ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) Open vSwitch Manual ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)
NAME
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 data‐
base, except for records in a few distinguished ``root set’’ tables.
Common Columns
Most tables contain two special columns, named other_config and exter‐
nal_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 val‐
ues, 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 inte‐
grate 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 use‐
ful, they are documented individually for each table.
TABLE SUMMARY
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.
SSL SSL configuration.
sFlow sFlow configuration.
IPFIX IPFIX configuration.
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set configuration.
AutoAttach
AutoAttach configuration.
Open_vSwitch TABLE
Configuration for an Open vSwitch daemon. There must be exactly one
record in the Open_vSwitch table.
Summary:
Configuration:
bridges set of Bridges
ssl optional SSL
external_ids : system-id optional string
external_ids : xs-system-uuid
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 : n-dpdk-rxqs optional string, containing an integer,
at least 1
other_config : pmd-cpu-mask
optional string
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
Status:
next_cfg integer
cur_cfg integer
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
Capabilities:
datapath_types set of strings
iface_types set of strings
Database Configuration:
manager_options set of Managers
Common Columns:
other_config map of string-string pairs
external_ids map of string-string pairs
Details:
Configuration:
bridges: set of Bridges
Set of bridges managed by the daemon.
ssl: optional SSL
SSL 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. On a
Citrix XenServer, this will likely be the same as exter‐
nal_ids:xs-system-uuid.
external_ids : xs-system-uuid: optional string
The Citrix XenServer universally unique identifier for the phys‐
ical host as displayed by xe host-list.
other_config : stats-update-interval: optional string, containing an
integer, at least 5,000
Interval for updating statistics to the database, in millisec‐
onds. This option will affect the update of the statistics col‐
umn 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.
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 con‐
troller) 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.
The default is 200000.
other_config : n-dpdk-rxqs: optional string, containing an integer, at
least 1
Specifies the maximum number of rx queues to be created for each
dpdk interface. If not specified or specified to 0, one rx
queue will be created for each dpdk interface by default.
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 : n-handler-threads: optional string, containing an inte‐
ger, at least 1
Specifies the number of threads for software datapaths to use
for handling new flows. The default the number of online CPU
cores minus the number of revalidators.
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
Specifies the number of threads for software datapaths to use
for revalidating flows in the datapath. 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-han‐
dler-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.
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.
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 deter‐
mined 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 com‐
mon 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 run‐
ning, 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, repre‐
senting the system load average over the last 1, 5, and 15 min‐
utes, 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 nec‐
essarily 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 infor‐
mation.
Version Reporting:
These columns report the types and versions of the hardware and soft‐
ware 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 in the form
major.minor.tweak, e.g. 1.2.3. Whenever the database schema is
changed in a non-backward compatible way (e.g. deleting a column
or a table), major is incremented. When the database schema is
changed in a backward compatible way (e.g. adding a new column),
minor is incremented. When the database schema is changed cos‐
metically (e.g. reindenting its syntax), tweak is incremented.
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. XenServer or 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.
5.6.100-39265p on XenServer 5.6.100 build 39265.
System integrators are responsible for choosing and setting an
appropriate value for this column.
Capabilities:
These columns report capabilities of the Open vSwitch instance.
datapath_types: set of strings
This column reports the different dpifs registered with the sys‐
tem. 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 deter‐
mine 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 connection should be configured. See the Manager
table for more information.
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
Bridge TABLE
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 stand‐
alone
datapath_id optional string
datapath_version string
other_config : datapath-id optional string
other_config : dp-desc 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
protocols set of strings, one of OpenFlow11, Open‐
Flow10, OpenFlow13, OpenFlow12, Open‐
Flow15, or OpenFlow14
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
external_ids : xs-network-uuids
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. Should be alphanumeric and no more than
about 8 bytes long. Must be unique among the names of ports,
interfaces, and bridges on a host.
