1 How to Install Open vSwitch on Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD
2 ========================================================
4 This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a
5 generic Linux, FreeBSD, or NetBSD host. For specifics around installation
6 on a specific platform, please see one of these files:
18 To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution,
19 you will need the following software:
23 - A C compiler, such as:
27 * Clang. Clang 3.4 and later provide useful static semantic
28 analysis and thread-safety checks. For Ubuntu, there are
29 nightly built packages available on clang's website.
31 - libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to
32 connect the Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is
33 required to establish confidentiality and authenticity in the
34 connections from an Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. If
35 libssl is installed, then Open vSwitch will automatically build
38 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
40 On Linux, you may choose to compile the kernel module that comes with
41 the Open vSwitch distribution or to use the kernel module built into
42 the Linux kernel (version 3.3 or later). See the FAQ question "What
43 features are not available in the Open vSwitch kernel datapath that
44 ships as part of the upstream Linux kernel?" for more information on
45 this trade-off. You may also use the userspace-only implementation,
46 at some cost in features and performance (see INSTALL.userspace for
47 details). To compile the kernel module on Linux, you must also
48 install the following:
50 - A supported Linux kernel version. Please refer to README for a
51 list of supported versions.
53 The Open vSwitch datapath requires bridging support
54 (CONFIG_BRIDGE) to be built as a kernel module. (This is common
55 in kernels provided by Linux distributions.) The bridge module
56 must not be loaded or in use. If the bridge module is running
57 (check with "lsmod | grep bridge"), you must remove it ("rmmod
58 bridge") before starting the datapath.
60 For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel
61 configuration options NET_CLS_BASIC, NET_SCH_INGRESS, and
62 NET_ACT_POLICE, either built-in or as modules. (NET_CLS_POLICE is
63 obsolete and not needed.)
65 To use GRE tunneling on Linux 2.6.37 or newer, kernel support
66 for GRE must be compiled in or available as a module
67 (CONFIG_NET_IPGRE_DEMUX).
69 To configure HTB or HFSC quality of service with Open vSwitch,
70 you must enable the respective configuration options.
72 To use Open vSwitch support for TAP devices, you must enable
75 - To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that
76 was used to build that kernel.
78 - A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image
79 the module is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example,
80 each linux-image package containing a kernel binary has a
81 corresponding linux-headers package with the required build
84 If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a
85 distribution tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system
86 or the database schema, you will also need the following software:
88 - Autoconf version 2.64 or later.
90 - Automake version 1.10 or later.
92 - libtool version 2.4 or later. (Older versions might work too.)
94 To run the unit tests, you also need:
96 - Perl. Version 5.10.1 is known to work. Earlier versions should
99 The ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage will include an E-R diagram, in
100 formats other than plain text, only if you have the following:
102 - "dot" from graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/).
104 - Perl. Version 5.10.1 is known to work. Earlier versions should
107 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
109 If you are going to extensively modify Open vSwitch, please consider
110 installing the following to obtain better warnings:
112 - "sparse" version 0.4.4 or later
113 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/devel/sparse/dist/).
117 - clang, version 3.4 or later
119 Also, you may find the ovs-dev script found in utilities/ovs-dev.py useful.
121 Installation Requirements
122 -------------------------
124 The machine on which Open vSwitch is to be installed must have the
127 - libc compatible with the libc used for build.
129 - libssl compatible with the libssl used for build, if OpenSSL was
132 - On Linux, the same kernel version configured as part of the build.
134 - For optional support of ingress policing on Linux, the "tc" program
135 from iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at
136 http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2).
138 On Linux you should ensure that /dev/urandom exists. To support TAP
139 devices, you must also ensure that /dev/net/tun exists.
141 Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD
142 =================================================================
144 Once you have installed all the prerequisites listed above in the Base
145 Prerequisites section, follow the procedure below to build.
147 1. If you pulled the sources directly from an Open vSwitch Git tree,
148 run boot.sh in the top source directory:
152 2. In the top source directory, configure the package by running the
153 configure script. You can usually invoke configure without any
158 By default all files are installed under /usr/local. If you want
159 to install into, e.g., /usr and /var instead of /usr/local and
160 /usr/local/var, add options as shown here:
162 % ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var
164 To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user
165 programs, also specify it on the configure command line, like so:
167 % ./configure CC=gcc-4.2
169 To use 'clang' compiler:
171 % ./configure CC=clang
173 To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the
174 kernel-based switch, pass the location of the kernel build
175 directory on --with-linux. For example, to build for a running
178 % ./configure --with-linux=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
180 If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other
181 than the architecture of the machine used for the build, you may
182 specify the kernel architecture string using the KARCH variable
183 when invoking the configure script. For example, to build for MIPS
186 % ./configure --with-linux=/path/to/linux KARCH=mips
188 If you plan to do much Open vSwitch development, you might want to
189 add --enable-Werror, which adds the -Werror option to the compiler
190 command line, turning warnings into errors. That makes it
191 impossible to miss warnings generated by the build.
