero will result in no
insertions and essentially disable the EMC.
Defaults to 100 ie. there is (1/100 =) 1% chance of EMC
insertion.
other_config : vlan-limit: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 0
Limits the number of VLAN headers that can be matched to
the specified number. Further VLAN headers will be treated
as payload, e.g. a packet with more 802.1q headers will
match Ethernet type 0x8100.
Open vSwitch userspace currently supports at most 2 VLANs,
and each datapath has its own limit. If vlan-limit is
nonzero, it acts as a further limit.
If this value is absent, the default is currently 1. This
maintains backward compatibility with controllers that were
designed for use with Open vSwitch versions earlier than
2.8, which only supported one VLAN.
other_config : bundle-idle-timeout: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
The maximum time (in seconds) that idle bundles will wait
to be expired since it was either opened, modified or
closed.
OpenFlow specification mandates the timeout to be at least
one second. The default is 10 seconds.
other_config : offload-rebalance: optional string, either true or
false
Configures HW offload rebalancing, that allows to
dynamically offload and un-offload flows while an offload-
device is out of resources (OOR). This policy allows flows
to be selected for offloading based on the packets-per-
second (pps) rate of flows.
Set this value to true to enable this option.
The default value is false. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon.
This is only relevant if HW offloading is enabled (hw-
offload). When this policy is enabled, it also requires
’tc-policy’ to be set to ’skip_sw’.
other_config : pmd-auto-lb: optional string, either true or false
Configures PMD Auto Load Balancing that allows automatic
assignment of RX queues to PMDs if any of PMDs is
overloaded (i.e. a processing cycles > other_config:pmd-
auto-lb-load-threshold).
It uses current scheme of cycle based assignment of RX
queues that are not statically pinned to PMDs.
The default value is false.
Set this value to true to enable this option. It is
currently disabled by default and an experimental feature.
This only comes in effect if cycle based assignment is
enabled and there are more than one non-isolated PMDs
present and at least one of it polls more than one queue.
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-rebal-interval: optional string,
containing an integer, in range 0 to 20,000
The minimum time (in minutes) 2 consecutive PMD Auto Load
Balancing iterations.
The default value is 1 min. If configured to 0 then it
would be converted to default value i.e. 1 min
This option can be configured to avoid frequent trigger of
auto load balancing of PMDs. For e.g. set the value (in
min) such that it occurs once in few hours or a day or a
week.
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-load-threshold: optional string,
containing an integer, in range 0 to 100
Specifies the minimum PMD thread load threshold (% of used
cycles) of any non-isolated PMD threads when a PMD Auto
Load Balance may be triggered.
The default value is 95%.
other_config : pmd-auto-lb-improvement-threshold: optional string,
containing an integer, in range 0 to 100
Specifies the minimum evaluated % improvement in load
distribution across the non-isolated PMD threads that will
allow a PMD Auto Load Balance to occur.
Note, setting this parameter to 0 will always allow an auto
load balance to occur regardless of estimated improvement
or not.
The default value is 25%.
other_config : pmd-sleep-max: optional string
Specifies the maximum sleep time that will be requested in
microseconds per iteration for a PMD thread which has
received zero or a small amount of packets from the Rx
queues it is polling.
The actual sleep time requested is based on the load of the
Rx queues that the PMD polls and may be less than the
maximum value.
The default value is 0 microseconds, which means that the
PMD will not sleep regardless of the load from the Rx
queues that it polls.
The maximum value is 10000 microseconds.
other_config:pmd-sleep-max=<pmd-sleep-list>
where
• <pmd-sleep-list> ::= NULL | <non-empty-list>
• <non-empty-list> ::= <pmd-sleep-value> | <pmd-sleep-
value> , <non-empty-list>
• <pmd-sleep-value> ::= <global-default-sleep-value> |
<pmd-core-sleep-pair>
• <global-default-sleep-value> ::= <max-sleep-time>
• <pmd-core-sleep-pair> ::= <core> : <max-sleep-time>
other_config : userspace-tso-enable: optional string, either true
or false
Set this value to true to enable userspace support for TCP
Segmentation Offloading (TSO). When it is enabled, the
interfaces can provide an oversized TCP segment to the
datapath and the datapath will offload the TCP segmentation
and checksum calculation to the interfaces when necessary.
The default value is false. Changing this value requires
restarting the daemon.
The feature only works if Open vSwitch is built with DPDK
support.
The feature is considered experimental.
other_config : explicit-sampled-drops: optional string, either
true or false
When a flow is installed in the datapath with an empty
action list, it indicates an implicit "drop" action. Most
datapaths report this for event for statistics and
monitoring (in datapath-specific ways).
However, if any of the per-bridge or per-flow sampling
functionalities are enabled (e.g: sFlow, IPFIX, local
sampling), the action list might not be empty, but contain
an action to implement such functionality. This makes the
datapaths not report the packet drop.
This knob makes Open vSwitch detect when the last datapath
action comes from these sampling features and add an
explicit drop action at the end to keep drop statistics
accurate.
The default value is false.
Status:
next_cfg: integer
Sequence number for client to increment. When a client
modifies any part of the database configuration and wishes
to wait for Open vSwitch to finish applying the changes, it
may increment this sequence number.
cur_cfg: integer
Sequence number that Open vSwitch sets to the current value
of next_cfg after it finishes applying a set of
configuration changes.
dpdk_initialized: boolean
True if other_config:dpdk-init is set to true and the DPDK
library is successfully initialized.
Statistics:
The statistics column contains key-value pairs that report
statistics about a system running an Open vSwitch. These are
updated periodically (currently, every 5 seconds). Key-value pairs
that cannot be determined or that do not apply to a platform are
omitted.
other_config : enable-statistics: optional string, either true or
false
Statistics are disabled by default to avoid overhead in the
common case when statistics gathering is not useful. Set
this value to true to enable populating the statistics
column or to false to explicitly disable it.
statistics : cpu: optional string, containing an integer, at least
1
Number of CPU processors, threads, or cores currently
online and available to the operating system on which Open
vSwitch is running, as an integer. This may be less than
the number installed, if some are not online or if they are
not available to the operating system.
Open vSwitch userspace processes are not multithreaded, but
the Linux kernel-based datapath is.
statistics : load_average: optional string
A comma-separated list of three floating-point numbers,
representing the system load average over the last 1, 5,
and 15 minutes, respectively.
statistics : memory: optional string
A comma-separated list of integers, each of which
represents a quantity of memory in kilobytes that describes
the operating system on which Open vSwitch is running. In
respective order, these values are:
1. Total amount of RAM allocated to the OS.
2. RAM allocated to the OS that is in use.
3. RAM that can be flushed out to disk or otherwise
discarded if that space is needed for another purpose.
This number is necessarily less than or equal to the
previous value.
4. Total disk space allocated for swap.
5. Swap space currently in use.
On Linux, all five values can be determined and are
included. On other operating systems, only the first two
values can be determined, so the list will only have two
values.
statistics : process_NAME: optional string
One such key-value pair, with NAME replaced by a process
name, will exist for each running Open vSwitch daemon
process, with name replaced by the daemon’s name (e.g.
process_ovs-vswitchd). The value is a comma-separated list
of integers. The integers represent the following, with
memory measured in kilobytes and durations in milliseconds:
1. The process’s virtual memory size.
2. The process’s resident set size.
3. The amount of user and system CPU time consumed by the
process.
4. The number of times that the process has crashed and
been automatically restarted by the monitor.
5. The duration since the process was started.
6. The duration for which the process has been running.
The interpretation of some of these values depends on
whether the process was started with the --monitor. If it
was not, then the crash count will always be 0 and the two
durations will always be the same. If --monitor was given,
then the crash count may be positive; if it is, the latter
duration is the amount of time since the most recent crash
and restart.
There will be one key-value pair for each file in Open
vSwitch’s ``run directory’’ (usually /var/run/openvswitch)
whose name ends in .pid, whose contents are a process ID,
and which is locked by a running process. The name is taken
from the pidfile’s name.
Currently Open vSwitch is only able to obtain all of the
above detail on Linux systems. On other systems, the same
key-value pairs will be present but the values will always
be the empty string.
statistics : file_systems: optional string
A space-separated list of information on local, writable
file systems. Each item in the list describes one file
system and consists in turn of a comma-separated list of
the following:
1. Mount point, e.g. / or /var/log. Any spaces or commas
in the mount point are replaced by underscores.
2. Total size, in kilobytes, as an integer.
3. Amount of storage in use, in kilobytes, as an integer.
This key-value pair is omitted if there are no local,
writable file systems or if Open vSwitch cannot obtain the
needed information.
Version Reporting:
These columns report the types and versions of the hardware and
software running Open vSwitch. We recommend in general that
software should test whether specific features are supported
instead of relying on version number checks. These values are
primarily intended for reporting to human administrators.
ovs_version: optional string
The Open vSwitch version number, e.g. 1.1.0.
db_version: optional string
The database schema version number, e.g. 1.2.3. See ovsdb-
tool(1) for an explanation of the numbering scheme.
The schema version is part of the database schema, so it
can also be retrieved by fetching the schema using the Open
vSwitch database protocol.
system_type: optional string
An identifier for the type of system on top of which Open
vSwitch runs, e.g. KVM.
System integrators are responsible for choosing and setting
an appropriate value for this column.
system_version: optional string
The version of the system identified by system_type, e.g.
4.18.0-372.19.1.el8_6 on RHEL 8.6 with kernel
4.18.0-372.19.1.
System integrators are responsible for choosing and setting
an appropriate value for this column.
dpdk_version: optional string
The version of the linked DPDK library.
Capabilities:
These columns report capabilities of the Open vSwitch instance.
datapath_types: set of strings
This column reports the different dpifs registered with the
system. These are the values that this instance supports in
the datapath_type column of the Bridge table.
iface_types: set of strings
This column reports the different netdevs registered with
the system. These are the values that this instance
supports in the type column of the Interface table.
Database Configuration:
These columns primarily configure the Open vSwitch database
(ovsdb-server), not the Open vSwitch switch (ovs-vswitchd). The
OVSDB database also uses the ssl settings.
The Open vSwitch switch does read the database configuration to
determine remote IP addresses to which in-band control should
apply.
manager_options: set of Managers
Database clients to which the Open vSwitch database server
should connect or to which it should listen, along with
options for how these connections should be configured. See
the Manager table for more information.
For this column to serve its purpose, ovsdb-server must be
configured to honor it. The easiest way to do this is to
invoke ovsdb-server with the option
--remote=db:Open_vSwitch,Open_vSwitch,manager_options The
startup scripts that accompany Open vSwitch do this by
default.
IPsec:
These settings control the global configuration of IPsec tunnels.
The options column of the Interface table configures IPsec for
individual tunnels. The options column also allows for custom
options prefixed with ipsec_ to be passed to the individual
connections.
OVS IPsec supports the following three forms of authentication.
Currently, all IPsec tunnels must use the same form:
1. Pre-shared keys: Omit the global settings. On each
tunnel, set options:psk.
2. Self-signed certificates: Set the private_key and
certificate global settings. On each tunnel, set
options:remote_cert. The remote certificate can be
self-signed.
3. CA-signed certificates: Set all of the global settings.
On each tunnel, set options:remote_name to the common
name (CN) of the remote certificate. The remote
certificate must be signed by the CA.
other_config : private_key: optional string
Name of a PEM file containing the private key used as the
switch’s identity for IPsec tunnels.
other_config : certificate: optional string
Name of a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies
the switch’s private key, and identifies a trustworthy
switch for IPsec tunnels. The certificate must be x.509
version 3 and with the string in common name (CN) also set
in the subject alternative name (SAN).
other_config : ca_cert: optional string
Name of a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to
verify that a remote switch of the IPsec tunnel is
trustworthy.
Plaintext Tunnel Policy:
When an IPsec tunnel is configured in this database, multiple
independent components take responsibility for implementing it.
ovs-vswitchd and its datapath handle packet forwarding to the
tunnel and a separate daemon pushes the tunnel’s IPsec policy
configuration to the kernel or other entity that implements it.
There is a race: if the former configuration completes before the
latter, then packets sent by the local host over the tunnel can be
transmitted in plaintext. Using this setting, OVS users can avoid
this undesirable situation.
other_config : ipsec_skb_mark: optional string
This setting takes the form value/mask. If it is specified,
then the skb_mark field in every outgoing tunneled packet
sent in plaintext is compared against it and, if it
matches, the packet is dropped. This is a global setting
that is applied to every tunneled packet, regardless of
whether IPsec encryption is enabled for the tunnel, the
type of tunnel, or whether OVS is involved.
Example policies:
1/1 Drop all unencrypted tunneled packets in which the
least-significant bit of skb_mark is 1. This would
be a useful policy given an OpenFlow flow table that
sets skb_mark to 1 for traffic that should be
encrypted. The default skb_mark is 0, so this would
not affect other traffic.
0/1 Drop all unencrypted tunneled packets in which the
least-significant bit of skb_mark is 0. This would
be a useful policy if no unencrypted tunneled
traffic should exit the system without being
specially permitted by setting skb_mark to 1.
(empty)
If this setting is empty or unset, then all
unencrypted tunneled packets are transmitted in the
usual way.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Configuration for a bridge within an Open_vSwitch.
A Bridge record represents an Ethernet switch with one or more
``ports,’’ which are the Port records pointed to by the Bridge’s
ports column.
Summary:
Core Features:
name immutable string (must be unique
within table)
ports set of Ports
mirrors set of Mirrors
netflow optional NetFlow
sflow optional sFlow
ipfix optional IPFIX
flood_vlans set of up to 4,096 integers, in
range 0 to 4,095
auto_attach optional AutoAttach
OpenFlow Configuration:
controller set of Controllers
flow_tables map of integer-Flow_Table pairs, key
in range 0 to 254
fail_mode optional string, either secure or
standalone
datapath_id optional string
datapath_version string
other_config : datapath-id optional string
other_config : dp-desc optional string
other_config : dp-sn optional string
other_config : disable-in-band
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : in-band-queue
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
other_config : controller-queue-size
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 512
protocols set of strings, one of OpenFlow10,
OpenFlow11, OpenFlow12, OpenFlow13,
OpenFlow14, or OpenFlow15
Spanning Tree Configuration:
STP Configuration:
stp_enable boolean
other_config : stp-system-id
optional string
other_config : stp-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 65,535
other_config : stp-hello-time
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 10
other_config : stp-max-age
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 6 to 40
other_config : stp-forward-delay
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 4 to 30
other_config : mcast-snooping-aging-time
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : mcast-snooping-table-size
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : mcast-snooping-disable-flood-unregistered
optional string, either true or
false
STP Status:
status : stp_bridge_id optional string
status : stp_designated_root
optional string
status : stp_root_path_cost
optional string
Rapid Spanning Tree:
RSTP Configuration:
rstp_enable boolean
other_config : rstp-address
optional string
other_config : rstp-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 61,440
other_config : rstp-ageing-time
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 10 to 1,000,000
other_config : rstp-force-protocol-version
optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : rstp-max-age
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 6 to 40
other_config : rstp-forward-delay
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 4 to 30
other_config : rstp-transmit-hold-count
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 10
RSTP Status:
rstp_status : rstp_bridge_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_root_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_root_path_cost
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
rstp_status : rstp_designated_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_designated_port_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_bridge_port_id
optional string
Multicast Snooping Configuration:
mcast_snooping_enable boolean
Other Features:
datapath_type string
external_ids : bridge-id optional string
other_config : hwaddr optional string
other_config : forward-bpdu
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : mac-aging-time
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : mac-table-size
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
name: immutable string (must be unique within table)
Bridge identifier. Must be unique among the names of ports,
interfaces, and bridges on a host.
The name must be alphanumeric and must not contain forward
or backward slashes. The name of a bridge is also the name
of an Interface (and a Port) within the bridge, so the
restrictions on the name column in the Interface table,
particularly on length, also apply to bridge names. Refer
to the documentation for Interface names for details.
ports: set of Ports
Ports included in the bridge.
mirrors: set of Mirrors
Port mirroring configuration.
netflow: optional NetFlow
NetFlow configuration.
sflow: optional sFlow
sFlow(R) configuration.
ipfix: optional IPFIX
IPFIX configuration.
flood_vlans: set of up to 4,096 integers, in range 0 to 4,095
VLAN IDs of VLANs on which MAC address learning should be
disabled, so that packets are flooded instead of being sent
to specific ports that are believed to contain packets’
destination MACs. This should ordinarily be used to disable
MAC learning on VLANs used for mirroring (RSPAN VLANs). It
may also be useful for debugging.
SLB bonding (see the bond_mode column in the Port table) is
incompatible with flood_vlans. Consider using another
bonding mode or a different type of mirror instead.
auto_attach: optional AutoAttach
Auto Attach configuration.
OpenFlow Configuration:
controller: set of Controllers
OpenFlow controller set. If unset, then no OpenFlow
controllers will be used.
If there are primary controllers, removing all of them
clears the OpenFlow flow tables, group table, and meter
table. If there are no primary controllers, adding one also
clears these tables. Other changes to the set of
controllers, such as adding or removing a service
controller, adding another primary controller to supplement
an existing primary controller, or removing only one of two
primary controllers, have no effect on these tables.
flow_tables: map of integer-Flow_Table pairs, key in range 0 to
254
Configuration for OpenFlow tables. Each pair maps from an
OpenFlow table ID to configuration for that table.
fail_mode: optional string, either secure or standalone
When a controller is configured, it is, ordinarily,
responsible for setting up all flows on the switch. Thus,
if the connection to the controller fails, no new network
connections can be set up. If the connection to the
controller stays down long enough, no packets can pass
through the switch at all. This setting determines the
switch’s response to such a situation. It may be set to one
of the following:
standalone
If no message is received from the controller for
three times the inactivity probe interval (see
inactivity_probe), then Open vSwitch will take over
responsibility for setting up flows. In this mode,
Open vSwitch causes the bridge to act like an
ordinary MAC-learning switch. Open vSwitch will
continue to retry connecting to the controller in
the background and, when the connection succeeds, it
will discontinue its standalone behavior.
secure Open vSwitch will not set up flows on its own when
the controller connection fails or when no
controllers are defined. The bridge will continue to
retry connecting to any defined controllers forever.
The default is standalone if the value is unset, but future
versions of Open vSwitch may change the default.
The standalone mode can create forwarding loops on a bridge
that has more than one uplink port unless STP is enabled.
To avoid loops on such a bridge, configure secure mode or
enable STP (see stp_enable).
The fail_mode setting applies only to primary controllers.
When more than one primary controller is configured,
fail_mode is considered only when none of the configured
controllers can be contacted.
Changing fail_mode when no primary controllers are
configured clears the OpenFlow flow tables, group table,
and meter table.
datapath_id: optional string
Reports the OpenFlow datapath ID in use. Exactly 16 hex
digits. (Setting this column has no useful effect. Set
other-config:datapath-id instead.)
datapath_version: string
Reports the datapath version. This column is maintained for
backwards compatibility. The preferred locatation is the
datapath_id column of the Datapath table. The full
documentation for this column is there.
other_config : datapath-id: optional string
Overrides the default OpenFlow datapath ID, setting it to
the specified value specified in hex. The value must either
have a 0x prefix or be exactly 16 hex digits long. May not
be all-zero.
other_config : dp-desc: optional string
Human readable description of datapath. It is a maximum 256
byte-long free-form string to describe the datapath for
debugging purposes, e.g. switch3 in room 3120. The value is
returned by the switch as a part of reply to OFPMP_DESC
request (ofp_desc). The OpenFlow specification (e.g. 1.3.5)
describes the ofp_desc structure to contaion "NULL
terminated ASCII strings". For the compatibility reasons no
more than 255 ASCII characters should be used.
other_config : dp-sn: optional string
Serial number. It is a maximum 32 byte-long free-form
string to provide an additional switch identification. The
value is returned by the switch as a part of reply to
OFPMP_DESC request (ofp_desc). Same as mentioned in the
description of other-config:dp-desc, the string should be
no more than 31 ASCII characters for the compatibility.
other_config : disable-in-band: optional string, either true or
false
If set to true, disable in-band control on the bridge
regardless of controller and manager settings.
other_config : in-band-queue: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
A queue ID as a nonnegative integer. This sets the OpenFlow
queue ID that will be used by flows set up by in-band
control on this bridge. If unset, or if the port used by an
in-band control flow does not have QoS configured, or if
the port does not have a queue with the specified ID, the
default queue is used instead.
other_config : controller-queue-size: optional string, containing
an integer, in range 1 to 512
This sets the maximum size of the queue of packets that
need to be sent to the OpenFlow management controller. The
value must be less than 512. If not specified the queue
size is limited to 100 packets by default. Note: increasing
the queue size might have a negative impact on latency.
protocols: set of strings, one of OpenFlow10, OpenFlow11,
OpenFlow12, OpenFlow13, OpenFlow14, or OpenFlow15
List of OpenFlow protocols that may be used when
negotiating a connection with a controller. OpenFlow 1.0,
1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5 are enabled by default if this
column is empty.
Spanning Tree Configuration:
The IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol
that ensures loop-free topologies. It allows redundant links to be
included in the network to provide automatic backup paths if the
active links fails.
These settings configure the slower-to-converge but still widely
supported version of Spanning Tree Protocol, sometimes known as
802.1D-1998. Open vSwitch also supports the newer Rapid Spanning
Tree Protocol (RSTP), documented later in the section titled Rapid
Spanning Tree Configuration.
STP Configuration:
stp_enable: boolean
Enable spanning tree on the bridge. By default, STP is
disabled on bridges. Bond, internal, and mirror ports are
not supported and will not participate in the spanning
tree.