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 dis‐
abled, so that packets are flooded instead of being sent to spe‐
cific 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 flow table. If there are no primary controllers, adding one
also clears the flow table. Other changes to the set of con‐
trollers, such as adding or removing a service controller,
adding another primary controller to supplement an existing pri‐
mary controller, or removing only one of two primary con‐
trollers, have no effect on the flow table.
flow_tables: map of integer-Flow_Table pairs, key in range 0 to 254
Configuration for OpenFlow tables. Each pair maps from an Open‐
Flow 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 inactiv‐
ity_probe), then Open vSwitch will take over responsibil‐
ity 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 connec‐
tion succeeds, it will discontinue its standalone behav‐
ior.
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 ver‐
sions 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).
When more than one controller is configured, fail_mode is con‐
sidered only when none of the configured controllers can be con‐
tacted.
Changing fail_mode when no primary controllers are configured
clears the flow 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-con‐
fig:datapath-id instead.)
datapath_version: string
Reports the version number of the Open vSwitch datapath in use.
This allows management software to detect and report discrepan‐
cies 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 data‐
path 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>gt;>gt;.
· When the datapath is built into the ovs-vswitchd binary,
this column reports built-in>gt;>gt;. 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>gt;>gt;.
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 ver‐
sions 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.
other_config : datapath-id: optional string
Exactly 16 hex digits to set the OpenFlow datapath ID to a spe‐
cific value. May not be all-zero.
other_config : dp-desc: optional string
Human readable description of datapath. It it a maximum 256
byte-long free-form string to describe the datapath for debug‐
ging purposes, e.g. switch3 in room 3120.
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 con‐
trol 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.
protocols: set of strings, one of OpenFlow11, OpenFlow10, OpenFlow13,
OpenFlow12, OpenFlow15, or OpenFlow14
List of OpenFlow protocols that may be used when negotiating a
connection with a controller. OpenFlow 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3
are enabled by default if this column is empty.
OpenFlow 1.4 is not enabled by default because its implementa‐
tion is missing features.
OpenFlow 1.5 has the same risks as OpenFlow 1.4, but it is even
more experimental because the OpenFlow 1.5 specification is
still under development and thus subject to change. Pass
--enable-of15 to ovs-vswitchd to allow OpenFlow 1.5 to be
enabled.
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 sup‐
ported 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 desig‐
nated 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 inte‐
ger, 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 cur‐
rently 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 publi‐
cation 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 inte‐
ger, 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 inte‐
ger, 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 sys‐
tem 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_sta‐
tus: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 inte‐
ger, 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_sta‐
tus: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 con‐
nected 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. On Citrix XenServer this
will commonly be the same as external_ids:xs-network-uuids.
external_ids : xs-network-uuids: optional string
Semicolon-delimited set of universally unique identifier(s) for
the network with which this bridge is associated on a Citrix
XenServer host. The network identifiers are RFC 4122 UUIDs as
displayed by, e.g., xe network-list.
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 col‐
umn 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 for‐
wards them.
Set this option to true if the Open vSwitch bridge connects dif‐
ferent 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 unnec‐
essarily, when they are addressed to a connected host that
rarely transmits packets. To reduce the incidence of unneces‐
sary 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 2048. The value, if specified, is forced into a rea‐
sonable 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
Port TABLE
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 actu‐
ally 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,
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
other_config : priority-tags
optional string, either true or false
Bonding Configuration:
bond_mode optional string, one of active-backup,
balance-tcp, or balance-slb
other_config : bond-hash-basis
optional string, containing an integer
Link Failure Detection:
other_config : bond-detect-mode
optional string, either miimon or carrier
other_config : bond-miimon-interval
optional string, containing an integer
bond_updelay integer
bond_downdelay integer
LACP Configuration:
lacp optional string, one of active, passive,
or off
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 slow or fast
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 10,000
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 disabled, for‐
warding, learning, listening, or blocking
status : stp_sec_in_state
optional string, containing an integer,
at least 0
status : stp_role optional string, one of designated,
alternate, 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-port-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 Backup, Desig‐
nated, Alternate, Root, or Disabled
rstp_status : rstp_port_state
optional string, one of Disabled, Dis‐
carding, 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
external_ids : fake-bridge-id-*
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. Should be alphanumeric and no more than about 8
bytes long. May be the same as the interface name, for non-
bonded ports. Must otherwise be unique among the names of
ports, interfaces, and bridges on a host.
interfaces: set of 1 or more Interfaces
The port’s interfaces. If there is more than one, this is a
bonded Port.
