vswitchd/ovs-vswitchd.8.in

   1 .\" -*- nroff -*-
   2 .so lib/ovs.tmac
   3 .TH ovs\-vswitchd 8 "@VERSION@" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
   4 .\" This program's name:
   5 .ds PN ovs\-vswitchd
   6 .
   7 .SH NAME
   8 ovs\-vswitchd \- Open vSwitch daemon
   9 .
  10 .SH SYNOPSIS
  11 \fBovs\-vswitchd \fR[\fIdatabase\fR]
  12 .
  13 .SH DESCRIPTION
  14 A daemon that manages and controls any number of Open vSwitch switches
  15 on the local machine.
  16 .PP
  17 The \fIdatabase\fR argument specifies how \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR connects
  18 to \fBovsdb\-server\fR.  \fIdatabase\fR may be an OVSDB active or
  19 passive connection method, as described in \fBovsdb\fR(7).  The
  20 default is \fBunix:@RUNDIR@/db.sock\fR.
  21 .PP
  22 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR retrieves its configuration from \fIdatabase\fR at
  23 startup.  It sets up Open vSwitch datapaths and then operates
  24 switching across each bridge described in its configuration files.  As
  25 the database changes, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR automatically updates its
  26 configuration to match.
  27 .PP
  28 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR switches may be configured with any of the following
  29 features:
  30 .
  31 .IP \(bu
  32 L2 switching with MAC learning.
  33 .
  34 .IP \(bu
  35 NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX load
  36 balancing ("SLB").
  37 .
  38 .IP \(bu
  39 802.1Q VLAN support.
  40 .
  41 .IP \(bu
  42 Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
  43 .
  44 .IP \(bu
  45 NetFlow v5 flow logging.
  46 .
  47 .IP \(bu
  48 sFlow(R) monitoring.
  49 .
  50 .IP \(bu
  51 Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
  52 .
  53 .PP
  54 Only a single instance of \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is intended to run at a time.
  55 A single \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR can manage any number of switch instances, up
  56 to the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
  57 .PP
  58 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch
  59 datapaths itself.  Thus, \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8) (and its userspace
  60 datapath counterparts accessible via \fBovs\-appctl
  61 dpctl/\fIcommand\fR) are not needed with \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR and should
  62 not be used because they can interfere with its operation.  These
  63 tools are still useful for diagnostics.
  64 .PP
  65 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR
  66 to be useful.  Refer to the documentation for instructions on how to build and
  67 load the Open vSwitch kernel module.
  68 .PP
  69 .SH OPTIONS
  70 .IP "\fB\-\-mlockall\fR"
  71 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to call the \fBmlockall()\fR function, to
  72 attempt to lock all of its process memory into physical RAM,
  73 preventing the kernel from paging any of its memory to disk.  This
  74 helps to avoid networking interruptions due to system memory pressure.
  75 .IP
  76 Some systems do not support \fBmlockall()\fR at all, and other systems
  77 only allow privileged users, such as the superuser, to use it.
  78 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR emits a log message if \fBmlockall()\fR is
  79 unavailable or unsuccessful.
  80 .
  81 .SS "DPDK Options"
  82 For details on initializing \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to use DPDK ports,
  83 refer to the documentation or \fBovs\-vswitchd.conf.db\fR(5).
  84 .SS "Daemon Options"
  85 .ds DD \
  86 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR detaches only after it has connected to the \
  87 database, retrieved the initial configuration, and set up that \
  88 configuration.
  89 .so lib/daemon.man
  90 .SS "Service Options"
  91 .so lib/service.man
  92 .SS "Public Key Infrastructure Options"
  93 .so lib/ssl.man
  94 .so lib/ssl-bootstrap.man
  95 .so lib/ssl-peer-ca-cert.man
  96 .SS "Logging Options"
  97 .so lib/vlog.man
  98 .SS "Other Options"
  99 .so lib/unixctl.man
 100 .so lib/common.man
 101 .
 102 .SH "RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS"
 103 \fBovs\-appctl\fR(8) can send commands to a running
 104 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR process.  The currently supported commands are
 105 described below.  The command descriptions assume an understanding of
 106 how to configure Open vSwitch.