STP and RSTP are mutually exclusive. If both are enabled,
RSTP will be used.
other_config : stp-system-id: optional string
The bridge’s STP identifier (the lower 48 bits of the
bridge-id) in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. By default, the
identifier is the MAC address of the bridge.
other_config : stp-priority: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 65,535
The bridge’s relative priority value for determining the
root bridge (the upper 16 bits of the bridge-id). A bridge
with the lowest bridge-id is elected the root. By default,
the priority is 0x8000.
other_config : stp-hello-time: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 10
The interval between transmissions of hello messages by
designated ports, in seconds. By default the hello interval
is 2 seconds.
other_config : stp-max-age: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 6 to 40
The maximum age of the information transmitted by the
bridge when it is the root bridge, in seconds. By default,
the maximum age is 20 seconds.
other_config : stp-forward-delay: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 4 to 30
The delay to wait between transitioning root and designated
ports to forwarding, in seconds. By default, the forwarding
delay is 15 seconds.
other_config : mcast-snooping-aging-time: optional string,
containing an integer, at least 1
The maximum number of seconds to retain a multicast
snooping entry for which no packets have been seen. The
default is currently 300 seconds (5 minutes). The value, if
specified, is forced into a reasonable range, currently 15
to 3600 seconds.
other_config : mcast-snooping-table-size: optional string,
containing an integer, at least 1
The maximum number of multicast snooping addresses to
learn. The default is currently 2048. The value, if
specified, is forced into a reasonable range, currently 10
to 1,000,000.
other_config : mcast-snooping-disable-flood-unregistered: optional
string, either true or false
If set to false, unregistered multicast packets are
forwarded to all ports. If set to true, unregistered
multicast packets are forwarded to ports connected to
multicast routers.
STP Status:
These key-value pairs report the status of 802.1D-1998. They are
present only if STP is enabled (via the stp_enable column).
status : stp_bridge_id: optional string
The bridge ID used in spanning tree advertisements, in the
form xxxx.yyyyyyyyyyyy where the xs are the STP priority,
the ys are the STP system ID, and each x and y is a hex
digit.
status : stp_designated_root: optional string
The designated root for this spanning tree, in the same
form as status:stp_bridge_id. If this bridge is the root,
this will have the same value as status:stp_bridge_id,
otherwise it will differ.
status : stp_root_path_cost: optional string
The path cost of reaching the designated bridge. A lower
number is better. The value is 0 if this bridge is the
root, otherwise it is higher.
Rapid Spanning Tree:
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), like STP, is a network
protocol that ensures loop-free topologies. RSTP superseded STP
with the publication of 802.1D-2004. Compared to STP, RSTP
converges more quickly and recovers more quickly from failures.
RSTP Configuration:
rstp_enable: boolean
Enable Rapid Spanning Tree on the bridge. By default, RSTP
is disabled on bridges. Bond, internal, and mirror ports
are not supported and will not participate in the spanning
tree.
STP and RSTP are mutually exclusive. If both are enabled,
RSTP will be used.
other_config : rstp-address: optional string
The bridge’s RSTP address (the lower 48 bits of the bridge-
id) in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx. By default, the address
is the MAC address of the bridge.
other_config : rstp-priority: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 61,440
The bridge’s relative priority value for determining the
root bridge (the upper 16 bits of the bridge-id). A bridge
with the lowest bridge-id is elected the root. By default,
the priority is 0x8000 (32768). This value needs to be a
multiple of 4096, otherwise it’s rounded to the nearest
inferior one.
other_config : rstp-ageing-time: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 10 to 1,000,000
The Ageing Time parameter for the Bridge. The default value
is 300 seconds.
other_config : rstp-force-protocol-version: optional string,
containing an integer
The Force Protocol Version parameter for the Bridge. This
can take the value 0 (STP Compatibility mode) or 2 (the
default, normal operation).
other_config : rstp-max-age: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 6 to 40
The maximum age of the information transmitted by the
Bridge when it is the Root Bridge. The default value is 20.
other_config : rstp-forward-delay: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 4 to 30
The delay used by STP Bridges to transition Root and
Designated Ports to Forwarding. The default value is 15.
other_config : rstp-transmit-hold-count: optional string,
containing an integer, in range 1 to 10
The Transmit Hold Count used by the Port Transmit state
machine to limit transmission rate. The default value is 6.
RSTP Status:
These key-value pairs report the status of 802.1D-2004. They are
present only if RSTP is enabled (via the rstp_enable column).
rstp_status : rstp_bridge_id: optional string
The bridge ID used in rapid spanning tree advertisements,
in the form x.yyy.zzzzzzzzzzzz where x is the RSTP
priority, the ys are a locally assigned system ID
extension, the zs are the STP system ID, and each x, y, or
z is a hex digit.
rstp_status : rstp_root_id: optional string
The root of this spanning tree, in the same form as
rstp_status:rstp_bridge_id. If this bridge is the root,
this will have the same value as
rstp_status:rstp_bridge_id, otherwise it will differ.
rstp_status : rstp_root_path_cost: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
The path cost of reaching the root. A lower number is
better. The value is 0 if this bridge is the root,
otherwise it is higher.
rstp_status : rstp_designated_id: optional string
The RSTP designated ID, in the same form as
rstp_status:rstp_bridge_id.
rstp_status : rstp_designated_port_id: optional string
The RSTP designated port ID, as a 4-digit hex number.
rstp_status : rstp_bridge_port_id: optional string
The RSTP bridge port ID, as a 4-digit hex number.
Multicast Snooping Configuration:
Multicast snooping (RFC 4541) monitors the Internet Group
Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery
traffic between hosts and multicast routers. The switch uses what
IGMP and MLD snooping learns to forward multicast traffic only to
interfaces that are connected to interested receivers. Currently
it supports IGMPv1, IGMPv2, IGMPv3, MLDv1 and MLDv2 protocols.
mcast_snooping_enable: boolean
Enable multicast snooping on the bridge. For now, the
default is disabled.
Other Features:
datapath_type: string
Name of datapath provider. The kernel datapath has type
system. The userspace datapath has type netdev. A manager
may refer to the datapath_types column of the Open_vSwitch
table for a list of the types accepted by this Open vSwitch
instance.
external_ids : bridge-id: optional string
A unique identifier of the bridge.
other_config : hwaddr: optional string
An Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to set
the hardware address of the local port and influence the
datapath ID.
other_config : forward-bpdu: optional string, either true or false
Controls forwarding of BPDUs and other network control
frames when NORMAL action is invoked. When this option is
false or unset, frames with reserved Ethernet addresses
(see table below) will not be forwarded. When this option
is true, such frames will not be treated specially.
The above general rule has the following exceptions:
• If STP is enabled on the bridge (see the stp_enable
column in the Bridge table), the bridge processes
all received STP packets and never passes them to
OpenFlow or forwards them. This is true even if STP
is disabled on an individual port.
• If LLDP is enabled on an interface (see the lldp
column in the Interface table), the interface
processes received LLDP packets and never passes
them to OpenFlow or forwards them.
Set this option to true if the Open vSwitch bridge connects
different Ethernet networks and is not configured to
participate in STP.
This option affects packets with the following destination
MAC addresses:
01:80:c2:00:00:00
IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).
01:80:c2:00:00:01
IEEE Pause frame.
01:80:c2:00:00:0x
Other reserved protocols.
00:e0:2b:00:00:00
Extreme Discovery Protocol (EDP).
00:e0:2b:00:00:04 and 00:e0:2b:00:00:06
Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS).
01:00:0c:cc:cc:cc
Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), VLAN Trunking
Protocol (VTP), Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP),
Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), and others.
01:00:0c:cc:cc:cd
Cisco Shared Spanning Tree Protocol PVSTP+.
01:00:0c:cd:cd:cd
Cisco STP Uplink Fast.
01:00:0c:00:00:00
Cisco Inter Switch Link.
01:00:0c:cc:cc:cx
Cisco CFM.
other_config : mac-aging-time: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
The maximum number of seconds to retain a MAC learning
entry for which no packets have been seen. The default is
currently 300 seconds (5 minutes). The value, if specified,
is forced into a reasonable range, currently 15 to 3600
seconds.
A short MAC aging time allows a network to more quickly
detect that a host is no longer connected to a switch port.
However, it also makes it more likely that packets will be
flooded unnecessarily, when they are addressed to a
connected host that rarely transmits packets. To reduce the
incidence of unnecessary flooding, use a MAC aging time
longer than the maximum interval at which a host will
ordinarily transmit packets.
other_config : mac-table-size: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
The maximum number of MAC addresses to learn. The default
is currently 8192. The value, if specified, is forced into
a reasonable range, currently 10 to 1,000,000.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
A port within a Bridge.
Most commonly, a port has exactly one ``interface,’’ pointed to by
its interfaces column. Such a port logically corresponds to a port
on a physical Ethernet switch. A port with more than one interface
is a ``bonded port’’ (see Bonding Configuration).
Some properties that one might think as belonging to a port are
actually part of the port’s Interface members.
Summary:
name immutable string (must be unique
within table)
interfaces set of 1 or more Interfaces
VLAN Configuration:
vlan_mode optional string, one of access,
dot1q-tunnel, native-tagged,
native-untagged, or trunk
tag optional integer, in range 0 to
4,095
trunks set of up to 4,096 integers, in
range 0 to 4,095
cvlans set of up to 4,096 integers, in
range 0 to 4,095
other_config : qinq-ethtype
optional string, either 802.1ad or
802.1q
other_config : priority-tags
optional string, one of always,
if-nonzero, or never
Bonding Configuration:
bond_mode optional string, one of
active-backup, balance-slb, or
balance-tcp
other_config : bond-hash-basis
optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : lb-output-action
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : bond-primary
optional string
other_config : all-members-active
optional string, either true or
false
Link Failure Detection:
other_config : bond-detect-mode
optional string, either carrier or
miimon
other_config : bond-miimon-interval
optional string, containing an
integer
bond_updelay integer
bond_downdelay integer
LACP Configuration:
lacp optional string, one of active, off,
or passive
other_config : lacp-system-id
optional string
other_config : lacp-system-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
other_config : lacp-time optional string, either fast or slow
other_config : lacp-fallback-ab
optional string, either true or
false
Rebalancing Configuration:
other_config : bond-rebalance-interval
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 2,147,483,647
bond_fake_iface boolean
Spanning Tree Protocol:
STP Configuration:
other_config : stp-enable
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : stp-port-num
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 255
other_config : stp-port-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 255
other_config : stp-path-cost
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 65,535
STP Status:
status : stp_port_id optional string
status : stp_state optional string, one of blocking,
disabled, forwarding, learning, or
listening
status : stp_sec_in_state
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : stp_role optional string, one of alternate,
designated, or root
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol:
RSTP Configuration:
other_config : rstp-enable
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : rstp-port-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 240
other_config : rstp-port-num
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 4,095
other_config : rstp-path-cost
optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : rstp-port-admin-edge
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : rstp-port-auto-edge
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : rstp-port-mcheck
optional string, either true or
false
RSTP Status:
rstp_status : rstp_port_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_port_role
optional string, one of Alternate,
Backup, Designated, Disabled, or
Root
rstp_status : rstp_port_state
optional string, one of Disabled,
Discarding, Forwarding, or Learning
rstp_status : rstp_designated_bridge_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_designated_port_id
optional string
rstp_status : rstp_designated_path_cost
optional string, containing an
integer
RSTP Statistics:
rstp_statistics : rstp_tx_count
optional integer
rstp_statistics : rstp_rx_count
optional integer
rstp_statistics : rstp_error_count
optional integer
rstp_statistics : rstp_uptime
optional integer
Multicast Snooping:
other_config : mcast-snooping-flood
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : mcast-snooping-flood-reports
optional string, either true or
false
Other Features:
qos optional QoS
mac optional string
fake_bridge boolean
protected boolean
external_ids : fake-bridge-*
optional string
other_config : transient optional string, either true or
false
bond_active_slave optional string
Port Statistics:
Statistics: STP transmit and receive counters:
statistics : stp_tx_count
optional integer
statistics : stp_rx_count
optional integer
statistics : stp_error_count
optional integer
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: immutable string (must be unique within table)
Port name. For a non-bonded port, this should be the same
as its interface’s name. Port names must otherwise be
unique among the names of ports, interfaces, and bridges on
a host. Because port and interfaces names are usually the
same, the restrictions on the name column in the Interface
table, particularly on length, also apply to port names.
Refer to the documentation for Interface names for details.
interfaces: set of 1 or more Interfaces
The port’s interfaces. If there is more than one, this is a
bonded Port.
VLAN Configuration:
In short, a VLAN (short for ``virtual LAN’’) is a way to partition
a single switch into multiple switches. VLANs can be confusing, so
for an introduction, please refer to the question ``What’s a
VLAN?’’ in the Open vSwitch FAQ.
A VLAN is sometimes encoded into a packet using a 802.1Q or
802.1ad VLAN header, but every packet is part of some VLAN whether
or not it is encoded in the packet. (A packet that appears to have
no VLAN is part of VLAN 0, by default.) As a result, it’s useful
to think of a VLAN as a metadata property of a packet, separate
from how the VLAN is encoded. For a given port, this column
determines how the encoding of a packet that ingresses or egresses
the port maps to the packet’s VLAN. When a packet enters the
switch, its VLAN is determined based on its setting in this column
and its VLAN headers, if any, and then, conceptually, the VLAN
headers are then stripped off. Conversely, when a packet exits the
switch, its VLAN and the settings in this column determine what
VLAN headers, if any, are pushed onto the packet before it
egresses the port.
The VLAN configuration in this column affects Open vSwitch only
when it is doing ``normal switching.’’ It does not affect flows
set up by an OpenFlow controller, outside of the OpenFlow ``normal
action.’’
Bridge ports support the following types of VLAN configuration:
trunk A trunk port carries packets on one or more
specified VLANs specified in the trunks column
(often, on every VLAN). A packet that ingresses on a
trunk port is in the VLAN specified in its 802.1Q
header, or VLAN 0 if the packet has no 802.1Q
header. A packet that egresses through a trunk port
will have an 802.1Q header if it has a nonzero VLAN
ID.
Any packet that ingresses on a trunk port tagged
with a VLAN that the port does not trunk is dropped.
access An access port carries packets on exactly one VLAN
specified in the tag column. Packets egressing on an
access port have no 802.1Q header.
Any packet with an 802.1Q header with a nonzero VLAN
ID that ingresses on an access port is dropped,
regardless of whether the VLAN ID in the header is
the access port’s VLAN ID.
native-tagged
A native-tagged port resembles a trunk port, with
the exception that a packet without an 802.1Q header
that ingresses on a native-tagged port is in the
``native VLAN’’ (specified in the tag column).
native-untagged
A native-untagged port resembles a native-tagged
port, with the exception that a packet that egresses
on a native-untagged port in the native VLAN will
not have an 802.1Q header.
dot1q-tunnel
A dot1q-tunnel port is somewhat like an access port.
Like an access port, it carries packets on the
single VLAN specified in the tag column and this
VLAN, called the service VLAN, does not appear in an
802.1Q header for packets that ingress or egress on
the port. The main difference lies in the behavior
when packets that include a 802.1Q header ingress on
the port. Whereas an access port drops such packets,
a dot1q-tunnel port treats these as double-tagged
with the outer service VLAN tag and the inner
customer VLAN taken from the 802.1Q header.
Correspondingly, to egress on the port, a packet
outer VLAN (or only VLAN) must be tag, which is
removed before egress, which exposes the inner
(customer) VLAN if one is present.
If cvlans is set, only allows packets in the
specified customer VLANs.
A packet will only egress through bridge ports that carry the VLAN
of the packet, as described by the rules above.
vlan_mode: optional string, one of access, dot1q-tunnel,
native-tagged, native-untagged, or trunk
The VLAN mode of the port, as described above. When this
column is empty, a default mode is selected as follows:
• If tag contains a value, the port is an access port.
The trunks column should be empty.
• Otherwise, the port is a trunk port. The trunks
column value is honored if it is present.
tag: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,095
For an access port, the port’s implicitly tagged VLAN. For
a native-tagged or native-untagged port, the port’s native
VLAN. Must be empty if this is a trunk port.
trunks: set of up to 4,096 integers, in range 0 to 4,095
For a trunk, native-tagged, or native-untagged port, the
802.1Q VLAN or VLANs that this port trunks; if it is empty,
then the port trunks all VLANs. Must be empty if this is an
access port.
A native-tagged or native-untagged port always trunks its
native VLAN, regardless of whether trunks includes that
VLAN.
cvlans: set of up to 4,096 integers, in range 0 to 4,095
For a dot1q-tunnel port, the customer VLANs that this port
includes. If this is empty, the port includes all customer
VLANs.
For other kinds of ports, this setting is ignored.
other_config : qinq-ethtype: optional string, either 802.1ad or
802.1q
For a dot1q-tunnel port, this is the TPID for the service
tag, that is, for the 802.1Q header that contains the
service VLAN ID. Because packets that actually ingress and
egress a dot1q-tunnel port do not include an 802.1Q header
for the service VLAN, this does not affect packets on the
dot1q-tunnel port itself. Rather, it determines the service
VLAN for a packet that ingresses on a dot1q-tunnel port and
egresses on a trunk port.
The value 802.1ad specifies TPID 0x88a8, which is also the
default if the setting is omitted. The value 802.1q
specifies TPID 0x8100.
For other kinds of ports, this setting is ignored.
other_config : priority-tags: optional string, one of always,
if-nonzero, or never
An 802.1Q header contains two important pieces of
information: a VLAN ID and a priority. A frame with a zero
VLAN ID, called a ``priority-tagged’’ frame, is supposed to
be treated the same way as a frame without an 802.1Q header
at all (except for the priority).
However, some network elements ignore any frame that has
802.1Q header at all, even when the VLAN ID is zero.
Therefore, by default Open vSwitch does not output
priority-tagged frames, instead omitting the 802.1Q header
entirely if the VLAN ID is zero. Set this key to if-nonzero
to enable priority-tagged frames on a port.
For if-nonzero Open vSwitch omits the 802.1Q header on
output if both the VLAN ID and priority would be zero. Set
to always to retain the 802.1Q header in such frames as
well.
All frames output to native-tagged ports have a nonzero
VLAN ID, so this setting is not meaningful on native-tagged
ports.
Bonding Configuration:
A port that has more than one interface is a ``bonded port.’’
Bonding allows for load balancing and fail-over.
The following types of bonding will work with any kind of upstream
switch. On the upstream switch, do not configure the interfaces as
a bond:
balance-slb
Balances flows among members based on source MAC
address and output VLAN, with periodic rebalancing
as traffic patterns change.
active-backup
Assigns all flows to one member, failing over to a
backup member when the active member is disabled.
This is the only bonding mode in which interfaces
may be plugged into different upstream switches.
The following modes require the upstream switch to support 802.3ad
with successful LACP negotiation. If LACP negotiation fails and
other-config:lacp-fallback-ab is true, then active-backup mode is
used:
balance-tcp
Balances flows among members based on L3 and L4
protocol information such as IP addresses and
TCP/UDP ports.
These columns apply only to bonded ports. Their values are
otherwise ignored.
bond_mode: optional string, one of active-backup, balance-slb, or
balance-tcp
The type of bonding used for a bonded port. Defaults to
active-backup if unset.
other_config : bond-hash-basis: optional string, containing an
integer
An integer hashed along with flows when choosing output
members in load balanced bonds. When changed, all flows
will be assigned different hash values possibly causing
member selection decisions to change. Does not affect
bonding modes which do not employ load balancing such as
active-backup.
other_config : lb-output-action: optional string, either true or
false
Enable/disable usage of optimized lb_output action for
balancing flows among output members in load balanced bonds
in balance-tcp. When enabled, it uses optimized path for
balance-tcp mode by using rss hash and avoids
recirculation. This knob does not affect other balancing
modes.
other_config : bond-primary: optional string
If a member interface with this name exists in the bond and
is up, it will be made active. Relevant only when
other_config:bond_mode is active-backup or if balance-tcp
falls back to active-backup (e.g., LACP negotiation fails
and other_config:lacp-fallback-ab is true).
other_config : all-members-active: optional string, either true or
false
Enable/Disable delivery of broadcast/multicast packets on
secondary interface of a balance-slb bond. Relevant only
when lacp is off.
This parameter is identical to all_slaves_active for Linux
kernel bonds. Disabled by default as it is not a desirable
configuration for most users.
Link Failure Detection:
An important part of link bonding is detecting that links are down
so that they may be disabled. These settings determine how Open
vSwitch detects link failure.
other_config : bond-detect-mode: optional string, either carrier
or miimon
The means used to detect link failures. Defaults to carrier
which uses each interface’s carrier to detect failures.
When set to miimon, will check for failures by polling each
interface’s MII.
other_config : bond-miimon-interval: optional string, containing
an integer
The interval, in milliseconds, between successive attempts
to poll each interface’s MII. Relevant only when
other_config:bond-detect-mode is miimon.
bond_updelay: integer
The number of milliseconds for which the link must stay up
on an interface before the interface is considered to be
up. Specify 0 to enable the interface immediately.
This setting is honored only when at least one bonded
interface is already enabled. When no interfaces are
enabled, then the first bond interface to come up is
enabled immediately.
bond_downdelay: integer
The number of milliseconds for which the link must stay
down on an interface before the interface is considered to
be down. Specify 0 to disable the interface immediately.
LACP Configuration:
LACP, the Link Aggregation Control Protocol, is an IEEE standard
that allows switches to automatically detect that they are
connected by multiple links and aggregate across those links.
These settings control LACP behavior.
lacp: optional string, one of active, off, or passive
Configures LACP on this port. LACP allows directly
connected switches to negotiate which links may be bonded.
