1 How to Install Open vSwitch on Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD
2 ========================================================
4 This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a
5 generic Linux, FreeBSD, or NetBSD host. For specifics around installation
6 on a specific platform, please see one of these files:
17 To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution,
18 you will need the following software:
22 - A C compiler, such as:
26 * Clang. Clang 3.4 and later provide useful static semantic
27 analysis and thread-safety checks. For Ubuntu, there are
28 nightly built packages available on clang's website.
30 - libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to
31 connect the Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is
32 required to establish confidentiality and authenticity in the
33 connections from an Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. If
34 libssl is installed, then Open vSwitch will automatically build
37 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
39 To compile the kernel module on Linux, you must also install the
40 following. If you cannot build or install the kernel module, you may
41 use the userspace-only implementation, at a cost in performance. The
42 userspace implementation may also lack some features. Refer to
43 INSTALL.userspace for more information.
45 - A supported Linux kernel version. Please refer to README for a
46 list of supported versions.
48 The Open vSwitch datapath requires bridging support
49 (CONFIG_BRIDGE) to be built as a kernel module. (This is common
50 in kernels provided by Linux distributions.) The bridge module
51 must not be loaded or in use. If the bridge module is running
52 (check with "lsmod | grep bridge"), you must remove it ("rmmod
53 bridge") before starting the datapath.
55 For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel
56 configuration options NET_CLS_BASIC, NET_SCH_INGRESS, and
57 NET_ACT_POLICE, either built-in or as modules. (NET_CLS_POLICE is
58 obsolete and not needed.)
60 To use GRE tunneling on Linux 2.6.37 or newer, kernel support
61 for GRE must be compiled in or available as a module
62 (CONFIG_NET_IPGRE_DEMUX).
64 To configure HTB or HFSC quality of service with Open vSwitch,
65 you must enable the respective configuration options.
67 To use Open vSwitch support for TAP devices, you must enable
70 - To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that
71 was used to build that kernel.
73 - A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image
74 the module is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example,
75 each linux-image package containing a kernel binary has a
76 corresponding linux-headers package with the required build
79 If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a
80 distribution tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system
81 or the database schema, you will also need the following software:
83 - Autoconf version 2.64 or later.
85 - Automake version 1.10 or later.
87 - libtool version 2.4 or later. (Older versions might work too.)
89 To run the unit tests, you also need:
91 - Perl. Version 5.10.1 is known to work. Earlier versions should
94 The ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage will include an E-R diagram, in
95 formats other than plain text, only if you have the following:
97 - "dot" from graphviz (http://www.graphviz.org/).
99 - Perl. Version 5.10.1 is known to work. Earlier versions should
102 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
104 If you are going to extensively modify Open vSwitch, please consider
105 installing the following to obtain better warnings:
107 - "sparse" version 0.4.4 or later
108 (http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/devel/sparse/dist/).
112 - clang, version 3.4 or later
114 Also, you may find the ovs-dev script found in utilities/ovs-dev.py useful.
116 Installation Requirements
117 -------------------------
119 The machine on which Open vSwitch is to be installed must have the
122 - libc compatible with the libc used for build.
124 - libssl compatible with the libssl used for build, if OpenSSL was
127 - On Linux, the same kernel version configured as part of the build.
129 - For optional support of ingress policing on Linux, the "tc" program
130 from iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at
131 http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2).
133 On Linux you should ensure that /dev/urandom exists. To support TAP
134 devices, you must also ensure that /dev/net/tun exists.
136 Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD
137 =================================================================
139 Once you have installed all the prerequisites listed above in the Base
140 Prerequisites section, follow the procedure below to build.
142 1. If you pulled the sources directly from an Open vSwitch Git tree,
143 run boot.sh in the top source directory:
147 2. In the top source directory, configure the package by running the
148 configure script. You can usually invoke configure without any
153 By default all files are installed under /usr/local. If you want
154 to install into, e.g., /usr and /var instead of /usr/local and
155 /usr/local/var, add options as shown here:
157 % ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var
159 To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user
160 programs, also specify it on the configure command line, like so:
162 % ./configure CC=gcc-4.2
164 To use 'clang' compiler:
166 % ./configure CC=clang
168 To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the
169 kernel-based switch, pass the location of the kernel build
170 directory on --with-linux. For example, to build for a running
173 % ./configure --with-linux=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
175 If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other
176 than the architecture of the machine used for the build, you may
177 specify the kernel architecture string using the KARCH variable
178 when invoking the configure script. For example, to build for MIPS
181 % ./configure --with-linux=/path/to/linux KARCH=mips
183 If you plan to do much Open vSwitch development, you might want to
184 add --enable-Werror, which adds the -Werror option to the compiler
185 command line, turning warnings into errors. That makes it
186 impossible to miss warnings generated by the build.