VLAN Configuration:
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 speci‐
fied 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.
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, 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.
other_config : priority-tags: optional string, either true or false
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 true to enable priority-tagged frames on
a port.
Regardless of this setting, Open vSwitch omits the 802.1Q header
on output if both the VLAN ID and priority would be zero.
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 slaves based on source MAC address
and output VLAN, with periodic rebalancing as traffic
patterns change.
active-backup
Assigns all flows to one slave, failing over to a backup
slave when the active slave 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-con‐
fig:lacp-fallback-ab is true, then active-backup mode is used:
balance-tcp
Balances flows among slaves based on L2, L3, and L4 pro‐
tocol information such as destination MAC address, IP
address, and TCP port.
These columns apply only to bonded ports. Their values are otherwise
ignored.
bond_mode: optional string, one of active-backup, balance-tcp, or bal‐
ance-slb
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 slaves
in load balanced bonds. When changed, all flows will be
assigned different hash values possibly causing slave selection
decisions to change. Does not affect bonding modes which do not
employ load balancing such as active-backup.
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 miimon or car‐
rier
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 inter‐
face’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_con‐
fig: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 mul‐
tiple links and aggregate across those links. These settings control
LACP behavior.
lacp: optional string, one of active, passive, or off
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 numeri‐
cally lower priority.
other_config : lacp-time: optional string, either slow or fast
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 bal‐
ance-tcp mode.
other_config : bond-rebalance-interval: optional string, containing an
integer, in range 0 to 10,000
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 popu‐
lated, 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 inte‐
ger, 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 sec‐
tion earlier.
status : stp_state: optional string, one of disabled, forwarding,
learning, listening, or blocking
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 designated, alternate, or
root
STP role of the port.
Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol:
The configuration here is only meaningful, and the status and statis‐
tics 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 inte‐
ger, 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 sig‐
nificant 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 automati‐
cally, 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-port-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 subse‐
quently 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 Backup, Desig‐
nated, Alternate, Root, or Disabled
RSTP role of the port.
rstp_status : rstp_port_state: optional string, one of Disabled, Dis‐
carding, 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 uncondi‐
tionally 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.
external_ids : fake-bridge-id-*: 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-xs-network-uuids.
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
slave.
Port Statistics:
Key-value pairs that report port statistics. The update period is con‐
trolled by other_config:stats-update-interval in the Open_vSwitch ta‐
ble.
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
Interface TABLE
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 : key optional string
options : tos optional string
options : ttl optional string
options : df_default optional string, either true or false
Tunnel Options: vxlan only:
options : exts optional string
Tunnel Options: gre, ipsec_gre, geneve, and vxlan:
options : csum optional string, either true or false
Tunnel Options: ipsec_gre only:
options : peer_cert optional string
options : certificate optional string
options : private_key optional string
options : psk optional string
Patch Options:
options : peer optional string
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
mtu optional integer
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
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_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 Status:
bfd_status : state optional string, one of down, init, up,
or admin_down
bfd_status : forwarding optional string, either true or false
bfd_status : diagnostic optional string
bfd_status : remote_state
optional string, one of down, init, up,
or admin_down
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 inac‐
tive
external_ids : xs-vif-uuid optional string
external_ids : xs-network-uuid
optional string
external_ids : vm-id optional string
external_ids : xs-vm-uuid optional string
VLAN Splinters:
other_config : enable-vlan-splinters
optional string, either true or false
Auto Attach Configuration:
lldp : enable 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 and no more than about 8
bytes long. May be the same as the port name, for non-bonded
ports. Must otherwise be unique among the names of ports,
interfaces, and bridges on a host.
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-num‐
bered 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 slave 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 ran‐
domly generated.
· External interfaces typically have a MAC address associ‐
ated with their hardware.
Some interfaces may not have a software-controllable MAC
address.
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 col‐
umn.