LACP may be enabled on non-bonded ports for the benefit of
any switches they may be connected to. active ports are
allowed to initiate LACP negotiations. passive ports are
allowed to participate in LACP negotiations initiated by a
remote switch, but not allowed to initiate such
negotiations themselves. If LACP is enabled on a port whose
partner switch does not support LACP, the bond will be
disabled, unless other-config:lacp-fallback-ab is set to
true. Defaults to off if unset.
other_config : lacp-system-id: optional string
The LACP system ID of this Port. The system ID of a LACP
bond is used to identify itself to its partners. Must be a
nonzero MAC address. Defaults to the bridge Ethernet
address if unset.
other_config : lacp-system-priority: optional string, containing
an integer, in range 1 to 65,535
The LACP system priority of this Port. In LACP
negotiations, link status decisions are made by the system
with the numerically lower priority.
other_config : lacp-time: optional string, either fast or slow
The LACP timing which should be used on this Port. By
default slow is used. When configured to be fast LACP
heartbeats are requested at a rate of once per second
causing connectivity problems to be detected more quickly.
In slow mode, heartbeats are requested at a rate of once
every 30 seconds.
other_config : lacp-fallback-ab: optional string, either true or
false
Determines the behavior of openvswitch bond in LACP mode.
If the partner switch does not support LACP, setting this
option to true allows openvswitch to fallback to active-
backup. If the option is set to false, the bond will be
disabled. In both the cases, once the partner switch is
configured to LACP mode, the bond will use LACP.
Rebalancing Configuration:
These settings control behavior when a bond is in balance-slb or
balance-tcp mode.
other_config : bond-rebalance-interval: optional string,
containing an integer, in range 0 to 2,147,483,647
For a load balanced bonded port, the number of milliseconds
between successive attempts to rebalance the bond, that is,
to move flows from one interface on the bond to another in
an attempt to keep usage of each interface roughly equal.
If zero, load balancing is disabled on the bond (link
failure still cause flows to move). If less than 1000ms,
the rebalance interval will be 1000ms.
bond_fake_iface: boolean
For a bonded port, whether to create a fake internal
interface with the name of the port. Use only for
compatibility with legacy software that requires this.
Spanning Tree Protocol:
The configuration here is only meaningful, and the status is only
populated, when 802.1D-1998 Spanning Tree Protocol is enabled on
the port’s Bridge with its stp_enable column.
STP Configuration:
other_config : stp-enable: optional string, either true or false
When STP is enabled on a bridge, it is enabled by default
on all of the bridge’s ports except bond, internal, and
mirror ports (which do not work with STP). If this column’s
value is false, STP is disabled on the port.
other_config : stp-port-num: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 255
The port number used for the lower 8 bits of the port-id.
By default, the numbers will be assigned automatically. If
any port’s number is manually configured on a bridge, then
they must all be.
other_config : stp-port-priority: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 255
The port’s relative priority value for determining the root
port (the upper 8 bits of the port-id). A port with a lower
port-id will be chosen as the root port. By default, the
priority is 0x80.
other_config : stp-path-cost: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 65,535
Spanning tree path cost for the port. A lower number
indicates a faster link. By default, the cost is based on
the maximum speed of the link.
STP Status:
status : stp_port_id: optional string
The port ID used in spanning tree advertisements for this
port, as 4 hex digits. Configuring the port ID is described
in the stp-port-num and stp-port-priority keys of the
other_config section earlier.
status : stp_state: optional string, one of blocking, disabled,
forwarding, learning, or listening
STP state of the port.
status : stp_sec_in_state: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 0
The amount of time this port has been in the current STP
state, in seconds.
status : stp_role: optional string, one of alternate, designated,
or root
STP role of the port.
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol:
The configuration here is only meaningful, and the status and
statistics are only populated, when 802.1D-1998 Spanning Tree
Protocol is enabled on the port’s Bridge with its stp_enable
column.
RSTP Configuration:
other_config : rstp-enable: optional string, either true or false
When RSTP is enabled on a bridge, it is enabled by default
on all of the bridge’s ports except bond, internal, and
mirror ports (which do not work with RSTP). If this
column’s value is false, RSTP is disabled on the port.
other_config : rstp-port-priority: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 240
The port’s relative priority value for determining the root
port, in multiples of 16. By default, the port priority is
0x80 (128). Any value in the lower 4 bits is rounded off.
The significant upper 4 bits become the upper 4 bits of the
port-id. A port with the lowest port-id is elected as the
root.
other_config : rstp-port-num: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 4,095
The local RSTP port number, used as the lower 12 bits of
the port-id. By default the port numbers are assigned
automatically, and typically may not correspond to the
OpenFlow port numbers. A port with the lowest port-id is
elected as the root.
other_config : rstp-path-cost: optional string, containing an
integer
The port path cost. The Port’s contribution, when it is the
Root Port, to the Root Path Cost for the Bridge. By default
the cost is automatically calculated from the port’s speed.
other_config : rstp-port-admin-edge: optional string, either true
or false
The admin edge port parameter for the Port. Default is
false.
other_config : rstp-port-auto-edge: optional string, either true
or false
The auto edge port parameter for the Port. Default is true.
other_config : rstp-port-mcheck: optional string, either true or
false
The mcheck port parameter for the Port. Default is false.
May be set to force the Port Protocol Migration state
machine to transmit RST BPDUs for a MigrateTime period, to
test whether all STP Bridges on the attached LAN have been
removed and the Port can continue to transmit RSTP BPDUs.
Setting mcheck has no effect if the Bridge is operating in
STP Compatibility mode.
Changing the value from true to false has no effect, but
needs to be done if this behavior is to be triggered again
by subsequently changing the value from false to true.
RSTP Status:
rstp_status : rstp_port_id: optional string
The port ID used in spanning tree advertisements for this
port, as 4 hex digits. Configuring the port ID is described
in the rstp-port-num and rstp-port-priority keys of the
other_config section earlier.
rstp_status : rstp_port_role: optional string, one of Alternate,
Backup, Designated, Disabled, or Root
RSTP role of the port.
rstp_status : rstp_port_state: optional string, one of Disabled,
Discarding, Forwarding, or Learning
RSTP state of the port.
rstp_status : rstp_designated_bridge_id: optional string
The port’s RSTP designated bridge ID, in the same form as
rstp_status:rstp_bridge_id in the Bridge table.
rstp_status : rstp_designated_port_id: optional string
The port’s RSTP designated port ID, as 4 hex digits.
rstp_status : rstp_designated_path_cost: optional string,
containing an integer
The port’s RSTP designated path cost. Lower is better.
RSTP Statistics:
rstp_statistics : rstp_tx_count: optional integer
Number of RSTP BPDUs transmitted through this port.
rstp_statistics : rstp_rx_count: optional integer
Number of valid RSTP BPDUs received by this port.
rstp_statistics : rstp_error_count: optional integer
Number of invalid RSTP BPDUs received by this port.
rstp_statistics : rstp_uptime: optional integer
The duration covered by the other RSTP statistics, in
seconds.
Multicast Snooping:
other_config : mcast-snooping-flood: optional string, either true
or false
If set to true, multicast packets (except Reports) are
unconditionally forwarded to the specific port.
other_config : mcast-snooping-flood-reports: optional string,
either true or false
If set to true, multicast Reports are unconditionally
forwarded to the specific port.
Other Features:
qos: optional QoS
Quality of Service configuration for this port.
mac: optional string
The MAC address to use for this port for the purpose of
choosing the bridge’s MAC address. This column does not
necessarily reflect the port’s actual MAC address, nor will
setting it change the port’s actual MAC address.
fake_bridge: boolean
Does this port represent a sub-bridge for its tagged VLAN
within the Bridge? See ovs-vsctl(8) for more information.
protected: boolean
The protected ports feature allows certain ports to be
designated as protected. Traffic between protected ports is
blocked. Protected ports can send traffic to unprotected
ports. Unprotected ports can send traffic to any port.
Default is false.
external_ids : fake-bridge-*: optional string
External IDs for a fake bridge (see the fake_bridge column)
are defined by prefixing a Bridge external_ids key with
fake-bridge-, e.g. fake-bridge-bridge-id.
other_config : transient: optional string, either true or false
If set to true, the port will be removed when ovs-ctl start
--delete-transient-ports is used.
bond_active_slave: optional string
For a bonded port, record the MAC address of the current
active member.
Port Statistics:
Key-value pairs that report port statistics. The update period is
controlled by other_config:stats-update-interval in the
Open_vSwitch table.
Statistics: STP transmit and receive counters:
statistics : stp_tx_count: optional integer
Number of STP BPDUs sent on this port by the spanning tree
library.
statistics : stp_rx_count: optional integer
Number of STP BPDUs received on this port and accepted by
the spanning tree library.
statistics : stp_error_count: optional integer
Number of bad STP BPDUs received on this port. Bad BPDUs
include runt packets and those with an unexpected protocol
ID.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
An interface within a Port.
Summary:
Core Features:
name immutable string (must be unique
within table)
ifindex optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
mac_in_use optional string
mac optional string
error optional string
OpenFlow Port Number:
ofport optional integer
ofport_request optional integer, in range 1 to
65,279
System-Specific Details:
type string
Tunnel Options:
options : remote_ip optional string
options : local_ip optional string
options : in_key optional string
options : out_key optional string
options : dst_port optional string
options : key optional string
options : tos optional string
options : ttl optional string
options : df_default optional string, either true or
false
options : egress_pkt_mark optional string
Tunnel Options: vxlan only:
options : exts optional string
options : packet_type optional string, one of legacy_l2,
legacy_l3, or ptap
Tunnel Options: gre only:
options : packet_type optional string, one of legacy_l2,
legacy_l3, or ptap
options : seq optional string, either true or
false
Tunnel Options: gre, ip6gre, geneve, bareudp and vxlan:
options : csum optional string, either true or
false
Tunnel Options: IPsec:
options : psk optional string
options : remote_cert optional string
options : remote_name optional string
Tunnel Options: erspan only:
options : erspan_idx optional string
options : erspan_ver optional string
options : erspan_dir optional string
options : erspan_hwid optional string
Tunnel Options: Bareudp only:
options : payload_type optional string
Tunnel Options: srv6 only:
options : srv6_segs optional string
options : srv6_flowlabel optional string, one of compute,
copy, or zero
Patch Options:
options : peer optional string
PMD (Poll Mode Driver) Options:
options : n_rxq optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
options : dpdk-devargs optional string
other_config : pmd-rxq-affinity
optional string
options : xdp-mode optional string, one of best-effort,
generic, native-with-zerocopy, or
native
options : use-need-wakeup optional string, either true or
false
options : vhost-server-path
optional string
options : vhost-max-queue-pairs
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 128
options : tx-retries-max optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 32
options : n_rxq_desc optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
options : n_txq_desc optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
options : dpdk-vf-mac optional string
options : rx-steering optional string, either rss+lacp or
rss
other_config : tx-steering optional string, either hash or
thread
EMC (Exact Match Cache) Configuration:
other_config : emc-enable optional string, either true or
false
MTU:
mtu optional integer
mtu_request optional integer, at least 1
Interface Status:
admin_state optional string, either down or up
link_state optional string, either down or up
link_resets optional integer
link_speed optional integer
duplex optional string, either full or half
lacp_current optional boolean
status map of string-string pairs
status : driver_name optional string
status : driver_version optional string
status : firmware_version optional string
status : source_ip optional string
status : tunnel_egress_iface
optional string
status : tunnel_egress_iface_carrier
optional string, either down or up
dpdk:
status : port_no optional string
status : numa_id optional string
status : min_rx_bufsize optional string
status : max_rx_pktlen optional string
status : max_rx_queues optional string
status : max_tx_queues optional string
status : max_mac_addrs optional string
status : max_hash_mac_addrs
optional string
status : max_vfs optional string
status : max_vmdq_pools optional string
status : n_rxq optional string
status : n_txq optional string
status : rx_csum_offload optional string
status : if_type optional string
status : if_descr optional string
status : bus_info optional string
status : dpdk-vf-mac optional string
status : rx-steering optional string
status : rx_steering_queue
optional string
status : rss_queues optional string
dpdkvhostuser:
status : mode optional string
status : features optional string
status : num_of_vrings optional string
status : numa optional string
status : socket optional string
status : status optional string
status : vring_n_size optional string
status : userspace-tso optional string
afxdp:
status : xdp-mode optional string
Statistics:
Statistics: Successful transmit and receive counters:
statistics : rx_packets optional integer
statistics : rx_bytes optional integer
statistics : tx_packets optional integer
statistics : tx_bytes optional integer
Statistics: Receive errors:
statistics : rx_dropped optional integer
statistics : rx_frame_err
optional integer
statistics : rx_over_err optional integer
statistics : rx_crc_err optional integer
statistics : rx_errors optional integer
Statistics: Transmit errors:
statistics : tx_dropped optional integer
statistics : collisions optional integer
statistics : tx_errors optional integer
Ingress Policing:
ingress_policing_rate integer, at least 0
ingress_policing_kpkts_rate
integer, at least 0
ingress_policing_burst integer, at least 0
ingress_policing_kpkts_burst
integer, at least 0
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD):
BFD Configuration:
bfd : enable optional string, either true or
false
bfd : min_rx optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
bfd : min_tx optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
bfd : decay_min_rx optional string, containing an
integer
bfd : forwarding_if_rx optional string, either true or
false
bfd : cpath_down optional string, either true or
false
bfd : check_tnl_key optional string, either true or
false
bfd : bfd_local_src_mac optional string
bfd : bfd_local_dst_mac optional string
bfd : bfd_remote_dst_mac optional string
bfd : bfd_src_ip optional string
bfd : bfd_dst_ip optional string
bfd : oam optional string
bfd : mult optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 255
BFD Status:
bfd_status : state optional string, one of admin_down,
down, init, or up
bfd_status : forwarding optional string, either true or
false
bfd_status : diagnostic optional string
bfd_status : remote_state
optional string, one of admin_down,
down, init, or up
bfd_status : remote_diagnostic
optional string
bfd_status : flap_count optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Connectivity Fault Management:
cfm_mpid optional integer
cfm_flap_count optional integer
cfm_fault optional boolean
cfm_fault_status : recv none
cfm_fault_status : rdi none
cfm_fault_status : maid none
cfm_fault_status : loopback
none
cfm_fault_status : overflow
none
cfm_fault_status : override
none
cfm_fault_status : interval
none
cfm_remote_opstate optional string, either down or up
cfm_health optional integer, in range 0 to 100
cfm_remote_mpids set of integers
other_config : cfm_interval
optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : cfm_extended
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : cfm_demand optional string, either true or
false
other_config : cfm_opstate optional string, either down or up
other_config : cfm_ccm_vlan
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 4,095
other_config : cfm_ccm_pcp optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 7
Bonding Configuration:
other_config : lacp-port-id
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
other_config : lacp-port-priority
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
other_config : lacp-aggregation-key
optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
Virtual Machine Identifiers:
external_ids : attached-mac
optional string
external_ids : iface-id optional string
external_ids : iface-status
optional string, either active or
inactive
external_ids : vm-id optional string
Auto Attach Configuration:
lldp : enable optional string, either true or
false
Flow control Configuration:
options : rx-flow-ctrl optional string, either true or
false
options : tx-flow-ctrl optional string, either true or
false
options : flow-ctrl-autoneg
optional string, either true or
false
Link State Change detection mode:
options : dpdk-lsc-interrupt
optional string, either true or
false
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
name: immutable string (must be unique within table)
Interface name. Should be alphanumeric. For non-bonded
port, this should be the same as the port name. It must
otherwise be unique among the names of ports, interfaces,
and bridges on a host.
The maximum length of an interface name depends on the
underlying datapath:
• The names of interfaces implemented as Linux and BSD
network devices, including interfaces with type
internal, tap, or system plus the different types of
tunnel ports, are limited to 15 bytes. Windows
limits these names to 255 bytes.
• The names of patch ports are not used in the
underlying datapath, so operating system
restrictions do not apply. Thus, they may have
arbitrary length.
Regardless of other restrictions, OpenFlow only supports
15-byte names, which means that ovs-ofctl and OpenFlow
controllers will show names truncated to 15 bytes.
ifindex: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
A positive interface index as defined for SNMP MIB-II in
RFCs 1213 and 2863, if the interface has one, otherwise 0.
The ifindex is useful for seamless integration with
protocols such as SNMP and sFlow.
mac_in_use: optional string
The MAC address in use by this interface.
mac: optional string
Ethernet address to set for this interface. If unset then
the default MAC address is used:
• For the local interface, the default is the lowest-
numbered MAC address among the other bridge ports,
either the value of the mac in its Port record, if
set, or its actual MAC (for bonded ports, the MAC of
its member whose name is first in alphabetical
order). Internal ports and bridge ports that are
used as port mirroring destinations (see the Mirror
table) are ignored.
• For other internal interfaces, the default MAC is
randomly generated.
• External interfaces typically have a MAC address
associated with their hardware.
Some interfaces may not have a software-controllable MAC
address. This option only affects internal ports. For other
type ports, you can change the MAC address outside Open
vSwitch, using ip command.
error: optional string
If the configuration of the port failed, as indicated by -1
in ofport, Open vSwitch sets this column to an error
description in human readable form. Otherwise, Open vSwitch
clears this column.
OpenFlow Port Number:
When a client adds a new interface, Open vSwitch chooses an
OpenFlow port number for the new port. If the client that adds the
port fills in ofport_request, then Open vSwitch tries to use its
value as the OpenFlow port number. Otherwise, or if the requested
port number is already in use or cannot be used for another
reason, Open vSwitch automatically assigns a free port number.
Regardless of how the port number was obtained, Open vSwitch then
reports in ofport the port number actually assigned.
Open vSwitch limits the port numbers that it automatically assigns
to the range 1 through 32,767, inclusive. Controllers therefore
have free use of ports 32,768 and up.
ofport: optional integer
OpenFlow port number for this interface. Open vSwitch sets
this column’s value, so other clients should treat it as
read-only.
The OpenFlow ``local’’ port (OFPP_LOCAL) is 65,534. The
other valid port numbers are in the range 1 to 65,279,
inclusive. Value -1 indicates an error adding the
interface.
ofport_request: optional integer, in range 1 to 65,279
Requested OpenFlow port number for this interface.
A client should ideally set this column’s value in the same
database transaction that it uses to create the interface.
Open vSwitch version 2.1 and later will honor a later
request for a specific port number, althuogh it might
confuse some controllers: OpenFlow does not have a way to
announce a port number change, so Open vSwitch represents
it over OpenFlow as a port deletion followed immediately by
a port addition.
If ofport_request is set or changed to some other port’s
automatically assigned port number, Open vSwitch chooses a
new port number for the latter port.
System-Specific Details:
type: string
The interface type. The types supported by a particular
instance of Open vSwitch are listed in the iface_types
column in the Open_vSwitch table. The following types are
defined:
system An ordinary network device, e.g. eth0 on Linux.
Sometimes referred to as ``external interfaces’’
since they are generally connected to hardware
external to that on which the Open vSwitch is
running. The empty string is a synonym for system.
internal
A simulated network device that sends and receives
traffic. An internal interface whose name is the
same as its bridge’s name is called the ``local
interface.’’ It does not make sense to bond an
internal interface, so the terms ``port’’ and
``interface’’ are often used imprecisely for
internal interfaces.
tap A TUN/TAP device managed by Open vSwitch.
Open vSwitch checks the interface state before send
packets to the device. When it is down, the packets
are dropped and the tx_dropped statistic is updated
accordingly. Older versions of Open vSwitch did not
check the interface state and then the tx_packets
was incremented along with tx_dropped.
geneve An Ethernet over Geneve
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-nvo3-geneve )
IPv4/IPv6 tunnel. A description of how to match and
set Geneve options can be found in the ovs-ofctl
manual page.
gre Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) over IPv4
tunnel, configurable to encapsulate layer 2 or layer
3 traffic.
ip6gre Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) over IPv6
tunnel, encapsulate layer 2 traffic.
vxlan An Ethernet tunnel over the UDP-based VXLAN protocol
described in RFC 7348.
Open vSwitch uses IANA-assigned UDP destination port
4789. The source port used for VXLAN traffic varies
on a per-flow basis and is in the ephemeral port
range.
patch A pair of virtual devices that act as a patch cable.
gtpu GPRS Tunneling Protocol (GTP) is a group of IP-based
communications protocols used to carry general
packet radio service (GPRS) within GSM, UMTS and LTE
networks. GTP-U is used for carrying user data
within the GPRS core network and between the radio
access network and the core network. The user data
transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6, or
PPP formats.
The protocol is documented at
http://www.3gpp.org/DynaReport/29281.htm
Open vSwitch uses UDP destination port 2152. The
source port used for GTP traffic varies on a per-
flow basis and is in the ephemeral port range.
Bareudp
The Bareudp tunnel provides a generic L3
encapsulation support for tunnelling different L3
protocols like MPLS, IP, NSH etc. inside a UDP
tunnel.
srv6 Segment Routing IPv6 (SRv6) tunnel encapsulates L3
traffic as "IPv6 in IPv6" or "IPv4 in IPv6" with
Segment Routing Header (SRH) defined in RFC 8754.
The segment list in SRH can be set using a SRv6
specific option.
Tunnel Options:
These options apply to interfaces with type of geneve, bareudp,
gre, ip6gre, vxlan, and srv6.
Each tunnel must be uniquely identified by the combination of
type, options:remote_ip, options:local_ip, and options:in_key. If
two ports are defined that are the same except one has an optional
identifier and the other does not, the more specific one is
matched first. options:in_key is considered more specific than
options:local_ip if a port defines one and another port defines
the other. options:in_key is not applicable for bareudp and srv6
tunnels. Hence it is not considered while identifying bareudp or
srv6 tunnels.
options : remote_ip: optional string
Required. The remote tunnel endpoint, one of:
• An IPv4 or IPv6 address (not a DNS name), e.g.