188 To build with gcov code coverage support, add --enable-coverage,
191 % ./configure --enable-coverage
193 The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors
194 additional environment variables. For a full list, invoke
195 configure with the --help option.
197 3. Run GNU make in the top source directory, e.g.:
201 or if GNU make is installed as "gmake":
205 For improved warnings if you installed "sparse" (see
206 "Prerequisites"), add C=1 to the command line.
208 4. Consider running the testsuite. Refer to "Running the Testsuite"
209 below, for instructions.
211 5. Become root by running "su" or another program.
213 6. Run "make install" to install the executables and manpages into the
214 running system, by default under /usr/local.
216 7. If you built kernel modules, you may install and load them, e.g.:
218 % make modules_install
219 % /sbin/modprobe openvswitch
221 To verify that the modules have been loaded, run "/sbin/lsmod" and
222 check that openvswitch is listed.
224 If the "modprobe" operation fails, look at the last few kernel log
225 messages (e.g. with "dmesg | tail"):
227 - The message "openvswitch: exports duplicate symbol
228 br_should_route_hook (owned by bridge)" means that the bridge
229 module is loaded. Run "/sbin/rmmod bridge" to remove it.
231 If "/sbin/rmmod bridge" fails with "ERROR: Module bridge does
232 not exist in /proc/modules", then the bridge is compiled into
233 the kernel, rather than as a module. Open vSwitch does not
234 support this configuration (see "Build Requirements", above).
236 - The message "openvswitch: exports duplicate symbol
237 dp_ioctl_hook (owned by ofdatapath)" means that the ofdatapath
238 module from the OpenFlow reference implementation is loaded.
239 Run "/sbin/rmmod ofdatapath" to remove it. (You might have to
240 delete any existing datapaths beforehand, using the "dpctl"
241 program included with the OpenFlow reference implementation.
242 "ovs-dpctl" will not work.)
244 - Otherwise, the most likely problem is that Open vSwitch was
245 built for a kernel different from the one into which you are
246 trying to load it. Run "modinfo" on openvswitch.ko and on
247 a module built for the running kernel, e.g.:
249 % /sbin/modinfo openvswitch.ko
250 % /sbin/modinfo /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/net/bridge/bridge.ko
252 Compare the "vermagic" lines output by the two commands. If
253 they differ, then Open vSwitch was built for the wrong kernel.
255 - If you decide to report a bug or ask a question related to
256 module loading, please include the output from the "dmesg" and
257 "modinfo" commands mentioned above.
259 There is an optional module parameter to openvswitch.ko called
260 vlan_tso that enables TCP segmentation offload over VLANs on NICs
261 that support it. Many drivers do not expose support for TSO on VLANs
262 in a way that Open vSwitch can use but there is no way to detect
263 whether this is the case. If you know that your particular driver can
264 handle it (for example by testing sending large TCP packets over VLANs)
265 then passing in a value of 1 may improve performance. Modules built for
266 Linux kernels 2.6.37 and later, as well as specially patched versions
267 of earlier kernels, do not need this and do not have this parameter. If
268 you do not understand what this means or do not know if your driver
269 will work, do not set this.
271 8. Initialize the configuration database using ovsdb-tool, e.g.:
273 % mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/openvswitch
274 % ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
279 Before starting ovs-vswitchd itself, you need to start its
280 configuration database, ovsdb-server. Each machine on which Open
281 vSwitch is installed should run its own copy of ovsdb-server.
282 Configure it to use the database you created during step 7 of
283 installation, above, to listen on a Unix domain socket, to connect to
284 any managers specified in the database itself, and to use the SSL
285 configuration in the database:
287 % ovsdb-server --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock \
288 --remote=db:Open_vSwitch,Open_vSwitch,manager_options \
289 --private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key \
290 --certificate=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,certificate \
291 --bootstrap-ca-cert=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,ca_cert \
294 (If you built Open vSwitch without SSL support, then omit
295 --private-key, --certificate, and --bootstrap-ca-cert.)