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 auto‐
matically assigns a free port number. Regardless of how the port num‐
ber 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 con‐
trollers: 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 auto‐
matically 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. Some‐
times 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 traf‐
fic. 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 impre‐
cisely for internal interfaces.
tap A TUN/TAP device managed by Open vSwitch.
geneve An Ethernet over Geneve
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-nvo3-geneve-00)
IPv4 tunnel. A description of how to match and set Gen‐
eve options can be found in the ovs-ofctl manual page.
gre An Ethernet over RFC 2890 Generic Routing Encapsulation
over IPv4 tunnel.
ipsec_gre
An Ethernet over RFC 2890 Generic Routing Encapsulation
over IPv4 IPsec tunnel.
vxlan An Ethernet tunnel over the UDP-based VXLAN protocol
described in RFC 7348.
Open vSwitch uses UDP destination port 4789. The source
port used for VXLAN traffic varies on a per-flow basis
and is in the ephemeral port range.
lisp A layer 3 tunnel over the experimental, UDP-based Loca‐
tor/ID Separation Protocol (RFC 6830).
Only IPv4 and IPv6 packets are supported by the protocol,
and they are sent and received without an Ethernet
header. Traffic to/from LISP ports is expected to be
configured explicitly, and the ports are not intended to
participate in learning based switching. As such, they
are always excluded from packet flooding.
stt The Stateless TCP Tunnel (STT) is particularly useful
when tunnel endpoints are in end-systems, as it utilizes
the capabilities of standard network interface cards to
improve performance. STT utilizes a TCP-like header
inside the IP header. It is stateless, i.e., there is no
TCP connection state of any kind associated with the tun‐
nel. The TCP-like header is used to leverage the capa‐
bilities of existing network interface cards, but should
not be interpreted as implying any sort of connection
state between endpoints. Since the STT protocol does not
engage in the usual TCP 3-way handshake, so it will have
difficulty traversing stateful firewalls. The protocol
is documented at http://www.ietf.org/archive/id/draft-
davie-stt-06.txt All traffic uses a default destination
port of 7471. STT is only available in kernel datapath on
kernel 3.5 or newer.
patch A pair of virtual devices that act as a patch cable.
null An ignored interface. Deprecated and slated for removal
in February 2013.
Tunnel Options:
These options apply to interfaces with type of geneve, gre, ipsec_gre,
vxlan, lisp and stt.
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 : remote_ip: optional string
Required. The remote tunnel endpoint, one of:
· An IPv4 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 field. When sending packets to a
remote_ip=flow tunnel, the flow actions must explicitly
set the tun_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 ta‐
ble.
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 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 field. When send‐
ing packets to a local_ip=flow tunnel, the flow actions
may explicitly set the tun_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 field for matching in the
flow table.
options : in_key: optional string
Optional. 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, VXLAN, and LISP), 32-bit
(for GRE) or 64-bit (for STT) 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-ofctl manual page contains
additional information about matching fields in OpenFlow
flows.
options : out_key: optional string
Optional. 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, VXLAN and LISP), 32-bit
(for GRE) or 64-bit (for STT) 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-ofctl manual page contains additional information
about the Nicira OpenFlow vendor extensions.
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 encapsu‐
lating 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 sys‐
tem 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.
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 con‐
text of a packet across the VXLAN tunnel to other network
peers. See the field description of tun_gbp_id and
tun_gbp_flags in ovs-ofctl(8) for additional information.
(https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-smith-vxlan-group-pol‐
icy)
Tunnel Options: gre, ipsec_gre, geneve, and vxlan:
gre, ipsec_gre, geneve, 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. Default is disabled, set to true
to enable. Checksums present on incoming packets will be vali‐
dated 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 supports checksums for all versions of Open
vSwitch that support GRE. The out of tree kernel module dis‐
tributed as part of OVS can compute all tunnel checksums on any
kernel version that it is compatible with.
This option is supported for ipsec_gre, but not useful because
GRE checksums are weaker than, and redundant with, IPsec payload
authentication.