 107 .SS "GENERAL COMMANDS"
 108 .IP "\fBexit\fR \fI--cleanup\fR"
 109 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to gracefully terminate. If \fI--cleanup\fR
 110 is specified, deletes flows from datapaths and releases other datapath
 111 resources configured by \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR.  Otherwise, datapath
 112 flows and other resources remains undeleted.  Resources of datapaths
 113 that are integrated into \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR (e.g.  the \fBnetdev\fR
 114 datapath type) are always released regardless of \fI--cleanup\fR
 115 except for ports with \fBinternal\fR type. Use \fI--cleanup\fR to
 116 release \fBinternal\fR ports too.
 117 .
 118 .IP "\fBqos/show-types\fR \fIinterface\fR"
 119 Queries the interface for a list of Quality of Service types that are
 120 configurable via Open vSwitch for the given \fIinterface\fR.
 121 .IP "\fBqos/show\fR \fIinterface\fR"
 122 Queries the kernel for Quality of Service configuration and statistics
 123 associated with the given \fIinterface\fR.
 124 .IP "\fBbfd/show\fR [\fIinterface\fR]"
 125 Displays detailed information about Bidirectional Forwarding Detection
 126 configured on \fIinterface\fR.  If \fIinterface\fR is not specified,
 127 then displays detailed information about all interfaces with BFD
 128 enabled.
 129 .IP "\fBbfd/set-forwarding\fR [\fIinterface\fR] \fIstatus\fR"
 130 Force the fault status of the BFD module on \fIinterface\fR (or all
 131 interfaces if none is given) to be \fIstatus\fR.  \fIstatus\fR can be
 132 "true", "false", or "normal" which reverts to the standard behavior.
 133 .IP "\fBcfm/show\fR [\fIinterface\fR]"
 134 Displays detailed information about Connectivity Fault Management
 135 configured on \fIinterface\fR.  If \fIinterface\fR is not specified,
 136 then displays detailed information about all interfaces with CFM
 137 enabled.
 138 .IP "\fBcfm/set-fault\fR [\fIinterface\fR] \fIstatus\fR"
 139 Force the fault status of the CFM module on \fIinterface\fR (or all
 140 interfaces if none is given) to be \fIstatus\fR.  \fIstatus\fR can be
 141 "true", "false", or "normal" which reverts to the standard behavior.
 142 .IP "\fBstp/tcn\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 143 Forces a topology change event on \fIbridge\fR if it's running STP.  This
 144 may cause it to send Topology Change Notifications to its peers and flush
 145 its MAC table.  If no \fIbridge\fR is given, forces a topology change
 146 event on all bridges.
 147 .IP "\fBstp/show\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 148 Displays detailed information about spanning tree on the \fIbridge\fR.  If
 149 \fIbridge\fR is not specified, then displays detailed information about all
 150 bridges with STP enabled.
 151 .IP "\fBrstp/tcn\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 152 Forces a topology change event on \fIbridge\fR if it's running RSTP.  This
 153 may cause it to send Topology Change Notifications to its peers and flush
 154 its MAC table.  If no \fIbridge\fR is given, forces a topology change
 155 event on all bridges.
 156 .IP "\fBrstp/show\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 157 Displays detailed information about rapid spanning tree on the \fIbridge\fR.
 158 If \fIbridge\fR is not specified, then displays detailed information about all
 159 bridges with RSTP enabled.
 160 .SS "BRIDGE COMMANDS"
 161 These commands manage bridges.
 162 .IP "\fBfdb/flush\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 163 Flushes \fIbridge\fR MAC address learning table, or all learning tables
 164 if no \fIbridge\fR is given.
 165 .IP "\fBfdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
 166 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
 167 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
 168 in seconds.
 169 .IP "\fBfdb/stats-clear\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 170 Clear \fIbridge\fR MAC address learning table statistics, or all
 171 statistics if no \fIbridge\fR is given.
 172 .IP "\fBfdb/stats-show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
 173 Show MAC address learning table statistics for the specified \fIbridge\fR.
 174 .IP "\fBmdb/flush\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 175 Flushes \fIbridge\fR multicast snooping table, or all snooping tables
 176 if no \fIbridge\fR is given.
 177 .IP "\fBmdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
 178 Lists each multicast group/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
 179 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
 180 in seconds.
 181 .IP "\fBbridge/reconnect\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
 182 Makes \fIbridge\fR drop all of its OpenFlow controller connections and
 183 reconnect.  If \fIbridge\fR is not specified, then all bridges drop
 184 their controller connections and reconnect.