297 Then initialize the database using ovs-vsctl. This is only
298 necessary the first time after you create the database with
299 ovsdb-tool (but running it at any time is harmless):
301 % ovs-vsctl --no-wait init
303 Then start the main Open vSwitch daemon, telling it to connect to the
304 same Unix domain socket:
306 % ovs-vswitchd --pidfile --detach
308 Now you may use ovs-vsctl to set up bridges and other Open vSwitch
309 features. For example, to create a bridge named br0 and add ports
310 eth0 and vif1.0 to it:
312 % ovs-vsctl add-br br0
313 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0
314 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 vif1.0
316 Please refer to ovs-vsctl(8) for more details.
321 When you upgrade Open vSwitch from one version to another, you should
322 also upgrade the database schema:
324 1. Stop the Open vSwitch daemons, e.g.:
326 % kill `cd /usr/local/var/run/openvswitch && cat ovsdb-server.pid ovs-vswitchd.pid`
328 2. Install the new Open vSwitch release.
330 3. Upgrade the database, in one of the following two ways:
332 - If there is no important data in your database, then you may
333 delete the database file and recreate it with ovsdb-tool,
334 following the instructions under "Building and Installing Open
335 vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD".
337 - If you want to preserve the contents of your database, back it
338 up first, then use "ovsdb-tool convert" to upgrade it, e.g.:
340 % ovsdb-tool convert /usr/local/etc/openvswitch/conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
342 4. Start the Open vSwitch daemons as described under "Building and
343 Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD" above.
347 Upgrading Open vSwitch from one version to the next version with minimum
348 disruption of traffic going through the system that is using that Open vSwitch
349 needs some considerations:
351 1. If the upgrade only involves upgrading the userspace utilities and daemons
352 of Open vSwitch, make sure that the new userspace version is compatible with
353 the previously loaded kernel module.
355 2. An upgrade of userspace daemons means that they have to be restarted.
356 Restarting the daemons means that the Openflow flows in the ovs-vswitchd daemon
357 will be lost. One way to restore the flows is to let the controller
358 re-populate it. Another way is to save the previous flows using a utility
359 like ovs-ofctl and then re-add them after the restart. Restoring the old flows
360 is accurate only if the new Open vSwitch interfaces retain the old 'ofport'
363 3. When the new userspace daemons get restarted, they automatically flush
364 the old flows setup in the kernel. This can be expensive if there are hundreds
365 of new flows that are entering the kernel but userspace daemons are busy
366 setting up new userspace flows from either the controller or an utility like
367 ovs-ofctl. Open vSwitch database provides an option to solve this problem
368 through the other_config:flow-restore-wait column of the Open_vSwitch table.
369 Refer to the ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) manpage for details.
371 4. If the upgrade also involves upgrading the kernel module, the old kernel
372 module needs to be unloaded and the new kernel module should be loaded. This
373 means that the kernel network devices belonging to Open vSwitch is recreated
374 and the kernel flows are lost. The downtime of the traffic can be reduced
375 if the userspace daemons are restarted immediately and the userspace flows
376 are restored as soon as possible.
378 The ovs-ctl utility's "restart" function only restarts the userspace daemons,
379 makes sure that the 'ofport' values remain consistent across restarts, restores
380 userspace flows using the ovs-ofctl utility and also uses the
381 other_config:flow-restore-wait column to keep the traffic downtime to the
382 minimum. The ovs-ctl utility's "force-reload-kmod" function does all of the
383 above, but also replaces the old kernel module with the new one. Open vSwitch
384 startup scripts for Debian, XenServer and RHEL use ovs-ctl's functions and it
385 is recommended that these functions be used for other software platforms too.
390 This section describe Open vSwitch's built-in support for various test
391 suites. You must configure and build Open vSwitch (steps 1 through 3
392 in "Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux, FreeBSD or NetBSD"
393 above) before you run the tests described here. You do not need to
394 install Open vSwitch or to build or load the kernel module to run
395 these test suites. You do not need supervisor privilege to run these
401 Open vSwitch includes a suite of self-tests. Before you submit patches
402 upstream, we advise that you run the tests and ensure that they pass.
403 If you add new features to Open vSwitch, then adding tests for those
404 features will ensure your features don't break as developers modify
405 other areas of Open vSwitch.
407 Refer to "Testsuites" above for prerequisites.
409 To run all the unit tests in Open vSwitch, one at a time:
411 This takes under 5 minutes on a modern desktop system.
413 To run all the unit tests in Open vSwitch, up to 8 in parallel:
414 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=-j8
415 This takes under a minute on a modern 4-core desktop system.
417 To see a list of all the available tests, run:
418 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=--list
420 To run only a subset of tests, e.g. test 123 and tests 477 through 484:
421 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='123 477-484'
422 (Tests do not have inter-dependencies, so you may run any subset.)