Tunnel Options: ipsec_gre only:
Only ipsec_gre interfaces support these options.
options : peer_cert: optional string
Required for certificate authentication. A string containing
the peer’s certificate in PEM format. Additionally the host’s
certificate must be specified with the certificate option.
options : certificate: optional string
Required for certificate authentication. The name of a PEM file
containing a certificate that will be presented to the peer dur‐
ing authentication.
options : private_key: optional string
Optional for certificate authentication. The name of a PEM file
containing the private key associated with certificate. If cer‐
tificate contains the private key, this option may be omitted.
options : psk: optional string
Required for pre-shared key authentication. Specifies a pre-
shared key for authentication that must be identical on both
sides of the tunnel.
Patch Options:
Only patch interfaces support these options.
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.
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 col‐
umns 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 ordi‐
narily 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.
mtu: optional integer
The MTU (maximum transmission unit); i.e. 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.
This column will be empty for an interface that does not have an
MTU as, for example, some kinds of tunnels do not.
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 val‐
ues 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 avail‐
able.
status : source_ip: optional string
The source IP address used for an IPv4 tunnel end-point, such as
gre.
status : tunnel_egress_iface: optional string
Egress interface for tunnels. Currently only relevant for tun‐
nels 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.
Statistics:
Key-value pairs that report interface statistics. The current imple‐
mentation 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 regu‐
lar 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 pack‐
ets 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 is currently implemented only on Linux. The Linux implementa‐
tion uses a simple ``token bucket’’ approach:
· The size of the bucket corresponds to ingress_polic‐
ing_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 avail‐
able, they are removed and the packet is forwarded. Oth‐
erwise, the packet is dropped.
· Whenever it is not full, the bucket is refilled with
tokens at the rate specified by ingress_policing_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 frag‐
ments. In such a case there are two likely possibilities for what will
happen next: either all of the fragments will eventually be retransmit‐
ted (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_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 1000 kb. This value has
no effect if ingress_policing_rate is 0.
Specifying a larger burst size lets the algorithm be more for‐
giving, which is important for protocols like TCP that react se‐
verely 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 10% of ingress_policing_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 mes‐
sages. 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. 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.
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 ses‐
sion offers to receive BFD control messages. The remote end‐
point 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 ses‐
sion 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 typi‐
cal 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 tun‐
nel 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 pack‐
ets. Packets with different destination MAC will not be consid‐
ered 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 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 down, init, up, or
admin_down
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
In case of a problem, set to an error message that reports what
the local BFD session thinks is wrong. The error messages are
defined in section 4.1 of [RFC 5880].
bfd_status : remote_state: optional string, one of down, init, up, or
admin_down
Reports the state of the remote endpoint’s BFD session.
bfd_status : remote_diagnostic: optional string
In case of a problem, set to an error message that reports what
the remote endpoint’s BFD session thinks is wrong. 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 Mainte‐
nance Points (MPs) called a Maintenance Association (MA) to detect con‐
nectivity problems with each other. MPs within a MA should have com‐
plete and exclusive interconnectivity. This is verified by occasion‐
ally 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 specifica‐
tion in this area. It simply assumes the link is faulted if no Remote
Maintenance Points are reachable, and considers it not faulted other‐
wise.
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_con‐
fig: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 receiv‐
ing 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 adver‐
tises 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 receiv‐
ing 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_con‐
fig: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 rea‐
sons. 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 col‐
lected 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 con‐
nectivity 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 accu‐
racy 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. Other‐
wise, 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 sta‐
tistics 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 caus‐
ing changes in the operational state to be delayed. Sim‐
ilarly, 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 opera‐
tionally 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 partici‐
pating 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 inte‐
ger, 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 repre‐
sents a virtual Ethernet interface connected to a virtual machine.
These key-value pairs should not be present for other types of inter‐
faces. Keys whose names end in -uuid have values that uniquely iden‐
tify the entity in question. For a Citrix XenServer hypervisor, these
values are UUIDs in RFC 4122 format. Other hypervisors may use other
formats.