192.168.0.123. Only unicast endpoints are supported.
• The word flow. The tunnel accepts packets from any
remote tunnel endpoint. To process only packets from
a specific remote tunnel endpoint, the flow entries
may match on the tun_src or tun_ipv6_srcfield. When
sending packets to a remote_ip=flow tunnel, the flow
actions must explicitly set the tun_dst or
tun_ipv6_dst field to the IP address of the desired
remote tunnel endpoint, e.g. with a set_field
action.
The remote tunnel endpoint for any packet received from a
tunnel is available in the tun_src field for matching in
the flow table.
options : local_ip: optional string
Optional. The tunnel destination IP that received packets
must match. Default is to match all addresses. If
specified, may be one of:
• An IPv4/IPv6 address (not a DNS name), e.g.
192.168.12.3.
• The word flow. The tunnel accepts packets sent to
any of the local IP addresses of the system running
OVS. To process only packets sent to a specific IP
address, the flow entries may match on the tun_dst
or tun_ipv6_dst field. When sending packets to a
local_ip=flow tunnel, the flow actions may
explicitly set the tun_src or tun_ipv6_src field to
the desired IP address, e.g. with a set_field
action. However, while routing the tunneled packet
out, the local system may override the specified
address with the local IP address configured for the
outgoing system interface.
This option is valid only for tunnels also
configured with the remote_ip=flow option.
The tunnel destination IP address for any packet received
from a tunnel is available in the tun_dst or tun_ipv6_dst
field for matching in the flow table.
options : in_key: optional string
Optional, not applicable for bareudp and srv6. The key that
received packets must contain, one of:
• 0. The tunnel receives packets with no key or with a
key of 0. This is equivalent to specifying no
options:in_key at all.
• A positive 24-bit (for Geneve and VXLAN) or 32-bit
(for GRE) number. The tunnel receives only packets
with the specified key.
• The word flow. The tunnel accepts packets with any
key. The key will be placed in the tun_id field for
matching in the flow table. The ovs-fields(7) manual
page contains additional information about matching
fields in OpenFlow flows.
options : out_key: optional string
Optional, not applicable for bareudp and srv6. The key to
be set on outgoing packets, one of:
• 0. Packets sent through the tunnel will have no key.
This is equivalent to specifying no options:out_key
at all.
• A positive 24-bit (for Geneve and VXLAN) or 32-bit
(for GRE) number. Packets sent through the tunnel
will have the specified key.
• The word flow. Packets sent through the tunnel will
have the key set using the set_tunnel Nicira
OpenFlow vendor extension (0 is used in the absence
of an action). The ovs-fields(7) manual page
contains additional information about the Nicira
OpenFlow vendor extensions.
options : dst_port: optional string
Optional. The tunnel transport layer destination port, for
UDP based tunnel protocols (Geneve, VXLAN).
options : key: optional string
Optional. Shorthand to set in_key and out_key at the same
time.
options : tos: optional string
Optional. The value of the ToS bits to be set on the
encapsulating packet. ToS is interpreted as DSCP and ECN
bits, ECN part must be zero. It may also be the word
inherit, in which case the ToS will be copied from the
inner packet if it is IPv4 or IPv6 (otherwise it will be
0). The ECN fields are always inherited. Default is 0.
options : ttl: optional string
Optional. The TTL to be set on the encapsulating packet. It
may also be the word inherit, in which case the TTL will be
copied from the inner packet if it is IPv4 or IPv6
(otherwise it will be the system default, typically 64).
Default is the system default TTL.
options : df_default: optional string, either true or false
Optional. If enabled, the Don’t Fragment bit will be set on
tunnel outer headers to allow path MTU discovery. Default
is enabled; set to false to disable.
options : egress_pkt_mark: optional string
Optional. The pkt_mark to be set on the encapsulating
packet. This option sets packet mark for the tunnel
endpoint for all tunnel packets including tunnel
monitoring.
Tunnel Options: vxlan only:
options : exts: optional string
Optional. Comma separated list of optional VXLAN extensions
to enable. The following extensions are supported:
• gbp: VXLAN-GBP allows to transport the group policy
context of a packet across the VXLAN tunnel to other
network peers. See the description of tun_gbp_id and
tun_gbp_flags in ovs-fields(7) for additional
information.
(https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-smith-vxlan-group-policy )
• gpe: Support for Generic Protocol Encapsulation in
accordance with IETF draft
https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-nvo3-vxlan-gpe .
Without this option, a VXLAN packet always
encapsulates an Ethernet frame. With this option, an
VXLAN packet may also encapsulate an IPv4, IPv6,
NSH, or MPLS packet.
options : packet_type: optional string, one of legacy_l2,
legacy_l3, or ptap
This option controls what types of packets the tunnel sends
and receives and how it represents them:
• By default, or if this option is legacy_l2, the
tunnel sends and receives only Ethernet frames.
• If this option is legacy_l3, the tunnel sends and
receives only non-Ethernet (L3) packet, but the
packets are represented as Ethernet frames for
compatibility with legacy OpenFlow controllers that
expect this behavior. This requires enabling gpe in
options:exts.
• If this option is ptap, Open vSwitch represents
packets in the tunnel using the packet_type
mechanism introduced in OpenFlow 1.5. This mechanism
supports any kind of packet, but actually sending
and receiving non-Ethernet packets requires
additionally enabling gpe in options:exts.
Tunnel Options: gre only:
gre interfaces support these options.
options : packet_type: optional string, one of legacy_l2,
legacy_l3, or ptap
This option controls what types of packets the tunnel sends
and receives and how it represents them:
• By default, or if this option is legacy_l2, the
tunnel sends and receives only Ethernet frames.
• If this option is legacy_l3, the tunnel sends and
receives only non-Ethernet (L3) packet, but the
packets are represented as Ethernet frames for
compatibility with legacy OpenFlow controllers that
expect this behavior.
• The legacy_l3 option is only available via the user
space datapath. The OVS kernel datapath does not
support devices of type ARPHRD_IPGRE which is the
requirement for legacy_l3 type packets.
• If this option is ptap, the tunnel sends and
receives any kind of packet. Open vSwitch represents
packets in the tunnel using the packet_type
mechanism introduced in OpenFlow 1.5.
options : seq: optional string, either true or false
Optional. A 4-byte sequence number field for GRE tunnel
only. Default is disabled, set to true to enable. Sequence
number is incremented by one on each outgoing packet.
Tunnel Options: gre, ip6gre, geneve, bareudp and vxlan:
gre, ip6gre, geneve, bareudp and vxlan interfaces support these
options.
options : csum: optional string, either true or false
Optional. Compute encapsulation header (either GRE or UDP)
checksums on outgoing packets. When unset (the default
value), checksum computing for outgoing packets is enabled
for UDP IPv6 tunnels, and disabled for GRE and IPv4 UDP
tunnels. When set to false, no checksums will be computed
for outgoing tunnel encapsulation headers. When true,
checksums will be computed for all outgoing tunnel
encapsulation headers. Checksums present on incoming
packets will be validated regardless of this setting.
Incoming packets without a checksum will also be accepted
regardless of this setting.
When using the upstream Linux kernel module, computation of
checksums for geneve and vxlan requires Linux kernel
version 4.0 or higher. gre and ip6gre support checksums for
all versions of Open vSwitch that support GRE. The out of
tree kernel module distributed as part of OVS can compute
all tunnel checksums on any kernel version that it is
compatible with.
Tunnel Options: IPsec:
Setting any of these options enables IPsec support for a given
tunnel. gre, geneve and vxlan interfaces support these options.
See the IPsec section in the Open_vSwitch table for a description
of each mode.
options : psk: optional string
In PSK mode only, the preshared secret to negotiate tunnel.
This value must match on both tunnel ends.
options : remote_cert: optional string
In self-signed certificate mode only, name of a PEM file
containing a certificate of the remote switch. The
certificate must be x.509 version 3 and with the string in
common name (CN) also set in the subject alternative name
(SAN).
options : remote_name: optional string
In CA-signed certificate mode only, common name (CN) of the
remote certificate.
Tunnel Options: erspan only:
Only erspan interfaces support these options.
options : erspan_idx: optional string
20 bit index/port number associated with the ERSPAN
traffic’s source port and direction (ingress/egress). This
field is platform dependent.
options : erspan_ver: optional string
ERSPAN version: 1 for version 1 (type II) or 2 for version
2 (type III).
options : erspan_dir: optional string
Specifies the ERSPAN v2 mirrored traffic’s direction. 1 for
egress traffic, and 0 for ingress traffic.
options : erspan_hwid: optional string
ERSPAN hardware ID is a 6-bit unique identifier of an
ERSPAN v2 engine within a system.
Tunnel Options: Bareudp only:
options : payload_type: optional string
Specifies the ethertype of the l3 protocol the bareudp
device is tunnelling. For the tunnels which supports
multiple ethertypes of a l3 protocol (IP, MPLS) this field
specifies the protocol name as a string.
Tunnel Options: srv6 only:
options : srv6_segs: optional string
Specifies the segment list in Segment Routing Header (SRH).
It consists of a comma-separated list of segments
represented in IPv6 format, e.g.
"fc00:100::1,fc00:200::1,fc00:300::1". Note that the first
segment must be the same as options:remote_ip.
options : srv6_flowlabel: optional string, one of compute, copy,
or zero
Optional. This option controls how flowlabel in outer IPv6
header is configured. It gives the benefit of IPv6 flow
label based load balancing, which is supported by some
popular vendor appliances. Like net.ipv6.seg6_flowlabel
sysconfig, it is one of the three values below:
• By default, or if this option is copy, copy the
flowlabel of inner IPv6 header to the flowlabel of
outer IPv6 header. If inner header is not IPv6, it
is set to 0.
• If this option is zero, simply set flowlabel to 0.
• If this option is compute, set flowlabel to a hash
over the L3/L4 fields of the inner packet.
Patch Options:
These options apply only to patch ports, that is, interfaces whose
type column is patch. Patch ports are mainly a way to connect
otherwise independent bridges to one another, similar to how one
might plug an Ethernet cable (a ``patch cable’’) into two physical
switches to connect those switches. The effect of plugging a patch
port into two switches is conceptually similar to that of plugging
the two ends of a Linux veth device into those switches, but the
implementation of patch ports makes them much more efficient.
Patch ports may connect two different bridges (the usual case) or
the same bridge. In the latter case, take special care to avoid
loops, e.g. by programming appropriate flows with OpenFlow. Patch
ports do not work if its ends are attached to bridges on different
datapaths, e.g. to connect bridges in system and netdev datapaths.
The following command creates and connects patch ports p0 and p1
and adds them to bridges br0 and br1, respectively:
ovs-vsctl add-port br0 p0 -- set Interface p0 type=patch options:peer=p1 \
-- add-port br1 p1 -- set Interface p1 type=patch options:peer=p0
options : peer: optional string
The name of the Interface for the other side of the patch.
The named Interface’s own peer option must specify this
Interface’s name. That is, the two patch interfaces must
have reversed name and peer values.
PMD (Poll Mode Driver) Options:
Only PMD netdevs support these options.
options : n_rxq: optional string, containing an integer, at least
1
Specifies the maximum number of rx queues to be created for
PMD netdev. If not specified or specified to 0, one rx
queue will be created by default. Not supported by DPDK
vHost interfaces.
options : dpdk-devargs: optional string
Specifies the PCI address associated with the port for
physical devices, or the virtual driver to be used for the
port when a virtual PMD is intended to be used. For the
latter, the argument string typically takes the form of
eth_driver_namex, where driver_name is a valid virtual DPDK
PMD driver name and x is a unique identifier of your choice
for the given port. Only supported by the dpdk port type.
other_config : pmd-rxq-affinity: optional string
Specifies mapping of RX queues of this interface to CPU
cores.
Value should be set in the following form:
other_config:pmd-rxq-affinity=<rxq-affinity-list>
where
• <rxq-affinity-list> ::= NULL | <non-empty-list>
• <non-empty-list> ::= <affinity-pair> | <affinity-
pair> , <non-empty-list>
• <affinity-pair> ::= <queue-id> : <core-id>
options : xdp-mode: optional string, one of best-effort, generic,
native-with-zerocopy, or native
Specifies the operational mode of the XDP program.
In native-with-zerocopy mode the XDP program is loaded into
the device driver with zero-copy RX and TX enabled. This
mode requires device driver support and has the best
performance because there should be no copying of packets.
native is the same as native-with-zerocopy, but without
zero-copy capability. This requires at least one copy
between kernel and the userspace. This mode also requires
support from device driver.
In generic case the XDP program in kernel works after skb
allocation on early stages of packet processing inside the
network stack. This mode doesn’t require driver support,
but has much lower performance.
best-effort tries to detect and choose the best (fastest)
from the available modes for current interface.
Note that this option is specific to netdev-afxdp. Defaults
to best-effort mode.
options : use-need-wakeup: optional string, either true or false
Specifies whether to use need_wakeup feature in afxdp
netdev. If enabled, OVS explicitly wakes up the kernel RX,
using poll() syscall and wakes up TX, using sendto()
syscall. For physical devices, this feature improves the
performance by avoiding unnecessary sendto syscalls.
Defaults to true if supported by libbpf.
options : vhost-server-path: optional string
The value specifies the path to the socket associated with
a vHost User client mode device that has been or will be
created by QEMU. Only supported by dpdkvhostuserclient
interfaces.
options : vhost-max-queue-pairs: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 128
The value specifies the maximum number of queue pairs
supported by a vHost device. This is ignored for vhost-user
backends, only VDUSE is supported. Only supported by
dpdkvhostuserclient interfaces.
Default value is 1.
options : tx-retries-max: optional string, containing an integer,
in range 0 to 32
The value specifies the maximum amount of vhost tx retries
that can be made while trying to send a batch of packets to
an interface. Only supported by dpdkvhostuserclient
interfaces.
Default value is 8.
options : n_rxq_desc: optional string, containing an integer, at
least 1
Specifies the rx queue size (number rx descriptors) for
dpdk ports. The value must be a power of 2 and supported by
the hardware of the device being configured. If not
specified or an incorrect value is specified, 2048 rx
descriptors will be used by default.
options : n_txq_desc: optional string, containing an integer, at
least 1
Specifies the tx queue size (number tx descriptors) for
dpdk ports. The value must be a power of 2 and supported by
the hardware of the device being configured. If not
specified or an incorrect value is specified, 2048 tx
descriptors will be used by default.
options : dpdk-vf-mac: optional string
Ethernet address to set for this VF interface. If unset
then the default MAC address is used:
• For most drivers, the default MAC address assigned
by their hardware.
• For bifurcated drivers, the MAC currently used by
the kernel netdevice.
This option may only be used with dpdk VF representors.
options : rx-steering: optional string, either rss+lacp or rss
Configure hardware Rx queue steering policy.
This option takes one of the following values:
rss Distribution of ingress packets in all Rx queues
according to the RSS algorithm. This is the default
behaviour.
rss+lacp
Distribution of ingress packets according to the RSS
algorithm on all but the last Rx queue. An extra Rx
queue is allocated for LACP packets.
If the user has already configured multiple options:n_rxq
on the port, an additional one will be allocated for the
specified protocols. Even if the hardware cannot satisfy
the requested number of requested Rx queues, the last Rx
queue will be used. If only one Rx queue is available or if
the hardware does not support the rte_flow matchers/actions
required to redirect the selected protocols, custom
rx-steering will fall back to default rss mode.
This feature is mutually exclusive with other_config:hw-
offload as it may conflict with the offloaded flows. If
both are enabled, rx-steering will fall back to default rss
mode.
This option is only applicable to interfaces with type
dpdk.
other_config : tx-steering: optional string, either hash or thread
Specifies the Tx steering mode for the interface.
thread enables static (1:1) thread-to-txq mapping when the
number of Tx queues is greater than number of PMD threads,
and dynamic (N:1) mapping if equal or lower. In this mode a
single thread can not use more than 1 transmit queue of a
given port.
hash enables hash-based Tx steering, which distributes the
packets on all the transmit queues based on their 5-tuples
hashes.
Defaults to thread.
EMC (Exact Match Cache) Configuration:
These settings controls behaviour of EMC lookups/insertions for
packets received from the interface.
other_config : emc-enable: optional string, either true or false
Specifies if Exact Match Cache (EMC) should be used while
processing packets received from this interface. If true,
other_config:emc-insert-inv-prob will have effect on this
interface.
Defaults to true.
MTU:
The MTU (maximum transmission unit) is the largest amount of data
that can fit into a single Ethernet frame. The standard Ethernet
MTU is 1500 bytes. Some physical media and many kinds of virtual
interfaces can be configured with higher MTUs.
A client may change an interface MTU by filling in mtu_request.
Open vSwitch then reports in mtu the currently configured value.
mtu: optional integer
The currently configured MTU for the interface.
This column will be empty for an interface that does not
have an MTU as, for example, some kinds of tunnels do not.
Open vSwitch sets this column’s value, so other clients
should treat it as read-only.
mtu_request: optional integer, at least 1
Requested MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) for the
interface. A client can fill this column to change the MTU
of an interface.
RFC 791 requires every internet module to be able to
forward a datagram of 68 octets without further
fragmentation. The maximum size of an IP packet is 65535
bytes.
If this is not set and if the interface has internal type,
Open vSwitch will change the MTU to match the minimum of
the other interfaces in the bridge.
Interface Status:
Status information about interfaces attached to bridges, updated
every 5 seconds. Not all interfaces have all of these properties;
virtual interfaces don’t have a link speed, for example. Non-
applicable columns will have empty values.
admin_state: optional string, either down or up
The administrative state of the physical network link.
link_state: optional string, either down or up
The observed state of the physical network link. This is
ordinarily the link’s carrier status. If the interface’s
Port is a bond configured for miimon monitoring, it is
instead the network link’s miimon status.
link_resets: optional integer
The number of times Open vSwitch has observed the
link_state of this Interface change.
link_speed: optional integer
The negotiated speed of the physical network link. Valid
values are positive integers greater than 0.
duplex: optional string, either full or half
The duplex mode of the physical network link.
lacp_current: optional boolean
Boolean value indicating LACP status for this interface. If
true, this interface has current LACP information about its
LACP partner. This information may be used to monitor the
health of interfaces in a LACP enabled port. This column
will be empty if LACP is not enabled.
status: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs that report port status. Supported status
values are type-dependent; some interfaces may not have a
valid status:driver_name, for example.
status : driver_name: optional string
The name of the device driver controlling the network
adapter.
status : driver_version: optional string
The version string of the device driver controlling the
network adapter.
status : firmware_version: optional string
The version string of the network adapter’s firmware, if
available.
status : source_ip: optional string
The source IP address used for an IPv4/IPv6 tunnel end-
point, such as gre.
status : tunnel_egress_iface: optional string
Egress interface for tunnels. Currently only relevant for
tunnels on Linux systems, this column will show the name of
the interface which is responsible for routing traffic
destined for the configured options:remote_ip. This could
be an internal interface such as a bridge port.
status : tunnel_egress_iface_carrier: optional string, either down
or up
Whether carrier is detected on status:tunnel_egress_iface.
dpdk:
DPDK specific interface status options.
status : port_no: optional string
DPDK port ID.
status : numa_id: optional string
NUMA socket ID to which an Ethernet device is connected.
status : min_rx_bufsize: optional string
Minimum size of RX buffer.
status : max_rx_pktlen: optional string
Maximum configurable length of RX pkt.
status : max_rx_queues: optional string
Maximum number of RX queues.
status : max_tx_queues: optional string
Maximum number of TX queues.
status : max_mac_addrs: optional string
Maximum number of MAC addresses.
status : max_hash_mac_addrs: optional string
Maximum number of hash MAC addresses for MTA and UTA.
status : max_vfs: optional string
Maximum number of hash MAC addresses for MTA and UTA.
Maximum number of VFs.
status : max_vmdq_pools: optional string
Maximum number of VMDq pools.
status : n_rxq: optional string
Number of Rx queues.
status : n_txq: optional string
Number of Tx queues.
status : rx_csum_offload: optional string
Whether Rx Checksum offload is enabled or not.
status : if_type: optional string
Interface type ID according to IANA ifTYPE MIB definitions.
status : if_descr: optional string
Interface description string.
status : bus_info: optional string
Bus name and bus info such as Vendor ID and Device ID of
PCI device.
status : dpdk-vf-mac: optional string
Ethernet address set for this VF interface. Only reported
for dpdk VF representors.
status : rx-steering: optional string
Hardware Rx queue steering policy in use.
status : rx_steering_queue: optional string
ID of rx steering queue. Only reported if rx-steering is
supported by hardware.
status : rss_queues: optional string
IDs of rss queues. Only reported if rx-steering is
supported by hardware.
dpdkvhostuser:
dpdkvhostuser and dpdkvhostuserclient netdev specific interface
status information.
status : mode: optional string
client (connecting) or server (listening) in the socket
communication.
status : features: optional string
virtio features bitmap as per virtio specification.
status : num_of_vrings: optional string
The number of available virtqueues.
status : numa: optional string
The numa id of the device and guest memory.
status : socket: optional string
The path to the socket used for communication.
status : status: optional string
Status of connection to the device.
status : vring_n_size: optional string
Each virtqueue will have it’s size reported, where n is the
virtqueue number from 0..(num_of_vrings-1).
status : userspace-tso: optional string
Whether userspace-tso is enabled or disabled.
afxdp:
AF_XDP specific interface status options.
status : xdp-mode: optional string
XDP mode currently in use. See options:xdp-mode for
description of possible values.
