INSTALL.RHEL

   1        How to Install Open vSwitch on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
   2        =======================================================
   3
   4 This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a Red
   5 Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) host.  If you want to install Open vSwitch
   6 on a generic Linux host, see INSTALL instead.
   7
   8 We have tested these instructions with RHEL 5.6 and RHEL 6.0.
   9
  10 Building Open vSwitch for RHEL
  11 ------------------------------
  12
  13 You may build from an Open vSwitch distribution tarball or from an
  14 Open vSwitch Git tree.
  15
  16 Before you begin, note the RPM source directory on your version of
  17 RHEL.  On RHEL 5, the default RPM source directory is
  18 /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES.  On RHEL 6, it is $HOME/rpmbuild/SOURCES.
  19
  20 1. If you are building from a distribution tarball, proceed to step 2.
  21    Otherwise, if you are building from an Open vSwitch Git tree,
  22    determine the version of Autoconf available in the RHEL version you
  23    are using.  If it is not at least version 2.64, then you have two
  24    choices:
  25
  26      a. Install Autoconf 2.64 or later, one way or another.
  27
  28      b. Create a distribution tarball on some other machine, by
  29         running "./boot.sh; ./configure; make dist" in the Git tree.
  30         You must run this on a machine that has the tools listed in
  31         INSTALL as prerequisites for building from a Git tree.
  32         Afterward, proceed with the rest of the instructions using the
  33         distribution tarball.
  34
  35 2. Install build prerequisites:
  36
  37    yum install gcc make python-devel openssl-devel kernel-devel \
  38        kernel-debug-devel autoconf automake rpm-build redhat-rpm-config
  39
  40 3. Some versions of the RHEL 6 kernel-devel package contain a broken
  41    "build" symlink.  If you are using such a version, you must fix
  42    the problem before continuing.
  43
  44    To find out whether you are affected, run:
  45
  46        cd /lib/modules/<version>
  47        ls -l build/
  48
  49    where <version> is the version number of the RHEL 6 kernel.  (The
  50    trailing slash in the final command is important.  Be sure to include
  51    it.)  If the "ls" command produces a directory listing, your
  52    kernel-devel package is OK.  If it produces a "No such file or
  53    directory" error, your kernel-devel package is buggy.
  54
  55    If your kernel-devel package is buggy, then you can fix it with:
  56
  57        cd /lib/modules/<version>
  58        rm build
  59        ln -s /usr/src/kernels/<target> build
  60
  61    where <target> is the name of an existing directory under
  62    /usr/src/kernels, whose name should be similar to <version> but may
  63    contain some extra parts.  Once you have done this, verify the fix with
  64    the same procedure you used above to check for the problem.
  65
  66 4. If you are building from an Open vSwitch Git tree, then you will
  67    need to first create a distribution tarball by running "./boot.sh;
  68    ./configure; make dist" in the Git tree.
  69
  70 5. Copy the distribution tarball into the RPM source directory.
  71
  72 6. Unpack the distribution tarball into a temporary directory and "cd"
  73    into the root of the distribution tarball.
  74
  75 7. To build Open vSwitch userspace, run:
  76
  77        rpmbuild -bb rhel/openvswitch.spec
  78
  79    This produces two RPMs: "openvswitch" and "openvswitch-debuginfo".
  80
  81    If the build fails with "configure: error: source dir
  82    /lib/modules/2.6.32-279.el6.x86_64/build doesn't exist" or similar,
  83    then the kernel-devel package is missing or buggy.  Go back to step
  84    1 or 2 and fix the problem.
  85
  86 8. On RHEL 6, to build the Open vSwitch kernel module, copy
  87     rhel/openvswitch-kmod.files into the RPM source directory and run:
  88
  89         rpmbuild -bb rhel/openvswitch-kmod-rhel6.spec
  90
  91     You might have to specify a kernel version and/or variants, e.g.:
  92
  93         rpmbuild -bb \
  94                 -D "kversion 2.6.32-131.6.1.el6.x86_64" \
  95                 -D "kflavors default debug kdump" \
  96                 rhel/openvswitch-kmod-rhel6.spec
  97
  98     This produces an "kmod-openvswitch" RPM for each kernel variant,
  99     in this example: "kmod-openvswitch", "kmod-openvswitch-debug", and
 100     "kmod-openvswitch-kdump".
 101
 102 A RHEL host has default firewall rules that prevent any Open vSwitch tunnel
 103 traffic from passing through. If a user configures Open vSwitch tunnels like
 104 GRE, VXLAN, LISP etc., they will either have to manually add iptables firewall
 105 rules to allow the tunnel traffic or add it through a startup script (Please
 106 refer to the "enable-protocol" command in the ovs-ctl(8) manpage).
 107
 108 Red Hat Network Scripts Integration
 109 -----------------------------------
 110
 111 Simple integration with Red Hat network scripts has been implemented.
 112 Please read rhel/README.RHEL in the source tree or
 113 /usr/share/doc/openvswitch/README.RHEL in the installed openvswitch
 114 package for details.
 115
 116 Reporting Bugs
 117 --------------
 118
 119 Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.