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. For Citrix
XenServer, this is the value of the MAC field in the VIF record
for this interface.
external_ids : iface-id: optional string
A system-unique identifier for the interface. On XenServer,
this will commonly be the same as external_ids:xs-vif-uuid.
external_ids : iface-status: optional string, either active or inactive
Hypervisors may sometimes have more than one interface associ‐
ated with a given external_ids:iface-id, only one of which is
actually in use at a given time. For example, in some circum‐
stances XenServer has 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 cur‐
rently 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 tran‐
siently 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 pur‐
poses). 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 : xs-vif-uuid: optional string
The virtual interface associated with this interface.
external_ids : xs-network-uuid: optional string
The virtual network to which this interface is attached.
external_ids : vm-id: optional string
The VM to which this interface belongs. On XenServer, this will
be the same as external_ids:xs-vm-uuid.
external_ids : xs-vm-uuid: optional string
The VM to which this interface belongs.
VLAN Splinters:
The ``VLAN splinters’’ feature increases Open vSwitch compatibility
with buggy network drivers in old versions of Linux that do not prop‐
erly support VLANs when VLAN devices are not used, at some cost in mem‐
ory and performance.
When VLAN splinters are enabled on a particular interface, Open vSwitch
creates a VLAN device for each in-use VLAN. For sending traffic tagged
with a VLAN on the interface, it substitutes the VLAN device. Traffic
received on the VLAN device is treated as if it had been received on
the interface on the particular VLAN.
VLAN splinters consider a VLAN to be in use if:
· The VLAN is the tag value in any Port record.
· The VLAN is listed within the trunks column of the Port
record of an interface on which VLAN splinters are
enabled. An empty trunks does not influence the in-use
VLANs: creating 4,096 VLAN devices is impractical because
it will exceed the current 1,024 port per datapath limit.
· An OpenFlow flow within any bridge matches the VLAN.
The same set of in-use VLANs applies to every interface on which VLAN
splinters are enabled. That is, the set is not chosen separately for
each interface but selected once as the union of all in-use VLANs based
on the rules above.
It does not make sense to enable VLAN splinters on an interface for an
access port, or on an interface that is not a physical port.
VLAN splinters are deprecated. When broken device drivers are no
longer in widespread use, we will delete this feature.
other_config : enable-vlan-splinters: optional string, either true or
false
Set to true to enable VLAN splinters on this interface.
Defaults to false.
VLAN splinters increase kernel and userspace memory overhead, so
do not use them unless they are needed.
VLAN splinters do not support 802.1p priority tags. Received
priorities will appear to be 0, regardless of their actual val‐
ues, and priorities on transmitted packets will also be cleared
to 0.
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.
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
Flow_Table TABLE
Configuration for a particular OpenFlow table.
Summary:
name optional string
Eviction Policy:
flow_limit optional integer, at least 0
overflow_policy optional string, either refuse or evict
groups set of strings
Classifier Optimization:
prefixes set of up to 3 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 con‐
trollers will receive when they request table statistics, e.g.
ovs-ofctl dump-tables. The name does not affect switch behav‐
ior.
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 cho‐
sen through an approximation of the following algorithm. This algo‐
rithm 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 ta‐
ble. 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 refuse or evict
Controls the switch’s behavior when an OpenFlow flow table modi‐
fication 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 cho‐
sen 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
nicira-ext.h for a complete list of NXM field names.
Open vSwitch ignores any invalid or unknown field specifica‐
tions.
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 3 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, 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 tun‐
nel IDs have prefix structure similar to IP addresses.)
By default, the prefixes=ip_dst,ip_src are used on each flow ta‐
ble. This instructs the flow classifier to track the IP desti‐
nation 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 IP 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 3.
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
QoS TABLE
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
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/man‐
ual/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.
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 configura‐
tion 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 disci‐
plines, 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 100 Mbps.
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
Queue TABLE
A configuration for a port output queue, used in configuring Quality of
Service (QoS) features. May be referenced by queues column in QoS ta‐
ble.
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 fol‐
lowing 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 fol‐
lowing 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
Mirror TABLE
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. Mirror‐
ing 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 tra‐
versed 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 par‐
ticular 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
Mirroring Destination Configuration:
output_port optional weak reference to Port
output_vlan optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095
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.
