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