193 To build with gcov code coverage support, add --enable-coverage,
196 % ./configure --enable-coverage
198 The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors
199 additional environment variables. For a full list, invoke
200 configure with the --help option.
202 3. Run GNU make in the top source directory, e.g.:
206 or if GNU make is installed as "gmake":
210 For improved warnings if you installed "sparse" (see
211 "Prerequisites"), add C=1 to the command line.
213 4. Consider running the testsuite. Refer to "Running the Testsuite"
214 below, for instructions.
216 5. Become root by running "su" or another program.
218 6. Run "make install" to install the executables and manpages into the
219 running system, by default under /usr/local.
221 7. If you built kernel modules, you may install and load them, e.g.:
223 % make modules_install
224 % /sbin/modprobe openvswitch
226 To verify that the modules have been loaded, run "/sbin/lsmod" and
227 check that openvswitch is listed.
229 If the "modprobe" operation fails, look at the last few kernel log
230 messages (e.g. with "dmesg | tail"):
232 - The message "openvswitch: exports duplicate symbol
233 br_should_route_hook (owned by bridge)" means that the bridge
234 module is loaded. Run "/sbin/rmmod bridge" to remove it.
236 If "/sbin/rmmod bridge" fails with "ERROR: Module bridge does
237 not exist in /proc/modules", then the bridge is compiled into
238 the kernel, rather than as a module. Open vSwitch does not
239 support this configuration (see "Build Requirements", above).
241 - The message "openvswitch: exports duplicate symbol
242 dp_ioctl_hook (owned by ofdatapath)" means that the ofdatapath
243 module from the OpenFlow reference implementation is loaded.
244 Run "/sbin/rmmod ofdatapath" to remove it. (You might have to
245 delete any existing datapaths beforehand, using the "dpctl"
246 program included with the OpenFlow reference implementation.
247 "ovs-dpctl" will not work.)
249 - Otherwise, the most likely problem is that Open vSwitch was
250 built for a kernel different from the one into which you are
251 trying to load it. Run "modinfo" on openvswitch.ko and on
252 a module built for the running kernel, e.g.:
254 % /sbin/modinfo openvswitch.ko
255 % /sbin/modinfo /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/net/bridge/bridge.ko
257 Compare the "vermagic" lines output by the two commands. If
258 they differ, then Open vSwitch was built for the wrong kernel.
260 - If you decide to report a bug or ask a question related to
261 module loading, please include the output from the "dmesg" and
262 "modinfo" commands mentioned above.
264 There is an optional module parameter to openvswitch.ko called
265 vlan_tso that enables TCP segmentation offload over VLANs on NICs
266 that support it. Many drivers do not expose support for TSO on VLANs
267 in a way that Open vSwitch can use but there is no way to detect
268 whether this is the case. If you know that your particular driver can
269 handle it (for example by testing sending large TCP packets over VLANs)
270 then passing in a value of 1 may improve performance. Modules built for
271 Linux kernels 2.6.37 and later, as well as specially patched versions
272 of earlier kernels, do not need this and do not have this parameter. If
273 you do not understand what this means or do not know if your driver
274 will work, do not set this.
276 8. Initialize the configuration database using ovsdb-tool, e.g.:
278 % mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/openvswitch
279 % ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
284 Before starting ovs-vswitchd itself, you need to start its
285 configuration database, ovsdb-server. Each machine on which Open
286 vSwitch is installed should run its own copy of ovsdb-server.
287 Configure it to use the database you created during installation (as
288 explained above), to listen on a Unix domain socket, to connect to any
289 managers specified in the database itself, and to use the SSL
290 configuration in the database:
292 % ovsdb-server --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock \
293 --remote=db:Open_vSwitch,Open_vSwitch,manager_options \
294 --private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key \
295 --certificate=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,certificate \
296 --bootstrap-ca-cert=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,ca_cert \
299 (If you built Open vSwitch without SSL support, then omit
300 --private-key, --certificate, and --bootstrap-ca-cert.)