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 exclu‐
sively 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 mir‐
rored 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 con‐
tains 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 pack‐
ets 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, dis‐
rupting 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 traf‐
fic. 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 con‐
figured for that VLAN. If Open vSwitch is being used as an
intermediate switch, learning can be disabled by adding the mir‐
rored 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.
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
Controller TABLE
An OpenFlow controller.
Open vSwitch supports two kinds of OpenFlow controllers:
Primary controllers
This is the kind of controller envisioned by the OpenFlow
1.0 specification. Usually, a primary controller imple‐
ments a network policy by taking charge of the switch’s
flow table.
Open vSwitch initiates and maintains persistent connec‐
tions to primary controllers, retrying the connection
each time it fails or drops. The fail_mode column in the
Bridge table applies to primary controllers.
Open vSwitch permits a bridge to have any number of pri‐
mary controllers. When multiple controllers are config‐
ured, Open vSwitch connects to all of them simultane‐
ously. Because OpenFlow 1.0 does not specify how multi‐
ple controllers coordinate in interacting with a single
switch, more than one primary controller should be speci‐
fied only if the controllers are themselves designed to
coordinate with each other. (The Nicira-defined NXT_ROLE
OpenFlow vendor extension may be useful for this.)
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.
Open vSwitch listens for incoming connections from ser‐
vice controllers. The service controllers initiate and,
if necessary, maintain the connections from their end.
The fail_mode column in the Bridge table does not apply
to service controllers.
Open vSwitch supports configuring any number of service
controllers.
The target determines the type of controller.
Summary:
Core Features:
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_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 slave, other, or
master
status : last_error optional string
status : state optional string, one of ACTIVE, VOID,
CONNECTING, IDLE, or BACKOFF
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:
target: string
Connection method for controller.
The following connection methods are currently supported for
primary controllers:
ssl:ip[:port]
The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name). The
ssl column in the Open_vSwitch table must point to a
valid SSL configuration when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always
built as part of Open vSwitch.
tcp:ip[:port]
The specified TCP port on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name),
where ip can be IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip 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 connection methods are currently supported for
service controllers:
pssl:[port][:ip]
Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP port.
If ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a
DNS name), is specified, then connections are restricted
to the specified local IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6).
If ip is an IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets,
e.g. pssl:6653:[::1].
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6653. If ip 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 configuration when this form is
used.
If port is not specified, it currently to 6653.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always
built as part of Open vSwitch.
ptcp:[port][:ip]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port. If
ip, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS
name), is specified, then connections are restricted to
the specified local IP address (either IPv4 or IPv6). If
ip is an IPv6 address, wrap it in square brackets, e.g.
ptcp:6653:[::1]. If ip 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 indepen‐
dent 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 speci‐
fied 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 proto‐
col. Forwarding packets this way at too high a rate can overwhelm a
controller, frustrate use of the OpenFlow connection for other pur‐
poses, 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 config‐
ured rate, when packets are sent for both reasons.
This feature is specific to forwarding packets over an OpenFlow connec‐
tion. 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_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 config‐
ured. 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 inte‐
ger, at least 0
Number of packets sent directly to the controller, without queu‐
ing, 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 inte‐
ger, 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 inte‐
ger, 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 connec‐
tion_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 slave, other, or master
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
master controller at a time. When a controller config‐
ures itself as master, any existing master is demoted to
the slave role.
slave Allows the controller read-only access to OpenFlow fea‐
tures. Attempts to modify the flow table will be
rejected with an error. Slave 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, VOID, CONNECTING, IDLE,
or BACKOFF
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 con‐
nected 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 speci‐
fied 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
Manager TABLE
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 con‐
nections to remote clients. It can also listen for database connec‐
tions.
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, VOID,
CONNECTING, IDLE, or BACKOFF
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:ip[:port]
The specified SSL port on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name). The
ssl column in the Open_vSwitch table must point to a
valid SSL configuration when this form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always
built as part of Open vSwitch.
tcp:ip[:port]
The specified TCP port on the host at the given ip, which
must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name),
where ip can be IPv4 or IPv6 address. If ip 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][:ip]
Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP port.