424 To run tests matching a keyword, e.g. "ovsdb":
425 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS='-k ovsdb'
427 To see a complete list of test options:
428 make check TESTSUITEFLAGS=--help
430 The results of a testing run are reported in tests/testsuite.log.
431 Please report test failures as bugs and include the testsuite.log in
434 If you have "valgrind" installed, then you can also run the testsuite
435 under valgrind by using "make check-valgrind" in place of "make
436 check". All the same options are available via TESTSUITEFLAGS. When
437 you do this, the "valgrind" results for test <N> are reported in files
438 named tests/testsuite.dir/<N>/valgrind.*. You may find that the
439 valgrind results are easier to interpret if you put "-q" in
440 ~/.valgrindrc, since that reduces the amount of output.
442 Sometimes a few tests may fail on some runs but not others. This is
443 usually a bug in the testsuite, not a bug in Open vSwitch itself. If
444 you find that a test fails intermittently, please report it, since the
445 developers may not have noticed.
450 OFTest is an OpenFlow protocol testing suite. Open vSwitch includes a
451 Makefile target to run OFTest with Open vSwitch in "dummy mode". In
452 this mode of testing, no packets travel across physical or virtual
453 networks. Instead, Unix domain sockets stand in as simulated
454 networks. This simulation is imperfect, but it is much easier to set
455 up, does not require extra physical or virtual hardware, and does not
456 require supervisor privileges.
458 To run OFTest with Open vSwitch, first read and follow the
459 instructions under "Testsuites" above. Second, obtain a copy of
460 OFTest and install its prerequisites. You need a copy of OFTest that
461 includes commit 406614846c5 (make ovs-dummy platform work again).
462 This commit was merged into the OFTest repository on Feb 1, 2013, so
463 any copy of OFTest more recent than that should work. Testing OVS in
464 dummy mode does not require root privilege, so you may ignore that
467 Optionally, add the top-level OFTest directory (containing the "oft"
468 program) to your $PATH. This slightly simplifies running OFTest later.
470 To run OFTest in dummy mode, run the following command from your Open
471 vSwitch build directory:
472 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary>
473 where <oft-binary> is the absolute path to the "oft" program in
476 If you added "oft" to your $PATH, you may omit the OFT variable
479 By default, "check-oftest" passes "oft" just enough options to enable
480 dummy mode. You can use OFTFLAGS to pass additional options. For
481 example, to run just the basic.Echo test instead of all tests (the
482 default) and enable verbose logging:
483 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary> OFTFLAGS='--verbose -T basic.Echo'
485 If you use OFTest that does not include commit 4d1f3eb2c792 (oft:
486 change default port to 6653), merged into the OFTest repository in
487 October 2013, then you need to add an option to use the IETF-assigned
489 make check-oftest OFT=<oft-binary> OFTFLAGS='--port=6653'
491 Please interpret OFTest results cautiously. Open vSwitch can fail a
492 given test in OFTest for many reasons, including bugs in Open vSwitch,
493 bugs in OFTest, bugs in the "dummy mode" integration, and differing
494 interpretations of the OpenFlow standard and other standards.
496 Open vSwitch has not been validated against OFTest. Please do report
497 test failures that you believe to represent bugs in Open vSwitch.
498 Include the precise versions of Open vSwitch and OFTest in your bug
499 report, plus any other information needed to reproduce the problem.
504 Ryu is an OpenFlow controller written in Python that includes an
505 extensive OpenFlow testsuite. Open vSwitch includes a Makefile target
506 to run Ryu in "dummy mode". See "OFTest" above for an explanation of
509 To run Ryu tests with Open vSwitch, first read and follow the
510 instructions under "Testsuites" above. Second, obtain a copy of Ryu,
511 install its prerequisites, and build it. You do not need to install
512 Ryu (some of the tests do not get installed, so it does not help).
514 To run Ryu tests, run the following command from your Open vSwitch
516 make check-ryu RYUDIR=<ryu-source-dir>
517 where <ryu-source-dir> is the absolute path to the root of the Ryu
518 source distribution. The default <ryu-source-dir> is $srcdir/../ryu
519 where $srcdir is your Open vSwitch source directory, so if this
520 default is correct then you make simply run "make check-ryu".
522 Open vSwitch has not been validated against Ryu. Please do report
523 test failures that you believe to represent bugs in Open vSwitch.
524 Include the precise versions of Open vSwitch and Ryu in your bug
525 report, plus any other information needed to reproduce the problem.
530 Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.