Statistics:
Key-value pairs that report interface statistics. The current
implementation updates these counters periodically. The update
period is controlled by other_config:stats-update-interval in the
Open_vSwitch table. Future implementations may update them when an
interface is created, when they are queried (e.g. using an OVSDB
select operation), and just before an interface is deleted due to
virtual interface hot-unplug or VM shutdown, and perhaps at other
times, but not on any regular periodic basis.
These are the same statistics reported by OpenFlow in its struct
ofp_port_stats structure. If an interface does not support a given
statistic, then that pair is omitted.
Statistics: Successful transmit and receive counters:
statistics : rx_packets: optional integer
Number of received packets.
statistics : rx_bytes: optional integer
Number of received bytes.
statistics : tx_packets: optional integer
Number of transmitted packets.
statistics : tx_bytes: optional integer
Number of transmitted bytes.
Statistics: Receive errors:
statistics : rx_dropped: optional integer
Number of packets dropped by RX.
statistics : rx_frame_err: optional integer
Number of frame alignment errors.
statistics : rx_over_err: optional integer
Number of packets with RX overrun.
statistics : rx_crc_err: optional integer
Number of CRC errors.
statistics : rx_errors: optional integer
Total number of receive errors, greater than or equal to
the sum of the above.
Statistics: Transmit errors:
statistics : tx_dropped: optional integer
Number of packets dropped by TX.
statistics : collisions: optional integer
Number of collisions.
statistics : tx_errors: optional integer
Total number of transmit errors, greater than or equal to
the sum of the above.
Ingress Policing:
These settings control ingress policing for packets received on
this interface. On a physical interface, this limits the rate at
which traffic is allowed into the system from the outside; on a
virtual interface (one connected to a virtual machine), this
limits the rate at which the VM is able to transmit.
Policing is a simple form of quality-of-service that simply drops
packets received in excess of the configured rate. Due to its
simplicity, policing is usually less accurate and less effective
than egress QoS (which is configured using the QoS and Queue
tables).
Policing settings can be set with byte rate or packet rate, and
they can be configured together, in which case they take effect
together, that means the smaller speed limit of them is in effect.
Currently, byte rate policing is implemented on Linux and OVS with
DPDK, while packet rate policing is only implemented on Linux.
Both Linux and OVS DPDK implementations use a simple ``token
bucket’’ approach.
Byte rate policing:
• The size of the bucket corresponds to
ingress_policing_burst. Initially the bucket is
full.
• Whenever a packet is received, its size (converted
to tokens) is compared to the number of tokens
currently in the bucket. If the required number of
tokens are available, they are removed and the
packet is forwarded. Otherwise, the packet is
dropped.
• Whenever it is not full, the bucket is refilled with
tokens at the rate specified by
ingress_policing_rate.
Packet rate policing:
• The size of the bucket corresponds to
ingress_policing_kpkts_burst. Initially the bucket
is full.
• Whenever a packet is received, it will consume one
token from the current bucket. If the token is
available in the bucket, it’s removed and the packet
is forwarded. Otherwise, the packet is dropped.
• Whenever it is not full, the bucket is refilled with
tokens at the rate specified by
ingress_policing_kpkts_rate.
Policing interacts badly with some network protocols, and
especially with fragmented IP packets. Suppose that there is
enough network activity to keep the bucket nearly empty all the
time. Then this token bucket algorithm will forward a single
packet every so often, with the period depending on packet size
and on the configured rate. All of the fragments of an IP packets
are normally transmitted back-to-back, as a group. In such a
situation, therefore, only one of these fragments will be
forwarded and the rest will be dropped. IP does not provide any
way for the intended recipient to ask for only the remaining
fragments. In such a case there are two likely possibilities for
what will happen next: either all of the fragments will eventually
be retransmitted (as TCP will do), in which case the same problem
will recur, or the sender will not realize that its packet has
been dropped and data will simply be lost (as some UDP-based
protocols will do). Either way, it is possible that no forward
progress will ever occur.
ingress_policing_rate: integer, at least 0
Maximum rate for data received on this interface, in kbps.
Data received faster than this rate is dropped. Set to 0
(the default) to disable policing.
ingress_policing_kpkts_rate: integer, at least 0
Maximum rate for data received on this interface, in kpps
(1 kpps is 1000 pps). Data received faster than this rate
is dropped. Set to 0 (the default) to disable policing.
ingress_policing_burst: integer, at least 0
Maximum burst size for data received on this interface, in
kb. The default burst size if set to 0 is 8000 kbit. This
value has no effect if ingress_policing_rate is 0.
Specifying a larger burst size lets the algorithm be more
forgiving, which is important for protocols like TCP that
react severely to dropped packets. The burst size should be
at least the size of the interface’s MTU. Specifying a
value that is numerically at least as large as 80% of
ingress_policing_rate helps TCP come closer to achieving
the full rate.
ingress_policing_kpkts_burst: integer, at least 0
Maximum burst size for data received on this interface, in
kpkts (1 kpkts is 1000 packets). The default burst size if
set to 0 is 16 kpkts. This value has no effect if
ingress_policing_kpkts_rate is 0.
Specifying a larger burst size lets the algorithm be more
forgiving, which is important for protocols like TCP that
react severely to dropped packets. Specifying a value that
is numerically at least as large as 80% of
ingress_policing_kpkts_rate helps TCP come closer to
achieving the full rate.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD):
BFD, defined in RFC 5880 and RFC 5881, allows point-to-point
detection of connectivity failures by occasional transmission of
BFD control messages. Open vSwitch implements BFD to serve as a
more popular and standards compliant alternative to CFM.
BFD operates by regularly transmitting BFD control messages at a
rate negotiated independently in each direction. Each endpoint
specifies the rate at which it expects to receive control
messages, and the rate at which it is willing to transmit them. By
default, Open vSwitch uses a detection multiplier of three,
meaning that an endpoint signals a connectivity fault if three
consecutive BFD control messages fail to arrive. In the case of a
unidirectional connectivity issue, the system not receiving BFD
control messages signals the problem to its peer in the messages
it transmits.
The Open vSwitch implementation of BFD aims to comply faithfully
with RFC 5880 requirements. Open vSwitch does not implement the
optional Authentication or ``Echo Mode’’ features.
OVS 2.13 and earlier intercepted and processed all BFD packets.
OVS 2.14 and later only intercept and process BFD packets destined
to a configured BFD instance, and other BFD packets are made
available to the OVS flow table for forwarding.
BFD Configuration:
A controller sets up key-value pairs in the bfd column to enable
and configure BFD.
bfd : enable: optional string, either true or false
True to enable BFD on this Interface. If not specified, BFD
will not be enabled by default.
bfd : min_rx: optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
The shortest interval, in milliseconds, at which this BFD
session offers to receive BFD control messages. The remote
endpoint may choose to send messages at a slower rate.
Defaults to 1000.
bfd : min_tx: optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
The shortest interval, in milliseconds, at which this BFD
session is willing to transmit BFD control messages.
Messages will actually be transmitted at a slower rate if
the remote endpoint is not willing to receive as quickly as
specified. Defaults to 100.
bfd : decay_min_rx: optional string, containing an integer
An alternate receive interval, in milliseconds, that must
be greater than or equal to bfd:min_rx. The implementation
switches from bfd:min_rx to bfd:decay_min_rx when there is
no obvious incoming data traffic at the interface, to
reduce the CPU and bandwidth cost of monitoring an idle
interface. This feature may be disabled by setting a value
of 0. This feature is reset whenever bfd:decay_min_rx or
bfd:min_rx changes.
bfd : forwarding_if_rx: optional string, either true or false
When true, traffic received on the Interface is used to
indicate the capability of packet I/O. BFD control packets
are still transmitted and received. At least one BFD
control packet must be received every 100 * bfd:min_rx
amount of time. Otherwise, even if traffic are received,
the bfd:forwarding will be false.
bfd : cpath_down: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to notify the remote endpoint that traffic
should not be forwarded to this system for some reason
other than a connectivty failure on the interface being
monitored. The typical underlying reason is ``concatenated
path down,’’ that is, that connectivity beyond the local
system is down. Defaults to false.
bfd : check_tnl_key: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to make BFD accept only control messages with a
tunnel key of zero. By default, BFD accepts control
messages with any tunnel key.
bfd : bfd_local_src_mac: optional string
Set to an Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to
set the MAC used as source for transmitted BFD packets. The
default is the mac address of the BFD enabled interface.
bfd : bfd_local_dst_mac: optional string
Set to an Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to
set the MAC used as destination for transmitted BFD
packets. The default is 00:23:20:00:00:01.
bfd : bfd_remote_dst_mac: optional string
Set to an Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to
set the MAC used for checking the destination of received
BFD packets. Packets with different destination MAC will
not be considered as BFD packets. If not specified the
destination MAC address of received BFD packets are not
checked.
bfd : bfd_src_ip: optional string
Set to an IPv4 address to set the IP address used as source
for transmitted BFD packets. The default is 169.254.1.1.
bfd : bfd_dst_ip: optional string
Set to an IPv4 address to set the IP address used as
destination for transmitted BFD packets. The default is
169.254.1.0.
bfd : oam: optional string
Some tunnel protocols (such as Geneve) include a bit in the
header to indicate that the encapsulated packet is an OAM
frame. By setting this to true, BFD packets will be marked
as OAM if encapsulated in one of these tunnels.
bfd : mult: optional string, containing an integer, in range 1 to
255
The BFD detection multiplier, which defaults to 3. An
endpoint signals a connectivity fault if the given number
of consecutive BFD control messages fail to arrive.
BFD Status:
The switch sets key-value pairs in the bfd_status column to report
the status of BFD on this interface. When BFD is not enabled, with
bfd:enable, the switch clears all key-value pairs from bfd_status.
bfd_status : state: optional string, one of admin_down, down,
init, or up
Reports the state of the BFD session. The BFD session is
fully healthy and negotiated if UP.
bfd_status : forwarding: optional string, either true or false
Reports whether the BFD session believes this Interface may
be used to forward traffic. Typically this means the local
session is signaling UP, and the remote system isn’t
signaling a problem such as concatenated path down.
bfd_status : diagnostic: optional string
A diagnostic code specifying the local system’s reason for
the last change in session state. The error messages are
defined in section 4.1 of [RFC 5880].
bfd_status : remote_state: optional string, one of admin_down,
down, init, or up
Reports the state of the remote endpoint’s BFD session.
bfd_status : remote_diagnostic: optional string
A diagnostic code specifying the remote system’s reason for
the last change in session state. The error messages are
defined in section 4.1 of [RFC 5880].
bfd_status : flap_count: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 0
Counts the number of bfd_status:forwarding flaps since
start. A flap is considered as a change of the
bfd_status:forwarding value.
Connectivity Fault Management:
802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) allows a group of
Maintenance Points (MPs) called a Maintenance Association (MA) to
detect connectivity problems with each other. MPs within a MA
should have complete and exclusive interconnectivity. This is
verified by occasionally broadcasting Continuity Check Messages
(CCMs) at a configurable transmission interval.
According to the 802.1ag specification, each Maintenance Point
should be configured out-of-band with a list of Remote Maintenance
Points it should have connectivity to. Open vSwitch differs from
the specification in this area. It simply assumes the link is
faulted if no Remote Maintenance Points are reachable, and
considers it not faulted otherwise.
When operating over tunnels which have no in_key, or an in_key of
flow. CFM will only accept CCMs with a tunnel key of zero.
cfm_mpid: optional integer
A Maintenance Point ID (MPID) uniquely identifies each
endpoint within a Maintenance Association. The MPID is used
to identify this endpoint to other Maintenance Points in
the MA. Each end of a link being monitored should have a
different MPID. Must be configured to enable CFM on this
Interface.
According to the 802.1ag specification, MPIDs can only
range between [1, 8191]. However, extended mode (see
other_config:cfm_extended) supports eight byte MPIDs.
cfm_flap_count: optional integer
Counts the number of cfm fault flapps since boot. A flap is
considered to be a change of the cfm_fault value.
cfm_fault: optional boolean
Indicates a connectivity fault triggered by an inability to
receive heartbeats from any remote endpoint. When a fault
is triggered on Interfaces participating in bonds, they
will be disabled.
Faults can be triggered for several reasons. Most
importantly they are triggered when no CCMs are received
for a period of 3.5 times the transmission interval. Faults
are also triggered when any CCMs indicate that a Remote
Maintenance Point is not receiving CCMs but able to send
them. Finally, a fault is triggered if a CCM is received
which indicates unexpected configuration. Notably, this
case arises when a CCM is received which advertises the
local MPID.
cfm_fault_status : recv: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to a lack of CCMs
received on the Interface.
cfm_fault_status : rdi: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of
a CCM with the RDI bit flagged. Endpoints set the RDI bit
in their CCMs when they are not receiving CCMs themselves.
This typically indicates a unidirectional connectivity
failure.
cfm_fault_status : maid: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of
a CCM with a MAID other than the one Open vSwitch uses. CFM
broadcasts are tagged with an identification number in
addition to the MPID called the MAID. Open vSwitch only
supports receiving CCM broadcasts tagged with the MAID it
uses internally.
cfm_fault_status : loopback: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of
a CCM advertising the same MPID configured in the cfm_mpid
column of this Interface. This may indicate a loop in the
network.
cfm_fault_status : overflow: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered because the CFM module
received CCMs from more remote endpoints than it can keep
track of.
cfm_fault_status : override: none
Indicates a CFM fault was manually triggered by an
administrator using an ovs-appctl command.
cfm_fault_status : interval: none
Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of
a CCM frame having an invalid interval.
cfm_remote_opstate: optional string, either down or up
When in extended mode, indicates the operational state of
the remote endpoint as either up or down. See
other_config:cfm_opstate.
cfm_health: optional integer, in range 0 to 100
Indicates the health of the interface as a percentage of
CCM frames received over 21 other_config:cfm_intervals. The
health of an interface is undefined if it is communicating
with more than one cfm_remote_mpids. It reduces if healthy
heartbeats are not received at the expected rate, and
gradually improves as healthy heartbeats are received at
the desired rate. Every 21 other_config:cfm_intervals, the
health of the interface is refreshed.
As mentioned above, the faults can be triggered for several
reasons. The link health will deteriorate even if
heartbeats are received but they are reported to be
unhealthy. An unhealthy heartbeat in this context is a
heartbeat for which either some fault is set or is out of
sequence. The interface health can be 100 only on receiving
healthy heartbeats at the desired rate.
cfm_remote_mpids: set of integers
When CFM is properly configured, Open vSwitch will
occasionally receive CCM broadcasts. These broadcasts
contain the MPID of the sending Maintenance Point. The list
of MPIDs from which this Interface is receiving broadcasts
from is regularly collected and written to this column.
other_config : cfm_interval: optional string, containing an
integer
The interval, in milliseconds, between transmissions of CFM
heartbeats. Three missed heartbeat receptions indicate a
connectivity fault.
In standard operation only intervals of 3, 10, 100, 1,000,
10,000, 60,000, or 600,000 ms are supported. Other values
will be rounded down to the nearest value on the list.
Extended mode (see other_config:cfm_extended) supports any
interval up to 65,535 ms. In either mode, the default is
1000 ms.
We do not recommend using intervals less than 100 ms.
other_config : cfm_extended: optional string, either true or false
When true, the CFM module operates in extended mode. This
causes it to use a nonstandard destination address to avoid
conflicting with compliant implementations which may be
running concurrently on the network. Furthermore, extended
mode increases the accuracy of the cfm_interval
configuration parameter by breaking wire compatibility with
802.1ag compliant implementations. And extended mode allows
eight byte MPIDs. Defaults to false.
other_config : cfm_demand: optional string, either true or false
When true, and other_config:cfm_extended is true, the CFM
module operates in demand mode. When in demand mode,
traffic received on the Interface is used to indicate
liveness. CCMs are still transmitted and received. At least
one CCM must be received every 100 *
other_config:cfm_interval amount of time. Otherwise, even
if traffic are received, the CFM module will raise the
connectivity fault.
Demand mode has a couple of caveats:
• To ensure that ovs-vswitchd has enough time to pull
statistics from the datapath, the fault detection
interval is set to 3.5 *
MAX(other_config:cfm_interval, 500) ms.
• To avoid ambiguity, demand mode disables itself when
there are multiple remote maintenance points.
• If the Interface is heavily congested, CCMs
containing the other_config:cfm_opstate status may
be dropped causing changes in the operational state
to be delayed. Similarly, if CCMs containing the RDI
bit are not received, unidirectional link failures
may not be detected.
other_config : cfm_opstate: optional string, either down or up
When down, the CFM module marks all CCMs it generates as
operationally down without triggering a fault. This allows
remote maintenance points to choose not to forward traffic
to the Interface on which this CFM module is running.
Currently, in Open vSwitch, the opdown bit of CCMs affects
Interfaces participating in bonds, and the bundle OpenFlow
action. This setting is ignored when CFM is not in extended
mode. Defaults to up.
other_config : cfm_ccm_vlan: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 4,095
When set, the CFM module will apply a VLAN tag to all CCMs
it generates with the given value. May be the string random
in which case each CCM will be tagged with a different
randomly generated VLAN.
other_config : cfm_ccm_pcp: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 7
When set, the CFM module will apply a VLAN tag to all CCMs
it generates with the given PCP value, the VLAN ID of the
tag is governed by the value of other_config:cfm_ccm_vlan.
If other_config:cfm_ccm_vlan is unset, a VLAN ID of zero is
used.
Bonding Configuration:
other_config : lacp-port-id: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
The LACP port ID of this Interface. Port IDs are used in
LACP negotiations to identify individual ports
participating in a bond.
other_config : lacp-port-priority: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 1 to 65,535
The LACP port priority of this Interface. In LACP
negotiations Interfaces with numerically lower priorities
are preferred for aggregation.
other_config : lacp-aggregation-key: optional string, containing
an integer, in range 1 to 65,535
The LACP aggregation key of this Interface. Interfaces with
different aggregation keys may not be active within a given
Port at the same time.
Virtual Machine Identifiers:
These key-value pairs specifically apply to an interface that
represents a virtual Ethernet interface connected to a virtual
machine. These key-value pairs should not be present for other
types of interfaces. Keys whose names end in -uuid have values
that uniquely identify the entity in question.
external_ids : attached-mac: optional string
The MAC address programmed into the ``virtual hardware’’
for this interface, in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx.
external_ids : iface-id: optional string
A system-unique identifier for the interface.
external_ids : iface-status: optional string, either active or
inactive
Hypervisors may sometimes have more than one interface
associated with a given external_ids:iface-id, only one of
which is actually in use at a given time. For example, in
some circumstances hypervisor may have both a ``tap’’ and a
``vif’’ interface for a single external_ids:iface-id, but
only uses one of them at a time. A hypervisor that behaves
this way must mark the currently in use interface active
and the others inactive. A hypervisor that never has more
than one interface for a given external_ids:iface-id may
mark that interface active or omit external_ids:iface-
status entirely.
During VM migration, a given external_ids:iface-id might
transiently be marked active on two different hypervisors.
That is, active means that this external_ids:iface-id is
the active instance within a single hypervisor, not in a
broader scope. There is one exception: some hypervisors
support ``migration’’ from a given hypervisor to itself
(most often for test purposes). During such a
``migration,’’ two instances of a single
external_ids:iface-id might both be briefly marked active
on a single hypervisor.
external_ids : vm-id: optional string
The VM to which this interface belongs.
Auto Attach Configuration:
Auto Attach configuration for a particular interface.
lldp : enable: optional string, either true or false
True to enable LLDP on this Interface. If not specified,
LLDP will be disabled by default.
Flow control Configuration:
Ethernet flow control defined in IEEE 802.1Qbb provides link level
flow control using MAC pause frames. Implemented only for
interfaces with type dpdk.
options : rx-flow-ctrl: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to enable Rx flow control on physical ports. By
default, Rx flow control is disabled.
options : tx-flow-ctrl: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to enable Tx flow control on physical ports. By
default, Tx flow control is disabled.
options : flow-ctrl-autoneg: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to enable flow control auto negotiation on
physical ports. By default, auto-neg is disabled.
Link State Change detection mode:
options : dpdk-lsc-interrupt: optional string, either true or
false
Set this value to false to configure poll mode for Link
State Change (LSC) detection instead of interrupt mode for
the DPDK interface.
If this value is not set, interrupt mode is configured.
This parameter has an effect only on netdev dpdk
interfaces.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Configuration for a particular OpenFlow table.
Summary:
name optional string
Eviction Policy:
flow_limit optional integer, at least 0
overflow_policy optional string, either evict or
refuse
groups set of strings
Classifier Optimization:
prefixes set of up to 4 strings
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: optional string
The table’s name. Set this column to change the name that
controllers will receive when they request table
statistics, e.g. ovs-ofctl dump-tables. The name does not
affect switch behavior.
Eviction Policy:
Open vSwitch supports limiting the number of flows that may be
installed in a flow table, via the flow_limit column. When adding
a flow would exceed this limit, by default Open vSwitch reports an
error, but there are two ways to configure Open vSwitch to instead
delete (``evict’’) a flow to make room for the new one:
• Set the overflow_policy column to evict.
• Send an OpenFlow 1.4+ ``table mod request’’ to
enable eviction for the flow table (e.g. ovs-ofctl
-O OpenFlow14 mod-table br0 0 evict to enable
eviction on flow table 0 of bridge br0).
When a flow must be evicted due to overflow, the flow to evict is
chosen through an approximation of the following algorithm. This
algorithm is used regardless of how eviction was enabled:
1. Divide the flows in the table into groups based on the
values of the fields or subfields specified in the
groups column, so that all of the flows in a given
group have the same values for those fields. If a flow
does not specify a given field, that field’s value is
treated as 0. If groups is empty, then all of the flows
in the flow table are treated as a single group.