 185 .IP
 186 This command might be useful for debugging OpenFlow controller issues.
 187 .
 188 .IP "\fBbridge/dump\-flows\fR [\fB\-\-offload-stats\fR] \fIbridge\fR"
 189 Lists all flows in \fIbridge\fR, including those normally hidden to
 190 commands such as \fBovs\-ofctl dump\-flows\fR.  Flows set up by mechanisms
 191 such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the controller
 192 since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
 193 If \fB\-\-offload-stats\fR are specified then also list statistics for
 194 offloaded packets and bytes, which are a subset of the total packets and
 195 bytes.
 196 .SS "BOND COMMANDS"
 197 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges.  To
 198 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
 199 detail of the bonding implementation called ``source load balancing''
 200 (SLB).  Instead of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to
 201 slaves, the bonding implementation computes a function that maps an
 202 48-bit Ethernet source addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash''
 203 value).  All of the Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit
 204 value are then assigned to a single slave.
 205 .IP "\fBbond/list\fR"
 206 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
 207 .
 208 .IP "\fBbond/show\fR [\fIport\fR]"
 209 Lists all of the bond-specific information (updelay, downdelay, time
 210 until the next rebalance) about the given bonded \fIport\fR, or all
 211 bonded ports if no \fIport\fR is given.  Also lists information about
 212 each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled, the time to completion
 213 of an updelay or downdelay if one is in progress, whether it is the
 214 active slave, the hashes assigned to the slave.  Any LACP information
 215 related to this bond may be found using the \fBlacp/show\fR command.
 216 .
 217 .IP "\fBbond/migrate\fR \fIport\fR \fIhash\fR \fIslave\fR"
 218 Only valid for SLB bonds.  Assigns a given MAC hash to a new slave.
 219 \fIport\fR specifies the bond port, \fIhash\fR the MAC hash to be
 220 migrated (as a decimal number between 0 and 255), and \fIslave\fR the
 221 new slave to be assigned.
 222 .IP
 223 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
 224 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
 225 manner.
 226 .IP
 227 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
 228 .IP "\fBbond/set\-active\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
 229 Sets \fIslave\fR as the active slave on \fIport\fR.  \fIslave\fR must
 230 currently be enabled.
 231 .IP
 232 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be selected
 233 if \fIslave\fR becomes disabled.
 234 .IP "\fBbond/enable\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
 235 .IQ "\fBbond/disable\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
 236 Enables (or disables) \fIslave\fR on the given bond \fIport\fR, skipping any
 237 updelay (or downdelay).
 238 .IP
 239 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the carrier
 240 status of \fIslave\fR changes.
 241 .IP "\fBbond/hash\fR \fImac\fR [\fIvlan\fR] [\fIbasis\fR]"
 242 Returns the hash value which would be used for \fImac\fR with \fIvlan\fR
 243 and \fIbasis\fR if specified.
 244 .
 245 .IP "\fBlacp/show\fR [\fIport\fR]"
 246 Lists all of the LACP related information about the given \fIport\fR:
 247 active or passive, aggregation key, system id, and system priority.  Also
 248 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
 249 whether it is attached or detached, port id and priority, actor
 250 information, and partner information.  If \fIport\fR is not specified,
 251 then displays detailed information about all interfaces with CFM
 252 enabled.
 253 .
 254 .IP "\fBlacp/stats-show\fR [\fIport\fR]"
 255 Lists various stats about LACP PDUs (number of RX/TX PDUs, bad PDUs received)
 256 and slave state (number of time slave's state expired/defaulted and carrier
 257 status changed) for the given \fIport\fR.  If \fIport\fR is not specified,
 258 then displays stats of all interfaces with LACP enabled.
 259 .SS "DPCTL DATAPATH DEBUGGING COMMANDS"
 260 The primary way to configure \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is through the Open
 261 vSwitch database, e.g. using \fBovs\-vsctl\fR(8).  These commands
 262 provide a debugging interface for managing datapaths.  They implement
 263 the same features (and syntax) as \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8).  Unlike
 264 \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8), these commands work with datapaths that are
 265 integrated into \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR (e.g. the \fBnetdev\fR datapath
 266 type).
 267 .PP
 268 .
 269 .ds DX \fBdpctl/\fR
 270 .de DO
 271 \\$2 \\$1 \\$3
 272 ..