302 Then initialize the database using ovs-vsctl. This is only
303 necessary the first time after you create the database with
304 ovsdb-tool (but running it at any time is harmless):
306 % ovs-vsctl --no-wait init
308 Then start the main Open vSwitch daemon, telling it to connect to the
309 same Unix domain socket:
311 % ovs-vswitchd --pidfile --detach
313 Now you may use ovs-vsctl to set up bridges and other Open vSwitch
314 features. For example, to create a bridge named br0 and add ports
315 eth0 and vif1.0 to it:
317 % ovs-vsctl add-br br0
318 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0
319 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 vif1.0
321 Please refer to ovs-vsctl(8) for more details.
326 When you upgrade Open vSwitch from one version to another, you should
327 also upgrade the database schema:
329 1. Stop the Open vSwitch daemons, e.g.:
331 % kill `cd /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch && cat ovsdb-server.pid ovs-vswitchd.pid`
333 2. Install the new Open vSwitch release.
335 3. Upgrade the database, in one of the following two ways:
337 - If there is no important data in your database, then you may
338 delete the database file and recreate it with ovsdb-tool,
339 following the instructions under "Building and Installing Open
340 vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD".
342 - If you want to preserve the contents of your database, back it
343 up first, then use "ovsdb-tool convert" to upgrade it, e.g.:
345 % ovsdb-tool convert /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
347 4. Start the Open vSwitch daemons as described under "Building and
348 Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD" above.
352 Upgrading Open vSwitch from one version to the next version with minimum
353 disruption of traffic going through the system that is using that Open vSwitch
354 needs some considerations:
356 1. If the upgrade only involves upgrading the userspace utilities and daemons
357 of Open vSwitch, make sure that the new userspace version is compatible with
358 the previously loaded kernel module.
360 2. An upgrade of userspace daemons means that they have to be restarted.
361 Restarting the daemons means that the Openflow flows in the ovs-vswitchd daemon
362 will be lost. One way to restore the flows is to let the controller
363 re-populate it. Another way is to save the previous flows using a utility
364 like ovs-ofctl and then re-add them after the restart. Restoring the old flows
365 is accurate only if the new Open vSwitch interfaces retain the old 'ofport'
368 3. When the new userspace daemons get restarted, they automatically flush
369 the old flows setup in the kernel. This can be expensive if there are hundreds
370 of new flows that are entering the kernel but userspace daemons are busy
371 setting up new userspace flows from either the controller or an utility like
372 ovs-ofctl. Open vSwitch database provides an option to solve this problem
373 through the other_config:flow-restore-wait column of the Open_vSwitch table.
374 Refer to the ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage for details.
376 4. If the upgrade also involves upgrading the kernel module, the old kernel
377 module needs to be unloaded and the new kernel module should be loaded. This
378 means that the kernel network devices belonging to Open vSwitch is recreated
379 and the kernel flows are lost. The downtime of the traffic can be reduced
380 if the userspace daemons are restarted immediately and the userspace flows
381 are restored as soon as possible.
383 The ovs-ctl utility's "restart" function only restarts the userspace daemons,
384 makes sure that the 'ofport' values remain consistent across restarts, restores
385 userspace flows using the ovs-ofctl utility and also uses the
386 other_config:flow-restore-wait column to keep the traffic downtime to the
387 minimum. The ovs-ctl utility's "force-reload-kmod" function does all of the
388 above, but also replaces the old kernel module with the new one. Open vSwitch
389 startup scripts for Debian, XenServer and RHEL use ovs-ctl's functions and it
390 is recommended that these functions be used for other software platforms too.
395 This section describe Open vSwitch's built-in support for various test
396 suites. You must configure and build Open vSwitch (steps 1 through 3
397 in "Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD"
398 above) before you run the tests described here. You do not need to
399 install Open vSwitch or to build or load the kernel module to run
400 these test suites. You do not need supervisor privilege to run these
406 Open vSwitch includes a suite of self-tests. Before you submit patches
407 upstream, we advise that you run the tests and ensure that they pass.
408 If you add new features to Open vSwitch, then adding tests for those
409 features will ensure your features don't break as developers modify
410 other areas of Open vSwitch.
412 Refer to "Testsuites" above for prerequisites.
414 To run all the unit tests in Open vSwitch, one at a time:
416 This takes under 5 minutes on a modern desktop system.
418 To run all the unit tests in Open vSwitch, up to 8 in parallel:
419 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=-j8
420 This takes under a minute on a modern 4-core desktop system.
422 To see a list of all the available tests, run:
423 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=--list
425 To run only a subset of tests, e.g. test 123 and tests 477 through 484:
426 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='123 477-484'
427 (Tests do not have inter-dependencies, so you may run any subset.)