2. Consider the flows in the largest group, that is, the
group that contains the greatest number of flows. If
two or more groups all have the same largest number of
flows, consider the flows in all of those groups.
3. If the flows under consideration have different
importance values, eliminate from consideration any
flows except those with the lowest importance.
(``Importance,’’ a 16-bit integer value attached to
each flow, was introduced in OpenFlow 1.4. Flows
inserted with older versions of OpenFlow always have an
importance of 0.)
4. Among the flows under consideration, choose the flow
that expires soonest for eviction.
The eviction process only considers flows that have an idle
timeout or a hard timeout. That is, eviction never deletes
permanent flows. (Permanent flows do count against flow_limit.)
flow_limit: optional integer, at least 0
If set, limits the number of flows that may be added to the
table. Open vSwitch may limit the number of flows in a
table for other reasons, e.g. due to hardware limitations
or for resource availability or performance reasons.
overflow_policy: optional string, either evict or refuse
Controls the switch’s behavior when an OpenFlow flow table
modification request would add flows in excess of
flow_limit. The supported values are:
refuse Refuse to add the flow or flows. This is also the
default policy when overflow_policy is unset.
evict Delete a flow chosen according to the algorithm
described above.
groups: set of strings
When overflow_policy is evict, this controls how flows are
chosen for eviction when the flow table would otherwise
exceed flow_limit flows. Its value is a set of NXM fields
or sub-fields, each of which takes one of the forms field[]
or field[start..end], e.g. NXM_OF_IN_PORT[]. Please see
meta-flow.h for a complete list of NXM field names.
Open vSwitch ignores any invalid or unknown field
specifications.
When eviction is not enabled, via overflow_policy or an
OpenFlow 1.4+ ``table mod,’’ this column has no effect.
Classifier Optimization:
prefixes: set of up to 4 strings
This string set specifies which fields should be used for
address prefix tracking. Prefix tracking allows the
classifier to skip rules with longer than necessary
prefixes, resulting in better wildcarding for datapath
flows.
Prefix tracking may be beneficial when a flow table
contains matches on IP address fields with different prefix
lengths. For example, when a flow table contains IP address
matches on both full addresses and proper prefixes, the
full address matches will typically cause the datapath flow
to un-wildcard the whole address field (depending on flow
entry priorities). In this case each packet with a
different address gets handed to the userspace for flow
processing and generates its own datapath flow. With prefix
tracking enabled for the address field in question packets
with addresses matching shorter prefixes would generate
datapath flows where the irrelevant address bits are
wildcarded, allowing the same datapath flow to handle all
the packets within the prefix in question. In this case
many userspace upcalls can be avoided and the overall
performance can be better.
This is a performance optimization only, so packets will
receive the same treatment with or without prefix tracking.
The supported fields are: tun_id, tun_src, tun_dst,
tun_ipv6_src, tun_ipv6_dst, nw_src, nw_dst (or aliases
ip_src and ip_dst), ipv6_src, and ipv6_dst. (Using this
feature for tun_id would only make sense if the tunnel IDs
have prefix structure similar to IP addresses.)
By default, the prefixes=ip_dst,ip_src,ipv6_dst,ipv6_src
are used on each flow table. This instructs the flow
classifier to track the IPv4 and IPv6 destination and
source addresses used by the rules in this specific flow
table.
The keyword none is recognized as an explicit override of
the default values, causing no prefix fields to be tracked.
To set the prefix fields, the flow table record needs to
exist:
ovs-vsctl set Bridge br0 flow_tables:0=@N1 -- --id=@N1
create Flow_Table name=table0
Creates a flow table record for the OpenFlow table
number 0.
ovs-vsctl set Flow_Table table0 prefixes=ip_dst,ip_src
Enables prefix tracking for IPv4 source and
destination address fields.
There is a maximum number of fields that can be enabled for
any one flow table. Currently this limit is 4.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Quality of Service (QoS) configuration for each Port that
references it.
Summary:
type string
queues map of integer-Queue pairs, key in
range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Configuration for linux-htb and linux-hfsc:
other_config : max-rate optional string, containing an
integer
Configuration for egress-policer QoS:
other_config : cir optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : cbs optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : eir optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : ebs optional string, containing an
integer
Configuration for linux-sfq:
other_config : perturb optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : quantum optional string, containing an
integer
Configuration for linux-netem:
other_config : latency optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : limit optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : loss optional string, containing an
integer
other_config : jitter optional string, containing an
integer
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
type: string
The type of QoS to implement. The currently defined types
are listed below:
linux-htb
Linux ``hierarchy token bucket’’ classifier. See tc-
htb(8) (also at http://linux.die.net/man/8/tc-htb )
and the HTB manual
(http://luxik.cdi.cz/~devik/qos/htb/manual/userg.htm )
for information on how this classifier works and how
to configure it.
linux-hfsc
Linux "Hierarchical Fair Service Curve" classifier.
See http://linux-ip.net/articles/hfsc.en/ for
information on how this classifier works.
linux-sfq
Linux ``Stochastic Fairness Queueing’’ classifier.
See tc-sfq(8) (also at
http://linux.die.net/man/8/tc-sfq ) for information
on how this classifier works.
linux-codel
Linux ``Controlled Delay’’ classifier. See
tc-codel(8) (also at
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/tc-codel.8.html )
for information on how this classifier works.
linux-fq_codel
Linux ``Fair Queuing with Controlled Delay’’
classifier. See tc-fq_codel(8) (also at
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/tc-fq_codel.8.html )
for information on how this classifier works.
linux-netem
Linux ``Network Emulator’’ classifier. See
tc-netem(8) (also at
http://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/tc-netem.8.html )
for information on how this classifier works.
linux-noop
Linux ``No operation.’’ By default, Open vSwitch
manages quality of service on all of its configured
ports. This can be helpful, but sometimes
administrators prefer to use other software to
manage QoS. This type prevents Open vSwitch from
changing the QoS configuration for a port.
egress-policer
A DPDK egress policer algorithm using the DPDK
rte_meter library. The rte_meter library provides an
implementation which allows the metering and
policing of traffic. The implementation in OVS
essentially creates a single token bucket used to
police traffic. It should be noted that when the
rte_meter is configured as part of QoS there will be
a performance overhead as the rte_meter itself will
consume CPU cycles in order to police traffic. These
CPU cycles ordinarily are used for packet
proccessing. As such the drop in performance will be
noticed in terms of overall aggregate traffic
throughput.
trtcm-policer
A DPDK egress policer algorithm using RFC 4115’s
Two-Rate, Three-Color marker. It’s a two-level
hierarchical policer which first does a color-blind
marking of the traffic at the queue level, followed
by a color-aware marking at the port level. At the
end traffic marked as Green or Yellow is forwarded,
Red is dropped. For details on how traffic is
marked, see RFC 4115. If the ``default queue’’, 0,
is not configured it’s automatically created with
the same other_config values as the physical port.
queues: map of integer-Queue pairs, key in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
A map from queue numbers to Queue records. The supported
range of queue numbers depend on type. The queue numbers
are the same as the queue_id used in OpenFlow in struct
ofp_action_enqueue and other structures.
Queue 0 is the ``default queue.’’ It is used by OpenFlow
output actions when no specific queue has been set. When no
configuration for queue 0 is present, it is automatically
configured as if a Queue record with empty dscp and
other_config columns had been specified. (Before version
1.6, Open vSwitch would leave queue 0 unconfigured in this
case. With some queuing disciplines, this dropped all
packets destined for the default queue.)
Configuration for linux-htb and linux-hfsc:
The linux-htb and linux-hfsc classes support the following key-
value pair:
other_config : max-rate: optional string, containing an integer
Maximum rate shared by all queued traffic, in bit/s.
Optional. If not specified, for physical interfaces, the
default is the link rate. For other interfaces or if the
link rate cannot be determined, the default is currently 10
Gbps.
Configuration for egress-policer QoS:
QoS type egress-policer provides egress policing for userspace
port types with DPDK. It has the following key-value pairs
defined.
other_config : cir: optional string, containing an integer
The Committed Information Rate (CIR) is measured in bytes
of IP packets per second, i.e. it includes the IP header,
but not link specific (e.g. Ethernet) headers. This
represents the bytes per second rate at which the token
bucket will be updated. The cir value is calculated by (pps
x packet data size). For example assuming a user wishes to
limit a stream consisting of 64 byte packets to 1 million
packets per second the CIR would be set to to to 46000000.
This value can be broken into ’1,000,000 x 46’. Where
1,000,000 is the policing rate for the number of packets
per second and 46 represents the size of the packet data
for a 64 bytes IP packet without 14 bytes Ethernet and 4
bytes FCS header.
other_config : cbs: optional string, containing an integer
The Committed Burst Size (CBS) is measured in bytes and
represents a token bucket. At a minimum this value should
be be set to the expected largest size packet in the
traffic stream. In practice larger values may be used to
increase the size of the token bucket. If a packet can be
transmitted then the cbs will be decremented by the number
of bytes/tokens of the packet. If there are not enough
tokens in the cbs bucket the packet will be dropped.
other_config : eir: optional string, containing an integer
The Excess Information Rate (EIR) is measured in bytes of
IP packets per second, i.e. it includes the IP header, but
not link specific (e.g. Ethernet) headers. This represents
the bytes per second rate at which the token bucket will be
updated. The eir value is calculated by (pps x packet data
size). For example assuming a user wishes to limit a stream
consisting of 64 byte packets to 1 million packets per
second the EIR would be set to to to 46000000. This value
can be broken into ’1,000,000 x 46’. Where 1,000,000 is the
policing rate for the number of packets per second and 46
represents the size of the packet data for a 64 bytes IP
packet without 14 bytes Ethernet and 4 bytes FCS header.
other_config : ebs: optional string, containing an integer
The Excess Burst Size (EBS) is measured in bytes and
represents a token bucket. At a minimum this value should
be be set to the expected largest size packet in the
traffic stream. In practice larger values may be used to
increase the size of the token bucket. If a packet can be
transmitted then the ebs will be decremented by the number
of bytes/tokens of the packet. If there are not enough
tokens in the cbs bucket the packet might be dropped.
Configuration for linux-sfq:
The linux-sfq QoS supports the following key-value pairs:
other_config : perturb: optional string, containing an integer
Number of seconds between consecutive perturbations in
hashing algorithm. Different flows can end up in the same
hash bucket causing unfairness. Perturbation’s goal is to
remove possible unfairness. The default and recommended
value is 10. Too low a value is discouraged because each
perturbation can cause packet reordering.
other_config : quantum: optional string, containing an integer
Number of bytes linux-sfq QoS can dequeue in one turn in
round-robin from one flow. The default and recommended
value is equal to interface’s MTU.
Configuration for linux-netem:
The linux-netem QoS supports the following key-value pairs:
other_config : latency: optional string, containing an integer
Adds the chosen delay to the packets outgoing to chosen
network interface. The latency value expressed in us.
other_config : limit: optional string, containing an integer
Maximum number of packets the qdisc may hold queued at a
time. The default value is 1000.
other_config : loss: optional string, containing an integer
Adds an independent loss probability to the packets
outgoing from the chosen network interface.
other_config : jitter: optional string, containing an integer
Adds the provided jitter to the latency outgoing to the
chosen network interface. The jitter value expressed in us.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
A configuration for a port output queue, used in configuring
Quality of Service (QoS) features. May be referenced by queues
column in QoS table.
Summary:
dscp optional integer, in range 0 to 63
Configuration for linux-htb QoS:
other_config : min-rate optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : max-rate optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : burst optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : priority optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Configuration for linux-hfsc QoS:
other_config : min-rate optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
other_config : max-rate optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
dscp: optional integer, in range 0 to 63
If set, Open vSwitch will mark all traffic egressing this
Queue with the given DSCP bits. Traffic egressing the
default Queue is only marked if it was explicitly selected
as the Queue at the time the packet was output. If unset,
the DSCP bits of traffic egressing this Queue will remain
unchanged.
Configuration for linux-htb QoS:
QoS type linux-htb may use queue_ids less than 61440. It has the
following key-value pairs defined.
other_config : min-rate: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 1
Minimum guaranteed bandwidth, in bit/s.
other_config : max-rate: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 1
Maximum allowed bandwidth, in bit/s. Optional. If
specified, the queue’s rate will not be allowed to exceed
the specified value, even if excess bandwidth is available.
If unspecified, defaults to no limit.
other_config : burst: optional string, containing an integer, at
least 1
Burst size, in bits. This is the maximum amount of
``credits’’ that a queue can accumulate while it is idle.
Optional. Details of the linux-htb implementation require a
minimum burst size, so a too-small burst will be silently
ignored.
other_config : priority: optional string, containing an integer,
in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
A queue with a smaller priority will receive all the excess
bandwidth that it can use before a queue with a larger
value receives any. Specific priority values are
unimportant; only relative ordering matters. Defaults to 0
if unspecified.
Configuration for linux-hfsc QoS:
QoS type linux-hfsc may use queue_ids less than 61440. It has the
following key-value pairs defined.
other_config : min-rate: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 1
Minimum guaranteed bandwidth, in bit/s.
other_config : max-rate: optional string, containing an integer,
at least 1
Maximum allowed bandwidth, in bit/s. Optional. If
specified, the queue’s rate will not be allowed to exceed
the specified value, even if excess bandwidth is available.
If unspecified, defaults to no limit.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
A port mirror within a Bridge.
A port mirror configures a bridge to send selected frames to
special ``mirrored’’ ports, in addition to their normal
destinations. Mirroring traffic may also be referred to as SPAN or
RSPAN, depending on how the mirrored traffic is sent.
When a packet enters an Open vSwitch bridge, it becomes eligible
for mirroring based on its ingress port and VLAN. As the packet
travels through the flow tables, each time it is output to a port,
it becomes eligible for mirroring based on the egress port and
VLAN. In Open vSwitch 2.5 and later, mirroring occurs just after a
packet first becomes eligible, using the packet as it exists at
that point; in Open vSwitch 2.4 and earlier, mirroring occurs only
after a packet has traversed all the flow tables, using the
original packet as it entered the bridge. This makes a difference
only when the flow table modifies the packet: in Open vSwitch 2.4,
the modifications are never visible to mirrors, whereas in Open
vSwitch 2.5 and later modifications made before the first output
that makes it eligible for mirroring to a particular destination
are visible.
A packet that enters an Open vSwitch bridge is mirrored to a
particular destination only once, even if it is eligible for
multiple reasons. For example, a packet would be mirrored to a
particular output_port only once, even if it is selected for
mirroring to that port by select_dst_port and select_src_port in
the same or different Mirror records.
Summary:
name string
Selecting Packets for Mirroring:
select_all boolean
select_dst_port set of weak reference to Ports
select_src_port set of weak reference to Ports
select_vlan set of up to 4,096 integers, in
range 0 to 4,095
filter optional string
Mirroring Destination Configuration:
output_port optional weak reference to Port
output_vlan optional integer, in range 1 to
4,095
snaplen optional integer, in range 14 to
65,535
Statistics: Mirror counters:
statistics : tx_packets optional integer
statistics : tx_bytes optional integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
name: string
Arbitrary identifier for the Mirror.
Selecting Packets for Mirroring:
To be selected for mirroring, a given packet must enter or leave
the bridge through a selected port and it must also be in one of
the selected VLANs.
select_all: boolean
If true, every packet arriving or departing on any port is
selected for mirroring.
select_dst_port: set of weak reference to Ports
Ports on which departing packets are selected for
mirroring.
select_src_port: set of weak reference to Ports
Ports on which arriving packets are selected for mirroring.
select_vlan: set of up to 4,096 integers, in range 0 to 4,095
VLANs on which packets are selected for mirroring. An empty
set selects packets on all VLANs.
filter: optional string
When set, only packets that match filter are selected for
mirroring. Packets that do not match are ignored by thie
mirror. The filter syntax is described in ovs-fields(7).
However, the in_port field is not supported;
select_src_port should be used to limit the mirror to a
source port.
This filter is applied after select_all, select_dst_port,
select_src_port, and select_vlan.
Mirroring Destination Configuration:
These columns are mutually exclusive. Exactly one of them must be
nonempty.
output_port: optional weak reference to Port
Output port for selected packets, if nonempty.
Specifying a port for mirror output reserves that port
exclusively for mirroring. No frames other than those
selected for mirroring via this column will be forwarded to
the port, and any frames received on the port will be
discarded.
The output port may be any kind of port supported by Open
vSwitch. It may be, for example, a physical port (sometimes
called SPAN) or a GRE tunnel.
output_vlan: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
Output VLAN for selected packets, if nonempty.
The frames will be sent out all ports that trunk
output_vlan, as well as any ports with implicit VLAN
output_vlan. When a mirrored frame is sent out a trunk
port, the frame’s VLAN tag will be set to output_vlan,
replacing any existing tag; when it is sent out an implicit
VLAN port, the frame will not be tagged. This type of
mirroring is sometimes called RSPAN.
See the documentation for other_config:forward-bpdu in the
Interface table for a list of destination MAC addresses
which will not be mirrored to a VLAN to avoid confusing
switches that interpret the protocols that they represent.
Please note: Mirroring to a VLAN can disrupt a network that
contains unmanaged switches. Consider an unmanaged physical
switch with two ports: port 1, connected to an end host,
and port 2, connected to an Open vSwitch configured to
mirror received packets into VLAN 123 on port 2. Suppose
that the end host sends a packet on port 1 that the
physical switch forwards to port 2. The Open vSwitch
forwards this packet to its destination and then reflects
it back on port 2 in VLAN 123. This reflected packet causes
the unmanaged physical switch to replace the MAC learning
table entry, which correctly pointed to port 1, with one
that incorrectly points to port 2. Afterward, the physical
switch will direct packets destined for the end host to the
Open vSwitch on port 2, instead of to the end host on port
1, disrupting connectivity. If mirroring to a VLAN is
desired in this scenario, then the physical switch must be
replaced by one that learns Ethernet addresses on a per-
VLAN basis. In addition, learning should be disabled on the
VLAN containing mirrored traffic. If this is not done then
intermediate switches will learn the MAC address of each
end host from the mirrored traffic. If packets being sent
to that end host are also mirrored, then they will be
dropped since the switch will attempt to send them out the
input port. Disabling learning for the VLAN will cause the
switch to correctly send the packet out all ports
configured for that VLAN. If Open vSwitch is being used as
an intermediate switch, learning can be disabled by adding
the mirrored VLAN to flood_vlans in the appropriate Bridge
table or tables.
Mirroring to a GRE tunnel has fewer caveats than mirroring
to a VLAN and should generally be preferred.
snaplen: optional integer, in range 14 to 65,535
Maximum per-packet number of bytes to mirror.
A mirrored packet with size larger than snaplen will be
truncated in datapath to snaplen bytes before sending to
the mirror output port. If omitted, packets are not
truncated.
Statistics: Mirror counters:
Key-value pairs that report mirror statistics. The update period
is controlled by other_config:stats-update-interval in the
Open_vSwitch table.
statistics : tx_packets: optional integer
Number of packets transmitted through this mirror.
statistics : tx_bytes: optional integer
Number of bytes transmitted through this mirror.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
An OpenFlow controller.
Summary:
Core Features:
type optional string, either primary or
service
target string
connection_mode optional string, either in-band or
out-of-band
Controller Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff optional integer, at least 1,000
inactivity_probe optional integer
Asynchronous Messages:
enable_async_messages optional boolean
Controller Rate Limiting:
controller_queue_size optional integer, in range 1 to 512
controller_rate_limit optional integer, at least 100
controller_burst_limit optional integer, at least 25
Controller Rate Limiting Statistics:
status : packet-in-TYPE-bypassed
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : packet-in-TYPE-queued
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : packet-in-TYPE-dropped
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : packet-in-TYPE-backlog
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Additional In-Band Configuration:
local_ip optional string
local_netmask optional string
local_gateway optional string
Controller Status:
is_connected boolean
role optional string, one of master,
other, or slave
status : last_error optional string
status : state optional string, one of ACTIVE,
BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID
status : sec_since_connect optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : sec_since_disconnect
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
Connection Parameters:
other_config : dscp optional string, containing an
integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
type: optional string, either primary or service
Open vSwitch supports two kinds of OpenFlow controllers. A
bridge may have any number of each kind:
Primary controllers
This is the kind of controller envisioned by the
OpenFlow specifications. Usually, a primary
controller implements a network policy by taking
charge of the switch’s flow table.
The fail_mode column in the Bridge table applies to
primary controllers.
When multiple primary controllers are configured,
Open vSwitch connects to all of them simultaneously.
OpenFlow provides few facilities to allow multiple
controllers to coordinate in interacting with a
single switch, so more than one primary controller
should be specified only if the controllers are
themselves designed to coordinate with each other.
Service controllers
These kinds of OpenFlow controller connections are
intended for occasional support and maintenance use,
e.g. with ovs-ofctl. Usually a service controller
connects only briefly to inspect or modify some of a
switch’s state.
The fail_mode column in the Bridge table does not
apply to service controllers.
By default, Open vSwitch treats controllers with active
connection methods as primary controllers and those with
passive connection methods as service controllers. Set this
column to the desired type to override this default.
target: string
Connection method for controller.
The following active connection methods are currently
supported:
ssl:host[:port]
The specified SSL/TLS port on the host at the given
host, which can either be a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address. The ssl column in
the Open_vSwitch table must point to a valid SSL/TLS
configuration when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653.
SSL/TLS support is an optional feature that is not
always built as part of Open vSwitch.
tcp:host[:port]
The specified TCP port on the host at the given
host, which can either be a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6). If
host is an IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets,
e.g. tcp:[::1]:6653.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653.