Specify 0 for port to have the kernel automatically
choose an available port. If ip, which must be expressed
as an IP address (not a DNS name), is specified, then
connections are restricted to the specified local IP
address (either IPv4 or IPv6 address). If ip is an IPv6
address, wrap in square brackets, e.g. pssl:6640:[::1].
If ip 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 configuration when this
form is used.
If port is not specified, it defaults to 6640.
SSL support is an optional feature that is not always
built as part of Open vSwitch.
ptcp:[port][:ip]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port. Spec‐
ify 0 for port to have the kernel automatically choose an
available port. If ip, which must be expressed as an IP
address (not a DNS name), is specified, then connections
are restricted to the specified local IP address (either
IPv4 or IPv6 address). If ip is an IPv6 address, wrap it
in square brackets, e.g. ptcp:6640:[::1]. If ip 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 recon‐
nect. Default is implementation-specific. A value of 0 dis‐
ables inactivity probes.
Status:
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, VOID, CONNECTING, IDLE,
or BACKOFF
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 con‐
nected 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 dis‐
connected.
status : locks_held: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the con‐
nection 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 con‐
nection is currently waiting to acquire. Omitted if the connec‐
tion is not waiting for any locks.
status : locks_lost: optional string
Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the con‐
nection 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 con‐
nection is actually active, the value is the number of active
connections. Otherwise, this key-value pair is omitted.
When multiple connections are active, status columns and key-
value pairs (other than this one) report the status of one arbi‐
trarily chosen connection.
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 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 speci‐
fied 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
NetFlow TABLE
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 time‐
out is about a second.
add_id_to_interface: boolean
If this column’s value is false, the ingress and egress inter‐
face 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 sup‐
ported.
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 TABLE
SSL 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 connections to the controller.
certificate: string
Name of a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the cer‐
tificate 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 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 connections must be authenticated by a certificate
signed by the CA certificate thus obtained. This option exposes
the SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the
initial CA certificate. It may still be useful for bootstrap‐
ping.
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
sFlow TABLE
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
Name of the network device whose IP address should be reported
as the ``agent address’’ to collectors. 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 col‐
lector’s Controller. If an agent IP address cannot be deter‐
mined any of these ways, 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 collec‐
tor. If not specified, defaults to 30 seconds.
sampling: optional integer
Rate at which packets should be sampled and sent to the collec‐
tor. 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
IPFIX TABLE
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-ofctl(8) for a
description of the sample action.
Flow-based sampling also requires database configuration:
create a IPFIX record that describes the IPFIX configura‐
tion 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
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-tunnel-sampling
optional string, either true or false
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 dis‐
abled.
Per-Bridge Sampling:
These values affect only per-bridge sampling. See above for a descrip‐
tion 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-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 disabled 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, 0x03
LISP, 0x05 IPsec+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 indi‐
vidual traffic flow within a VxLAN (24-bit VNI), GENEVE
(24-bit VNI), GRE (32-bit key), or LISP (24-bit instance
ID) tunnel. The key is encoded in this octetarray as a
3-, 4-, or 8-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 tun‐
nel 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 tun‐
nel transport header. For the transport protocols UDP,
TCP, and SCTP, this is the destination port number given
in the respective header.
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
Flow_Sample_Collector_Set TABLE
A set of IPFIX collectors of packet samples generated by OpenFlow sam‐
ple actions. This table is used only for IPFIX flow-based sampling,
not for per-bridge sampling (see the IPFIX table for a description of
the two forms).
Summary:
id integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295
bridge Bridge
ipfix optional IPFIX
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 collec‐
tor 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.
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
AutoAttach TABLE
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 net‐
work 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 proto‐
col 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 dis‐
covery TLVs between the AA client and AA server. By exchanging these
discovery messages, both the AAC and AAS learn the system name and sys‐
tem 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 spe‐
cific SPB network services. These VLAN id to ISID mappings can be con‐
figured 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.
Open vSwitch 2.4.90 DB Schema 7.12.1 ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5)