429 To run tests matching a keyword, e.g. "ovsdb":
430 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='-k ovsdb'
432 To see a complete list of test options:
433 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=--help
435 The results of a testing run are reported in tests/testsuite.log.
436 Please report test failures as bugs and include the testsuite.log in
439 If you have "valgrind" installed, then you can also run the testsuite
440 under valgrind by using "make check-valgrind" in place of "make
441 check". All the same options are available via TESTSUITEFLAGS. When
442 you do this, the "valgrind" results for test <N> are reported in files
443 named tests/testsuite.dir/<N>/valgrind.*. You may find that the
444 valgrind results are easier to interpret if you put "-q" in
445 ~/.valgrindrc, since that reduces the amount of output.
447 Sometimes a few tests may fail on some runs but not others. This is
448 usually a bug in the testsuite, not a bug in Open vSwitch itself. If
449 you find that a test fails intermittently, please report it, since the
450 developers may not have noticed.
455 OFTest is an OpenFlow protocol testing suite. Open vSwitch includes a
456 Makefile target to run OFTest with Open vSwitch in "dummy mode". In
457 this mode of testing, no packets travel across physical or virtual
458 networks. Instead, Unix domain sockets stand in as simulated
459 networks. This simulation is imperfect, but it is much easier to set
460 up, does not require extra physical or virtual hardware, and does not
461 require supervisor privileges.
463 To run OFTest with Open vSwitch, first read and follow the
464 instructions under "Testsuites" above. Second, obtain a copy of
465 OFTest and install its prerequisites. You need a copy of OFTest that
466 includes commit 406614846c5 (make ovs-dummy platform work again).
467 This commit was merged into the OFTest repository on Feb 1, 2013, so
468 any copy of OFTest more recent than that should work. Testing OVS in
469 dummy mode does not require root privilege, so you may ignore that
472 Optionally, add the top-level OFTest directory (containing the "oft"
473 program) to your $PATH. This slightly simplifies running OFTest later.
475 To run OFTest in dummy mode, run the following command from your Open
476 vSwitch build directory:
477 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary>
478 where <oft-binary> is the absolute path to the "oft" program in
481 If you added "oft" to your $PATH, you may omit the OFT variable
484 By default, "check-oftest" passes "oft" just enough options to enable
485 dummy mode. You can use OFTFLAGS to pass additional options. For
486 example, to run just the basic.Echo test instead of all tests (the
487 default) and enable verbose logging:
488 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary> OFTFLAGS='--verbose -T basic.Echo'
490 If you use OFTest that does not include commit 4d1f3eb2c792 (oft:
491 change default port to 6653), merged into the OFTest repository in
492 October 2013, then you need to add an option to use the IETF-assigned
494 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary> OFTFLAGS='--port=6653'
496 Please interpret OFTest results cautiously. Open vSwitch can fail a
497 given test in OFTest for many reasons, including bugs in Open vSwitch,
498 bugs in OFTest, bugs in the "dummy mode" integration, and differing
499 interpretations of the OpenFlow standard and other standards.
501 Open vSwitch has not been validated against OFTest. Please do report
502 test failures that you believe to represent bugs in Open vSwitch.
503 Include the precise versions of Open vSwitch and OFTest in your bug
504 report, plus any other information needed to reproduce the problem.
509 Ryu is an OpenFlow controller written in Python that includes an
510 extensive OpenFlow testsuite. Open vSwitch includes a Makefile target
511 to run Ryu in "dummy mode". See "OFTest" above for an explanation of
514 To run Ryu tests with Open vSwitch, first read and follow the
515 instructions under "Testsuites" above. Second, obtain a copy of Ryu,
516 install its prerequisites, and build it. You do not need to install
517 Ryu (some of the tests do not get installed, so it does not help).
519 To run Ryu tests, run the following command from your Open vSwitch
521 make check-ryu RYUDIR=<ryu-source-dir>
522 where <ryu-source-dir> is the absolute path to the root of the Ryu
523 source distribution. The default <ryu-source-dir> is $srcdir/../ryu
524 where $srcdir is your Open vSwitch source directory, so if this
525 default is correct then you make simply run "make check-ryu".
527 Open vSwitch has not been validated against Ryu. Please do report
528 test failures that you believe to represent bugs in Open vSwitch.
529 Include the precise versions of Open vSwitch and Ryu in your bug
530 report, plus any other information needed to reproduce the problem.
535 Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.