The following passive connection methods are currently
supported:
pssl:[port][:host]
Listens for SSL/TLS connections on the specified TCP
port. If host, which can either be a DNS name (if
built with unbound library) or an IP address, is
specified, then connections are restricted to the
resolved or specified local IP address (either IPv4
or IPv6). If host is an IPv6 address, wrap it in
square brackets, e.g. pssl:6653:[::1].
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653. If
host is not specified then it listens only on IPv4
(but not IPv6) addresses. The ssl column in the
Open_vSwitch table must point to a valid SSL/TLS
configuration when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it currently to 6653.
SSL/TLS support is an optional feature that is not
always built as part of Open vSwitch.
ptcp:[port][:host]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port.
If host, which can either be a DNS name (if built
with unbound library) or an IP address, is
specified, then connections are restricted to the
resolved or specified local IP address (either IPv4
or IPv6). If host is an IPv6 address, wrap it in
square brackets, e.g. ptcp:6653:[::1]. If host is
not specified then it listens only on IPv4
addresses.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653.
When multiple controllers are configured for a single
bridge, the target values must be unique. Duplicate target
values yield unspecified results.
connection_mode: optional string, either in-band or out-of-band
If it is specified, this setting must be one of the
following strings that describes how Open vSwitch contacts
this OpenFlow controller over the network:
in-band
In this mode, this controller’s OpenFlow traffic
travels over the bridge associated with the
controller. With this setting, Open vSwitch allows
traffic to and from the controller regardless of the
contents of the OpenFlow flow table. (Otherwise,
Open vSwitch would never be able to connect to the
controller, because it did not have a flow to enable
it.) This is the most common connection mode because
it is not necessary to maintain two independent
networks.
out-of-band
In this mode, OpenFlow traffic uses a control
network separate from the bridge associated with
this controller, that is, the bridge does not use
any of its own network devices to communicate with
the controller. The control network must be
configured separately, before or after ovs-vswitchd
is started.
If not specified, the default is implementation-specific.
Controller Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff: optional integer, at least 1,000
Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection
attempts. Default is implementation-specific.
inactivity_probe: optional integer
Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection
to controller before sending an inactivity probe message.
If Open vSwitch does not communicate with the controller
for the specified number of seconds, it will send a probe.
If a response is not received for the same additional
amount of time, Open vSwitch assumes the connection has
been broken and attempts to reconnect. Default is
implementation-specific. A value of 0 disables inactivity
probes.
Asynchronous Messages:
OpenFlow switches send certain messages to controllers
spontanenously, that is, not in response to any request from the
controller. These messages are called ``asynchronous messages.’’
These columns allow asynchronous messages to be limited or
disabled to ensure the best use of network resources.
enable_async_messages: optional boolean
The OpenFlow protocol enables asynchronous messages at time
of connection establishment, which means that a controller
can receive asynchronous messages, potentially many of
them, even if it turns them off immediately after
connecting. Set this column to false to change Open vSwitch
behavior to disable, by default, all asynchronous messages.
The controller can use the NXT_SET_ASYNC_CONFIG Nicira
extension to OpenFlow to turn on any messages that it does
want to receive, if any.
Controller Rate Limiting:
A switch can forward packets to a controller over the OpenFlow
protocol. Forwarding packets this way at too high a rate can
overwhelm a controller, frustrate use of the OpenFlow connection
for other purposes, increase the latency of flow setup, and use an
unreasonable amount of bandwidth. Therefore, Open vSwitch supports
limiting the rate of packet forwarding to a controller.
There are two main reasons in OpenFlow for a packet to be sent to
a controller: either the packet ``misses’’ in the flow table, that
is, there is no matching flow, or a flow table action says to send
the packet to the controller. Open vSwitch limits the rate of each
kind of packet separately at the configured rate. Therefore, the
actual rate that packets are sent to the controller can be up to
twice the configured rate, when packets are sent for both reasons.
This feature is specific to forwarding packets over an OpenFlow
connection. It is not general-purpose QoS. See the QoS table for
quality of service configuration, and ingress_policing_rate in the
Interface table for ingress policing configuration.
controller_queue_size: optional integer, in range 1 to 512
This sets the maximum size of the queue of packets that
need to be sent to this OpenFlow controller. The value must
be less than 512. If not specified the queue size is
limited to the value set for the management controller in
other_config:controller-queue-size if present or 100
packets by default. Note: increasing the queue size might
have a negative impact on latency.
controller_rate_limit: optional integer, at least 100
The maximum rate at which the switch will forward packets
to the OpenFlow controller, in packets per second. If no
value is specified, rate limiting is disabled.
controller_burst_limit: optional integer, at least 25
When a high rate triggers rate-limiting, Open vSwitch
queues packets to the controller for each port and
transmits them to the controller at the configured rate.
This value limits the number of queued packets. Ports on a
bridge share the packet queue fairly.
This value has no effect unless controller_rate_limit is
configured. The current default when this value is not
specified is one-quarter of controller_rate_limit, meaning
that queuing can delay forwarding a packet to the
controller by up to 250 ms.
Controller Rate Limiting Statistics:
These values report the effects of rate limiting. Their values are
relative to establishment of the most recent OpenFlow connection,
or since rate limiting was enabled, whichever happened more
recently. Each consists of two values, one with TYPE replaced by
miss for rate limiting flow table misses, and the other with TYPE
replaced by action for rate limiting packets sent by OpenFlow
actions.
These statistics are reported only when controller rate limiting
is enabled.
status : packet-in-TYPE-bypassed: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Number of packets sent directly to the controller, without
queuing, because the rate did not exceed the configured
maximum.
status : packet-in-TYPE-queued: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Number of packets added to the queue to send later.
status : packet-in-TYPE-dropped: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Number of packets added to the queue that were later
dropped due to overflow. This value is less than or equal
to status:packet-in-TYPE-queued.
status : packet-in-TYPE-backlog: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Number of packets currently queued. The other statistics
increase monotonically, but this one fluctuates between 0
and the controller_burst_limit as conditions change.
Additional In-Band Configuration:
These values are considered only in in-band control mode (see
connection_mode).
When multiple controllers are configured on a single bridge, there
should be only one set of unique values in these columns. If
different values are set for these columns in different
controllers, the effect is unspecified.
local_ip: optional string
The IP address to configure on the local port, e.g.
192.168.0.123. If this value is unset, then local_netmask
and local_gateway are ignored.
local_netmask: optional string
The IP netmask to configure on the local port, e.g.
255.255.255.0. If local_ip is set but this value is unset,
then the default is chosen based on whether the IP address
is class A, B, or C.
local_gateway: optional string
The IP address of the gateway to configure on the local
port, as a string, e.g. 192.168.0.1. Leave this column
unset if this network has no gateway.
Controller Status:
is_connected: boolean
true if currently connected to this controller, false
otherwise.
role: optional string, one of master, other, or slave
The level of authority this controller has on the
associated bridge. Possible values are:
other Allows the controller access to all OpenFlow
features.
master Equivalent to other, except that there may be at
most one such controller at a time. If a given
controller promotes itself to this role,
ovs-vswitchd demotes any existing controller with
the role to slave.
slave Allows the controller read-only access to OpenFlow
features. Attempts to modify the flow table will be
rejected with an error. Such controllers do not
receive OFPT_PACKET_IN or OFPT_FLOW_REMOVED
messages, but they do receive OFPT_PORT_STATUS
messages.
status : last_error: optional string
A human-readable description of the last error on the
connection to the controller; i.e. strerror(errno). This
key will exist only if an error has occurred.
status : state: optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF,
CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID
The state of the connection to the controller:
VOID Connection is disabled.
BACKOFF
Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.
CONNECTING
Attempting to connect.
ACTIVE Connected, remote host responsive.
IDLE Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-
alive.
These values may change in the future. They are provided
only for human consumption.
status : sec_since_connect: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this controller last successfully
connected to the switch (in seconds). Value is empty if
controller has never successfully connected.
status : sec_since_disconnect: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 1
The amount of time since this controller last disconnected
from the switch (in seconds). Value is empty if controller
has never disconnected.
Connection Parameters:
Additional configuration for a connection between the controller
and the Open vSwitch.
other_config : dscp: optional string, containing an integer
The Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) is specified
using 6 bits in the Type of Service (TOS) field in the IP
header. DSCP provides a mechanism to classify the network
traffic and provide Quality of Service (QoS) on IP
networks. The DSCP value specified here is used when
establishing the connection between the controller and the
Open vSwitch. If no value is specified, a default value of
48 is chosen. Valid DSCP values must be in the range 0 to
63.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Configuration for a database connection to an Open vSwitch
database (OVSDB) client.
This table primarily configures the Open vSwitch database
(ovsdb-server), not the Open vSwitch switch (ovs-vswitchd). The
switch does read the table to determine what connections should be
treated as in-band.
The Open vSwitch database server can initiate and maintain active
connections to remote clients. It can also listen for database
connections.
Summary:
Core Features:
target string (must be unique within table)
connection_mode optional string, either in-band or
out-of-band
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff optional integer, at least 1,000
inactivity_probe optional integer
Status:
is_connected boolean
status : last_error optional string
status : state optional string, one of ACTIVE,
BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID
status : sec_since_connect optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : sec_since_disconnect
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
status : locks_held optional string
status : locks_waiting optional string
status : locks_lost optional string
status : n_connections optional string, containing an
integer, at least 2
status : bound_port optional string, containing an
integer
Connection Parameters:
other_config : dscp optional string, containing an
integer
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
Core Features:
target: string (must be unique within table)
Connection method for managers.
The following connection methods are currently supported:
ssl:host[:port]
The specified SSL/TLS port on the host at the given
host, which can either be a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address. The ssl column in
the Open_vSwitch table must point to a valid SSL/TLS
configuration when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL/TLS support is an optional feature that is not
always built as part of Open vSwitch.
tcp:host[:port]
The specified TCP port on the host at the given
host, which can either be a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address (IPv4 or IPv6). If
host is an IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets,
e.g. tcp:[::1]:6640.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
pssl:[port][:host]
Listens for SSL/TLS connections on the specified TCP
port. Specify 0 for port to have the kernel
automatically choose an available port. If host,
which can either be a DNS name (if built with
unbound library) or an IP address, is specified,
then connections are restricted to the resolved or
specified local IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6
address). If host is an IPv6 address, wrap in square
brackets, e.g. pssl:6640:[::1]. If host is not
specified then it listens only on IPv4 (but not
IPv6) addresses. The ssl column in the Open_vSwitch
table must point to a valid SSL/TLS configuration
when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL/TLS support is an optional feature that is not
always built as part of Open vSwitch.
ptcp:[port][:host]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port.
Specify 0 for port to have the kernel automatically
choose an available port. If host, which can either
be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an
IP address, is specified, then connections are
restricted to the resolved or specified local IP
address (either IPv4 or IPv6 address). If host is an
IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets, e.g.
ptcp:6640:[::1]. If host is not specified then it
listens only on IPv4 addresses.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
When multiple managers are configured, the target values
must be unique. Duplicate target values yield unspecified
results.
connection_mode: optional string, either in-band or out-of-band
If it is specified, this setting must be one of the
following strings that describes how Open vSwitch contacts
this OVSDB client over the network:
in-band
In this mode, this connection’s traffic travels over
a bridge managed by Open vSwitch. With this setting,
Open vSwitch allows traffic to and from the client
regardless of the contents of the OpenFlow flow
table. (Otherwise, Open vSwitch would never be able
to connect to the client, because it did not have a
flow to enable it.) This is the most common
connection mode because it is not necessary to
maintain two independent networks.
out-of-band
In this mode, the client’s traffic uses a control
network separate from that managed by Open vSwitch,
that is, Open vSwitch does not use any of its own
network devices to communicate with the client. The
control network must be configured separately,
before or after ovs-vswitchd is started.
If not specified, the default is implementation-specific.
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff: optional integer, at least 1,000
Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection
attempts. Default is implementation-specific.
inactivity_probe: optional integer
Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection
to the client before sending an inactivity probe message.
If Open vSwitch does not communicate with the client for
the specified number of seconds, it will send a probe. If a
response is not received for the same additional amount of
time, Open vSwitch assumes the connection has been broken
and attempts to reconnect. Default is implementation-
specific. A value of 0 disables inactivity probes.
Status:
Key-value pair of is_connected is always updated. Other key-value
pairs in the status columns may be updated depends on the target
type.
When target specifies a connection method that listens for inbound
connections (e.g. ptcp: or punix:), both n_connections and
is_connected may also be updated while the remaining key-value
pairs are omitted.
On the other hand, when target specifies an outbound connection,
all key-value pairs may be updated, except the above-mentioned two
key-value pairs associated with inbound connection targets. They
are omitted.
is_connected: boolean
true if currently connected to this manager, false
otherwise.
status : last_error: optional string
A human-readable description of the last error on the
connection to the manager; i.e. strerror(errno). This key
will exist only if an error has occurred.
status : state: optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF,
CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID
The state of the connection to the manager:
VOID Connection is disabled.
BACKOFF
Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.
CONNECTING
Attempting to connect.
ACTIVE Connected, remote host responsive.
IDLE Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-
alive.
These values may change in the future. They are provided
only for human consumption.
status : sec_since_connect: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this manager last successfully
connected to the database (in seconds). Value is empty if
manager has never successfully connected.
status : sec_since_disconnect: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this manager last disconnected
from the database (in seconds). Value is empty if manager
has never disconnected.
status : locks_held: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the
connection holds. Omitted if the connection does not hold
any locks.
status : locks_waiting: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the
connection is currently waiting to acquire. Omitted if the
connection is not waiting for any locks.
status : locks_lost: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the
connection has had stolen by another OVSDB client. Omitted
if no locks have been stolen from this connection.
status : n_connections: optional string, containing an integer, at
least 2
When target specifies a connection method that listens for
inbound connections (e.g. ptcp: or pssl:) and more than one
connection is actually active, the value is the number of
active connections. Otherwise, this key-value pair is
omitted.
status : bound_port: optional string, containing an integer
When target is ptcp: or pssl:, this is the TCP port on
which the OVSDB server is listening. (This is particularly
useful when target specifies a port of 0, allowing the
kernel to choose any available port.)
Connection Parameters:
Additional configuration for a connection between the manager and
the Open vSwitch Database.
other_config : dscp: optional string, containing an integer
The Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) is specified
using 6 bits in the Type of Service (TOS) field in the IP
header. DSCP provides a mechanism to classify the network
traffic and provide Quality of Service (QoS) on IP
networks. The DSCP value specified here is used when
establishing the connection between the manager and the
Open vSwitch. If no value is specified, a default value of
48 is chosen. Valid DSCP values must be in the range 0 to
63.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
other_config: map of string-string pairs
A NetFlow target. NetFlow is a protocol that exports a number of
details about terminating IP flows, such as the principals
involved and duration.
Summary:
targets set of 1 or more strings
engine_id optional integer, in range 0 to 255
engine_type optional integer, in range 0 to 255
active_timeout integer, at least -1
add_id_to_interface boolean
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
targets: set of 1 or more strings
NetFlow targets in the form ip:port. The ip must be
specified numerically, not as a DNS name.
engine_id: optional integer, in range 0 to 255
Engine ID to use in NetFlow messages. Defaults to datapath
index if not specified.
engine_type: optional integer, in range 0 to 255
Engine type to use in NetFlow messages. Defaults to
datapath index if not specified.
active_timeout: integer, at least -1
The interval at which NetFlow records are sent for flows
that are still active, in seconds. A value of 0 requests
the default timeout (currently 600 seconds); a value of -1
disables active timeouts.
The NetFlow passive timeout, for flows that become
inactive, is not configurable. It will vary depending on
the Open vSwitch version, the forms and contents of the
OpenFlow flow tables, CPU and memory usage, and network
activity. A typical passive timeout is about a second.
add_id_to_interface: boolean
If this column’s value is false, the ingress and egress
interface fields of NetFlow flow records are derived from
OpenFlow port numbers. When it is true, the 7 most
significant bits of these fields will be replaced by the
least significant 7 bits of the engine id. This is useful
because many NetFlow collectors do not expect multiple
switches to be sending messages from the same host, so they
do not store the engine information which could be used to
disambiguate the traffic.
When this option is enabled, a maximum of 508 ports are
supported.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Configuration for a datapath within Open_vSwitch.
A datapath is responsible for providing the packet handling in
Open vSwitch. There are two primary datapath implementations used
by Open vSwitch: kernel and userspace. Kernel datapath
implementations are available for Linux and Hyper-V, and selected
as system in the datapath_type column of the Bridge table. The
userspace datapath is used by DPDK and AF-XDP, and is selected as
netdev in the datapath_type column of the Bridge table.
A datapath of a particular type is shared by all the bridges that
use that datapath. Thus, configurations applied to this table
affect all bridges that use this datapath.
Summary:
datapath_version string
ct_zones map of integer-CT_Zone pairs, key in
range 0 to 65,535
Capabilities:
capabilities : max_vlan_headers
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
capabilities : recirc optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : lb_output_action
optional string, either true or
false
Connection-Tracking Capabilities:
capabilities : ct_state optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_state_nat
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_zone optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_mark optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_label optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_orig_tuple
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_orig_tuple6
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : masked_set_action
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : tnl_push_pop
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ufid optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : trunc optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : nd_ext optional string, either true or
false
Clone Actions:
capabilities : clone optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : sample_nesting
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
capabilities : ct_eventmask
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_clear optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : max_hash_alg
optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
capabilities : check_pkt_len
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_timeout optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : explicit_drop_action
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_zero_snat
optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : ct_flush optional string, either true or
false
capabilities : psample optional string, either true or
false
ct_zone_default_limit optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
datapath_version: string
Reports the version number of the Open vSwitch datapath in
use. This allows management software to detect and report
discrepancies between Open vSwitch userspace and datapath
versions. (The ovs_version column in the Open_vSwitch
reports the Open vSwitch userspace version.) The version
reported depends on the datapath in use:
• When the kernel module included in the Open vSwitch
source tree is used, this column reports the Open
vSwitch version from which the module was taken.
• When the kernel module that is part of the upstream
Linux kernel is used, this column reports <unknown>.
• When the datapath is built into the ovs-vswitchd
binary, this column reports <built-in>. A built-in
datapath is by definition the same version as the
rest of the Open vSwitch userspace.
• Other datapaths (such as the Hyper-V kernel
datapath) currently report <unknown>.
A version discrepancy between ovs-vswitchd and the datapath
in use is not normally cause for alarm. The Open vSwitch
kernel datapaths for Linux and Hyper-V, in particular, are
designed for maximum inter-version compatibility: any
userspace version works with with any kernel version. Some
reasons do exist to insist on particular user/kernel
pairings. First, newer kernel versions add new features,
that can only be used by new-enough userspace, e.g. VXLAN
tunneling requires certain minimal userspace and kernel
versions. Second, as an extension to the first reason, some
newer kernel versions add new features for enhancing
performance that only new-enough userspace versions can
take advantage of.
ct_zones: map of integer-CT_Zone pairs, key in range 0 to 65,535
Configuration for connection tracking zones. Each pair maps
from a zone id to a configuration for that zone. Zone 0
applies to the default zone (ie, the one used if a zone is
not specified in connection tracking-related OpenFlow
matches and actions).
Capabilities:
The capabilities column reports a datapath’s features. For the
netdev datapath, the capabilities are fixed for a given version of
Open vSwitch because this datapath is built into the ovs-vswitchd
binary. The Linux kernel and Windows and other datapaths, which
are external to OVS userspace, can vary in version and
capabilities independently from ovs-vswitchd.
Some of these features indicate whether higher-level Open vSwitch
features are available. For example, OpenFlow features for
connection-tracking are available only when capabilities:ct_state
is true. A controller that wishes to determine whether a feature
is supported could, therefore, consult the relevant capabilities
in this table. However, as a general rule, it is better for a
controller to try to use the higher-level feature and use the
result as an indication of support, since the low-level
capabilities are more likely to shift over time than the high-
level features that rely on them.
capabilities : max_vlan_headers: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Number of 802.1q VLAN headers supported by the datapath, as
probed by the ovs-vswitchd slow path. If the datapath
supports more VLAN headers than the slow path, this reports
the slow path’s limit. The value of other-config:vlan-limit
in the Open_vSwitch table does not influence the number
reported here.
capabilities : recirc: optional string, either true or false
If this is true, then the datapath supports recirculation,
specifically OVS_KEY_ATTR_RECIRC_ID. Recirculation enables
higher performance for MPLS and active-active load
balancing bonding modes.
capabilities : lb_output_action: optional string, either true or
false
If this is true, then the datapath supports optimized
balance-tcp bond mode. This capability replaces existing
hash and recirc actions with new action lb_output and
avoids recirculation of packet in datapath. It is supported
only for balance-tcp bond mode in netdev datapath. The new
action gives higher performance by using bond buckets
instead of post recirculation flows for selection of member
port from bond. By default this new action is disabled,
however it can be enabled by setting other-config:lb-
output-action in Port table.
Connection-Tracking Capabilities:
These capabilities are granular because Open vSwitch and its
datapaths added support for connection tracking over several
releases, with features added individually over that time.
capabilities : ct_state: optional string, either true or false
If true, datapath supports OVS_KEY_ATTR_CT_STATE, which
indicates support for the bits in the OpenFlow ct_state
field (see ovs-fields(7)) other than snat and dnat, which
have a separate capability.
If this is false, the datapath does not support connection-
tracking at all and the remaining connection-tracking
capabilities should all be false. In this case, Open
vSwitch will reject flows that match on the ct_state field
or use the ct action.
capabilities : ct_state_nat: optional string, either true or false
If true, it means that the datapath supports the snat and
dnat flags in the OpenFlow ct_state field. The ct_state
capability must be true for this to make sense.