 273 .so lib/dpctl.man
 274 .
 275 .so lib/dpif-netdev-unixctl.man
 276 .so lib/netdev-dpdk-unixctl.man
 277 .so ofproto/ofproto-dpif-unixctl.man
 278 .so ofproto/ofproto-unixctl.man
 279 .so lib/vlog-unixctl.man
 280 .so lib/memory-unixctl.man
 281 .so lib/coverage-unixctl.man
 282 .so ofproto/ofproto-tnl-unixctl.man
 283 .
 284 .SH "OPENFLOW IMPLEMENTATION"
 285 .
 286 .PP
 287 This section documents aspects of OpenFlow for which the OpenFlow
 288 specification requires documentation.
 289 .
 290 .SS "Packet buffering."
 291 The OpenFlow specification, version 1.2, says:
 292 .
 293 .IP
 294 Switches that implement buffering are expected to expose, through
 295 documentation, both the amount of available buffering, and the length
 296 of time before buffers may be reused.
 297 .
 298 .PP
 299 Open vSwitch does not maintains any packet buffers.
 300 .
 301 .SS "Bundle lifetime"
 302 The OpenFlow specification, version 1.4, says:
 303 .
 304 .IP
 305 If the switch does not receive any OFPT_BUNDLE_CONTROL or
 306 OFPT_BUNDLE_ADD_MESSAGE message for an opened bundle_id for a switch
 307 defined time greater than 1s, it may send an ofp_error_msg with
 308 OFPET_BUNDLE_FAILED type and OFPBFC_TIMEOUT code.  If the switch does
 309 not receive any new message in a bundle apart from echo request and
 310 replies for a switch defined time greater than 1s, it may send an
 311 ofp_error_msg with OFPET_BUNDLE_FAILED type and OFPBFC_TIMEOUT code.
 312 .
 313 .PP
 314 Open vSwitch implements default idle bundle lifetime of 10 seconds.
 315 (This is configurable via \fBother-config:bundle-idle-timeout\fR in
 316 the \fBOpen_vSwitch\fR table. See \fBovs-vswitchd.conf.db\fR(5)
 317 for details.)
 318 .
 319 .SH "LIMITS"
 320 .
 321 .PP
 322 We believe these limits to be accurate as of this writing.  These
 323 limits assume the use of the Linux kernel datapath.
 324 .
 325 .IP \(bu
 326 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR started through \fBovs\-ctl\fR(8) provides a limit of 65535
 327 file descriptors.  The limits on the number of bridges and ports is decided by
 328 the availability of file descriptors.  With the Linux kernel datapath, creation
 329 of a single bridge consumes three file descriptors and each port
 330 consumes one additional file descriptor.  Other platforms
 331 may have different limitations.
 332 .
 333 .IP \(bu
 334 8,192 MAC learning entries per bridge, by default.  (This is
 335 configurable via \fBother\-config:mac\-table\-size\fR in the
 336 \fBBridge\fR table.  See \fBovs\-vswitchd.conf.db\fR(5) for details.)
 337 .
 338 .IP \(bu
 339 Kernel flows are limited only by memory available to the kernel.
 340 Performance will degrade beyond 1,048,576 kernel flows per bridge with
 341 a 32-bit kernel, beyond 262,144 with a 64-bit kernel.
 342 (\fBovs\-vswitchd\fR should never install anywhere near that many
 343 flows.)
 344 .
 345 .IP \(bu
 346 OpenFlow flows are limited only by available memory.  Performance is
 347 linear in the number of unique wildcard patterns.  That is, an
 348 OpenFlow table that contains many flows that all match on the same
 349 fields in the same way has a constant-time lookup, but a table that
 350 contains many flows that match on different fields requires lookup
 351 time linear in the number of flows.
 352 .
 353 .IP \(bu
 354 255 ports per bridge participating in 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol.
 355 .
 356 .IP \(bu
 357 32 mirrors per bridge.
 358 .
 359 .IP \(bu
 360 15 bytes for the name of a port, for ports implemented in the Linux
 361 kernel.  Ports implemented in userspace, such as patch ports, do not
 362 have an arbitrary length limitation.  OpenFlow also limit port names
 363 to 15 bytes.
 364 .
 365 .SH "SEE ALSO"
 366 .BR ovs\-appctl (8),
 367 .BR ovsdb\-server (1).