If false, Open vSwitch will reject flows that match on the
snat or dnat bits in ct_state or use nat in the ct action.
capabilities : ct_zone: optional string, either true or false
If true, datapath supports OVS_KEY_ATTR_CT_ZONE. If false,
Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on the ct_zone field
or that specify a nonzero zone or a zone field on the ct
action.
capabilities : ct_mark: optional string, either true or false
If true, datapath supports OVS_KEY_ATTR_CT_MARK. If false,
Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on the ct_mark field
or that set ct_mark in the ct action.
capabilities : ct_label: optional string, either true or false
If true, datapath supports OVS_KEY_ATTR_CT_LABEL. If false,
Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on the ct_label field
or that set ct_label in the ct action.
capabilities : ct_orig_tuple: optional string, either true or
false
If true, the datapath supports matching the 5-tuple from
the connection’s original direction for IPv4 traffic. If
false, Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on ct_nw_src
or ct_nw_dst, that use the ct feature of the resubmit
action, or the force keyword in the ct action. (The latter
isn’t tied to connection tracking support of original
tuples in any technical way. They are conflated because all
current datapaths implemented the two features at the same
time.)
If this and capabilities:ct_orig_tuple6 are both false,
Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on ct_nw_proto,
ct_tp_src, or ct_tp_dst.
capabilities : ct_orig_tuple6: optional string, either true or
false
If true, the datapath supports matching the 5-tuple from
the connection’s original direction for IPv6 traffic. If
false, Open vSwitch rejects flows that match on ct_ipv6_src
or ct_ipv6_dst.
capabilities : masked_set_action: optional string, either true or
false
True if the datapath supports masked data in
OVS_ACTION_ATTR_SET actions. Masked data can improve
performance by allowing megaflows to match on fewer fields.
capabilities : tnl_push_pop: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports tnl_push and pop actions.
This is a prerequisite for a datapath to support native
tunneling.
capabilities : ufid: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_FLOW_ATTR_UFID. UFID
support improves revalidation performance by transferring
less data between the slow path and the datapath.
capabilities : trunc: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_ACTION_ATTR_TRUNC action.
If false, the output action with packet truncation requires
every packet to be sent to the Open vSwitch slow path,
which is likely to make it too slow for mirroring traffic
in bulk.
capabilities : nd_ext: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_KEY_ATTR_ND_EXTENSIONS to
match on ICMPv6 "ND reserved" and "ND option type" header
fields. If false, the datapath reports error if the feature
is used.
Clone Actions:
When Open vSwitch translates actions from OpenFlow into the
datapath representation, some of the datapath actions may modify
the packet or have other side effects that later datapath actions
can’t undo. The OpenFlow ct, meter, output with truncation, encap,
decap, and dec_nsh_ttl actions fall into this category. Often,
this is not a problem because nothing later on needs the original
packet.
Such actions can, however, occur in circumstances where the
translation does require the original packet. For example, an
OpenFlow output action might direct a packet to a patch port,
which might in turn lead to a ct action that NATs the packet
(which cannot be undone), and then afterward when control flow
pops back across the patch port some other action might need to
act on the original packet.
Open vSwitch has two different ways to implement this ``save and
restore’’ via datapath actions. These capabilities indicate which
one Open vSwitch will choose. When neither is available, Open
vSwitch simply fails in situations that require this feature.
capabilities : clone: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CLONE action.
This is the preferred option for saving and restoring
packets, since it is intended for the purpose, but old
datapaths do not support it. Open vSwitch will use it
whenever it is available.
(The OpenFlow clone action does not always yield a
OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CLONE action. It only does so when the
datapath supports it and the clone brackets actions that
otherwise cannot be undone.)
capabilities : sample_nesting: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Maximum level of nesting allowed by OVS_ACTION_ATTR_SAMPLE
action. Open vSwitch misuses this action for saving and
restoring packets when the datapath supports more than 3
levels of nesting and OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CLONE is not
available.
capabilities : ct_eventmask: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath’s OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CT action implements
the OVS_CT_ATTR_EVENTMASK attribute. When this is true,
Open vSwitch uses the event mask feature to limit the kinds
of events reported to conntrack update listeners. When Open
vSwitch doesn’t limit the event mask, listeners receive
reports of numerous usually unimportant events, such as TCP
state machine changes, which can waste CPU time.
capabilities : ct_clear: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CT_CLEAR
action. If false, the OpenFlow ct_clear action has no
effect on the datapath.
capabilities : max_hash_alg: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 0
Highest supported dp_hash algorithm. This allows Open
vSwitch to avoid requesting a packet hash that the datapath
does not support.
capabilities : check_pkt_len: optional string, either true or
false
True if the datapath supports
OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CHECK_PKT_LEN. If false, Open vSwitch
implements the check_pkt_larger action by sending every
packet through the Open vSwitch slow path, which is likely
to make it too slow for handling traffic in bulk.
capabilities : ct_timeout: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_CT_ATTR_TIMEOUT in the
OVS_ACTION_ATTR_CT action. If false, Open vswitch cannot
implement timeout policies based on connection tracking
zones, as configured through the CT_Timeout_Policy table.
capabilities : explicit_drop_action: optional string, either true
or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_ACTION_ATTR_DROP. If
false, explicit drop action will not be sent to the
datapath.
capabilities : ct_zero_snat: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports all-zero SNAT. This is a
special case if the src IP address is configured as all
0’s, i.e., nat(src=0.0.0.0). In this case, when a source
port collision is detected during the commit, the source
port will be translated to an ephemeral port. If there is
no collision, no SNAT is performed.
capabilities : ct_flush: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports CT flush OpenFlow Nicira
extension called NXT_CT_FLUSH. The NXT_CT_FLUSH extensions
allows to flush CT entries based on specified parameters.
capabilities : psample: optional string, either true or false
True if the datapath supports OVS_ACTION_ATTR_PSAMPLE. If
false, local sampling will not be supported with the Linux
kernel datapath.
ct_zone_default_limit: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
Default connection tracking zone limit that is applied to
all zones that didn’t specify the limit explicitly. If the
limit is unspecified the default limit configuration for
the datapath is left intact. The value 0 means unlimited.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Connection tracking zone configuration
Summary:
timeout_policy optional CT_Timeout_Policy
limit optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
timeout_policy: optional CT_Timeout_Policy
Connection tracking timeout policy for this zone. If a
timeout policy is not specified, it defaults to the timeout
policy in the system.
limit: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Connection tracking limit for this zone. If the limit is
unspecified the ct_zone_default_limit will be used. The
value 0 means unlimited.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Connection tracking timeout policy configuration
Summary:
Timeouts:
timeouts map of string-integer pairs, key one
of icmp_first, icmp_reply,
tcp_close, tcp_close_wait,
tcp_established, tcp_fin_wait,
tcp_last_ack, tcp_retransmit,
tcp_syn_recv, tcp_syn_sent2,
tcp_syn_sent, tcp_time_wait,
tcp_unack, udp_first, udp_multiple,
or udp_single, value in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
TCP Timeouts:
timeouts : tcp_syn_sent optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_syn_recv optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_established
optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_fin_wait optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_close_wait
optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_last_ack optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_time_wait optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_close optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_syn_sent2 optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_retransmit
optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : tcp_unack optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
UDP Timeouts:
timeouts : udp_first optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : udp_single optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : udp_multiple optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
ICMP Timeouts:
timeouts : icmp_first optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
timeouts : icmp_reply optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Timeouts:
timeouts: map of string-integer pairs, key one of icmp_first,
icmp_reply, tcp_close, tcp_close_wait, tcp_established,
tcp_fin_wait, tcp_last_ack, tcp_retransmit, tcp_syn_recv,
tcp_syn_sent2, tcp_syn_sent, tcp_time_wait, tcp_unack, udp_first,
udp_multiple, or udp_single, value in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The timeouts column contains key-value pairs used to
configure connection tracking timeouts in a datapath. Key-
value pairs that are not supported by a datapath are
ignored. The timeout value is in seconds.
TCP Timeouts:
timeouts : tcp_syn_sent: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout for the connection after the first TCP SYN
packet has been seen by conntrack.
timeouts : tcp_syn_recv: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first TCP SYN-ACK
packet has been seen by conntrack.
timeouts : tcp_established: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the connection has been
fully established.
timeouts : tcp_fin_wait: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first TCP FIN
packet has been seen by conntrack.
timeouts : tcp_close_wait: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first TCP ACK
packet has been seen after it receives TCP FIN packet. This
timeout is only supported by the Linux kernel datapath.
timeouts : tcp_last_ack: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after TCP FIN packets have
been seen by conntrack from both directions. This timeout
is only supported by the Linux kernel datapath.
timeouts : tcp_time_wait: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after conntrack has seen the
TCP ACK packet for the second TCP FIN packet.
timeouts : tcp_close: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first TCP RST
packet has been seen by conntrack.
timeouts : tcp_syn_sent2: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when only a TCP SYN packet
has been seen by conntrack from both directions
(simultaneous open). This timeout is only supported by the
Linux kernel datapath.
timeouts : tcp_retransmit: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when it exceeds the maximum
number of retransmissions. This timeout is only supported
by the Linux kernel datapath.
timeouts : tcp_unack: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when non-SYN packets create
an established connection in TCP loose tracking mode. This
timeout is only supported by the Linux kernel datapath.
UDP Timeouts:
timeouts : udp_first: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first UDP packet
has been seen by conntrack. This timeout is only supported
by the userspace datapath.
timeouts : udp_single: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when conntrack only seen UDP
packet from the source host, but the destination host has
never sent one back.
timeouts : udp_multiple: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when UDP packets have been
seen in both directions.
ICMP Timeouts:
timeouts : icmp_first: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection after the first ICMP packet
has been seen by conntrack.
timeouts : icmp_reply: optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
The timeout of the connection when ICMP packets have been
seen in both direction. This timeout is only supported by
the userspace datapath.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
SSL/TLS configuration for an Open_vSwitch.
Summary:
private_key string
certificate string
ca_cert string
bootstrap_ca_cert boolean
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
private_key: string
Name of a PEM file containing the private key used as the
switch’s identity for SSL/TLS connections to the
controller.
certificate: string
Name of a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the
certificate authority (CA) used by the controller and
manager, that certifies the switch’s private key,
identifying a trustworthy switch.
ca_cert: string
Name of a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to
verify that the switch is connected to a trustworthy
controller.
bootstrap_ca_cert: boolean
If set to true, then Open vSwitch will attempt to obtain
the CA certificate from the controller on its first SSL/TLS
connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is
successful, it will immediately drop the connection and
reconnect, and from then on all SSL/TLS connections must be
authenticated by a certificate signed by the CA certificate
thus obtained. This option exposes the SSL/TLS connection
to a man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the initial CA
certificate. It may still be useful for bootstrapping.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
A set of sFlow(R) targets. sFlow is a protocol for remote
monitoring of switches.
Summary:
agent optional string
header optional integer
polling optional integer
sampling optional integer
targets set of 1 or more strings
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
agent: optional string
Determines the agent address, that is, the IP address
reported to collectors as the source of the sFlow data. It
may be an IP address or the name of a network device. In
the latter case, the network device’s IP address is used,
If not specified, the agent device is figured from the
first target address and the routing table. If the routing
table does not contain a route to the target, the IP
address defaults to the local_ip in the collector’s
Controller.
If an agent IP address cannot be determined, sFlow is
disabled.
header: optional integer
Number of bytes of a sampled packet to send to the
collector. If not specified, the default is 128 bytes.
polling: optional integer
Polling rate in seconds to send port statistics to the
collector. If not specified, defaults to 30 seconds.
sampling: optional integer
Rate at which packets should be sampled and sent to the
collector. If not specified, defaults to 400, which means
one out of 400 packets, on average, will be sent to the
collector.
targets: set of 1 or more strings
sFlow targets in the form ip:port.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Configuration for sending packets to IPFIX collectors.
IPFIX is a protocol that exports a number of details about flows.
The IPFIX implementation in Open vSwitch samples packets at a
configurable rate, extracts flow information from those packets,
optionally caches and aggregates the flow information, and sends
the result to one or more collectors.
IPFIX in Open vSwitch can be configured two different ways:
• With per-bridge sampling, Open vSwitch performs
IPFIX sampling automatically on all packets that
pass through a bridge. To configure per-bridge
sampling, create an IPFIX record and point a Bridge
table’s ipfix column to it. The
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set table is not used for per-
bridge sampling.
• With flow-based sampling, sample actions in the
OpenFlow flow table drive IPFIX sampling. See
ovs-actions(7) for a description of the sample
action.
Flow-based sampling also requires database
configuration: create a IPFIX record that describes
the IPFIX configuration and a
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set record that points to the
Bridge whose flow table holds the sample actions and
to IPFIX record. The ipfix in the Bridge table is
not used for flow-based sampling.
Summary:
targets set of strings
cache_active_timeout optional integer, in range 0 to
4,200
cache_max_flows optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
stats_interval optional integer, in range 1 to
3,600
template_interval optional integer, in range 1 to
3,600
other_config : enable-tunnel-sampling
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : virtual_obs_id optional string
Per-Bridge Sampling:
sampling optional integer, in range 1 to
4,294,967,295
obs_domain_id optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
obs_point_id optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
other_config : enable-input-sampling
optional string, either true or
false
other_config : enable-output-sampling
optional string, either true or
false
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
targets: set of strings
IPFIX target collectors in the form ip:port.
cache_active_timeout: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,200
The maximum period in seconds for which an IPFIX flow
record is cached and aggregated before being sent. If not
specified, defaults to 0. If 0, caching is disabled.
cache_max_flows: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The maximum number of IPFIX flow records that can be cached
at a time. If not specified, defaults to 0. If 0, caching
is disabled.
stats_interval: optional integer, in range 1 to 3,600
Interval (in seconds) for sending IPFIX exporting process
statistics according to IETF RFC 5101 Section 4.3.
Default value is 600
template_interval: optional integer, in range 1 to 3,600
Interval (in seconds) for sending IPFIX Template
information for each Observation Domain ID.
Default value is 600
other_config : enable-tunnel-sampling: optional string, either
true or false
Set to true to enable sampling and reporting tunnel header
7-tuples in IPFIX flow records. Tunnel sampling is enabled
by default.
The following enterprise entities report the sampled tunnel
info:
tunnelType:
ID: 891, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 8-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: Identifier of the layer 2 network
overlay network encapsulation type: 0x01 VxLAN, 0x02
GRE, 0x07 GENEVE.
tunnelKey:
ID: 892, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: variable-length octetarray.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: Key which is used for identifying an
individual traffic flow within a VxLAN (24-bit VNI),
GENEVE (24-bit VNI), or GRE (32-bit key) tunnel. The
key is encoded in this octetarray as a 3- or 4-byte
integer ID in network byte order.
tunnelSourceIPv4Address:
ID: 893, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 32-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: The IPv4 source address in the tunnel
IP packet header.
tunnelDestinationIPv4Address:
ID: 894, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 32-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: The IPv4 destination address in the
tunnel IP packet header.
tunnelProtocolIdentifier:
ID: 895, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 8-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: The value of the protocol number in the
tunnel IP packet header. The protocol number
identifies the tunnel IP packet payload type.
tunnelSourceTransportPort:
ID: 896, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 16-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: The source port identifier in the
tunnel transport header. For the transport protocols
UDP, TCP, and SCTP, this is the source port number
given in the respective header.
tunnelDestinationTransportPort:
ID: 897, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: unsigned 16-bit integer.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: The destination port identifier in the
tunnel transport header. For the transport protocols
UDP, TCP, and SCTP, this is the destination port
number given in the respective header.
Before Open vSwitch 2.5.90, other_config:enable-tunnel-
sampling was only supported with per-bridge sampling, and
ignored otherwise. Open vSwitch 2.5.90 and later support
other_config:enable-tunnel-sampling for per-bridge and per-
flow sampling.
other_config : virtual_obs_id: optional string
A string that accompanies each IPFIX flow record. Its
intended use is for the ``virtual observation ID,’’ an
identifier of a virtual observation point that is locally
unique in a virtual network. It describes a location in the
virtual network where IP packets can be observed. The
maximum length is 254 bytes. If not specified, the field is
omitted from the IPFIX flow record.
The following enterprise entity reports the specified
virtual observation ID:
virtualObsID:
ID: 898, and enterprise ID 6876 (VMware).
type: variable-length string.
data type semantics: identifier.
description: A virtual observation domain ID that is
locally unique in a virtual network.
This feature was introduced in Open vSwitch 2.5.90.
Per-Bridge Sampling:
These values affect only per-bridge sampling. See above for a
description of the differences between per-bridge and flow-based
sampling.
sampling: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,294,967,295
The rate at which packets should be sampled and sent to
each target collector. If not specified, defaults to 400,
which means one out of 400 packets, on average, will be
sent to each target collector.
obs_domain_id: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The IPFIX Observation Domain ID sent in each IPFIX packet.
If not specified, defaults to 0.
obs_point_id: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The IPFIX Observation Point ID sent in each IPFIX flow
record. If not specified, defaults to 0.
other_config : enable-input-sampling: optional string, either true
or false
By default, Open vSwitch samples and reports flows at
bridge port input in IPFIX flow records. Set this column to
false to disable input sampling.
other_config : enable-output-sampling: optional string, either
true or false
By default, Open vSwitch samples and reports flows at
bridge port output in IPFIX flow records. Set this column
to false to disable output sampling.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
A set of IPFIX or local sampling collectors of packet samples
generated by OpenFlow sample actions.
If the column ipfix contains a reference to a valid IPFIX entry,
samples will be emitted via IPFIX. This mechanism is known as
flow-based IPFIX sampling, as opposed to bridge-based sampling
(see the IPFIX table for a description of the two forms).
If the column local_group_id contains an integer and the running
datapath supports local sample emission, packets will be sent to
some local sample collector. Samples will contain the group number
specified by local_group_id which helps identify their source as
well as a 64-bit cookie result from the concatenation of the
observation_domain_id an the observation_point_id in network byte
order. The way the sample is emitted and made available for local
collectors is datapath-specific. Currently only Linux kernel
datapath supports local sampling which is implemented by sending
the packet to the psample netlink multicast group.
Note: both local_group_id and ipfix can be configured
simultaneously.
Summary:
id integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
bridge Bridge
ipfix optional IPFIX
local_group_id optional integer, in range 0 to
4,294,967,295
Common Columns:
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
id: integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
The ID of this collector set, unique among the bridge’s
collector sets, to be used as the collector_set_id in
OpenFlow sample actions.
bridge: Bridge
The bridge into which OpenFlow sample actions can be added
to send packet samples to this set of IPFIX collectors.
ipfix: optional IPFIX
Configuration of the set of IPFIX collectors to send one
flow record per sampled packet to.
local_group_id: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
Configuration of the sample group id to be used in local
sampling.
Common Columns:
The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common
Columns at the beginning of this document.
external_ids: map of string-string pairs
Auto Attach configuration within a bridge. The IETF Auto-Attach
SPBM draft standard describes a compact method of using IEEE
802.1AB Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) together with a IEEE
802.1aq Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) network to automatically
attach network devices to individual services in a SPB network.
The intent here is to allow network applications and devices using
OVS to be able to easily take advantage of features offered by
industry standard SPB networks.
Auto Attach (AA) uses LLDP to communicate between a directly
connected Auto Attach Client (AAC) and Auto Attach Server (AAS).
The LLDP protocol is extended to add two new Type-Length-Value
tuples (TLVs). The first new TLV supports the ongoing discovery of
directly connected AA correspondents. Auto Attach operates by
regularly transmitting AA discovery TLVs between the AA client and
AA server. By exchanging these discovery messages, both the AAC
and AAS learn the system name and system description of their
peer. In the OVS context, OVS operates as the AA client and the AA
server resides on a switch at the edge of the SPB network.
Once AA discovery has been completed the AAC then uses the second
new TLV to deliver identifier mappings from the AAC to the AAS. A
primary feature of Auto Attach is to facilitate the mapping of
VLANs defined outside the SPB network onto service ids (ISIDs)
defined within the SPM network. By doing so individual external
VLANs can be mapped onto specific SPB network services. These VLAN
id to ISID mappings can be configured and managed locally using
new options added to the ovs-vsctl command.
The Auto Attach OVS feature does not provide a full implementation
of the LLDP protocol. Support for the mandatory TLVs as defined by
the LLDP standard and support for the AA TLV extensions is
provided. LLDP protocol support in OVS can be enabled or disabled
on a port by port basis. LLDP support is disabled by default.
Summary:
system_name string
system_description string
mappings map of integer-integer pairs, key in
range 0 to 16,777,215, value in
range 0 to 4,095
Details:
system_name: string
The system_name string is exported in LLDP messages. It
should uniquely identify the bridge in the network.
system_description: string
The system_description string is exported in LLDP messages.
It should describe the type of software and hardware.
mappings: map of integer-integer pairs, key in range 0 to
16,777,215, value in range 0 to 4,095
A mapping from SPB network Individual Service Identifier
(ISID) to VLAN id.
This page is part of the Open vSwitch (a distributed virtual
multilayer switch) project. Information about the project can be
found at ⟨http://openvswitch.org/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, send it to bugs@openvswitch.org. This page was
obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨https://github.com/openvswitch/ovs.git⟩ on 2025-08-11. (At that
time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
repository was 2025-07-31.) If you discover any rendering
problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is
a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
(which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
man-pages@man7.org
Open vSwitch 3.6.90 DB Schema 8.8.0 ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)
Pages that refer to this page: ovn-sb(5), ovn-architecture(7), ovs-actions(7), ovsdb(7), ovs-fields(7), ovn-controller(8), ovs-dpctl(8), ovs-ofctl(8), ovs-vsctl(8), ovs-vswitchd(8)
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