1 How to Install Open vSwitch on Linux
2 ====================================
4 This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a
5 generic Linux host. If you want to install Open vSwitch on a Citrix
6 XenServer version 5.5.0, see INSTALL.XenServer instead.
8 This version of Open vSwitch should be built manually with "configure"
9 and "make". Debian packaging for Open vSwitch is also included, but
10 they have not been recently tested, and so Debian packages are not a
11 recommended way to use this version of Open vSwitch.
16 To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution,
17 you will need the following software:
19 - A make program, e.g. GNU make. BSD make should also work.
21 - The GNU C compiler. We generally test with version 4.1, 4.2, or
24 - libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to
25 connect the Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is
26 required to establish confidentiality and authenticity in the
27 connections from an Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. To
28 enable, configure with --enable-ssl=yes.
30 To compile the kernel module, you must also install the following. If
31 you cannot build or install the kernel module, you may use the
32 userspace-only implementation, at a cost in performance. The
33 userspace implementation may also lack some features. Refer to
34 INSTALL.userspace for more information.
36 - A supported Linux kernel version. Please refer to README for a
37 list of supported versions.
39 The Open vSwitch datapath requires bridging support
40 (CONFIG_BRIDGE) to be built as a kernel module. (This is common
41 in kernels provided by Linux distributions.) The bridge module
42 must not be loaded or in use. If the bridge module is running
43 (check with "lsmod | grep bridge"), you must remove it ("rmmod
44 bridge") before starting the datapath.
46 For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel
47 configuration options NET_CLS_ACT, NET_CLS_U32, NET_SCH_INGRESS,
48 and NET_ACT_POLICE, either built-in or as modules.
49 (NET_CLS_POLICE is obsolete and not needed.)
51 - To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that
52 was used to build that kernel.
54 - A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image
55 the module is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example,
56 each linux-image package containing a kernel binary has a
57 corresponding linux-headers package with the required build
60 If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a
61 distribution tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system,
62 you will also need the following software:
64 - Autoconf version 2.64 or later.
66 - Automake version 1.10 or later.
68 - pkg-config. We test with version 0.22.
70 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
72 If you modify the ovsdbmonitor tool, then you will also need the
75 - pyuic4 from PyQt4 (http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk).
77 Installation Requirements
78 -------------------------
80 The machine on which Open vSwitch is to be installed must have the
83 - libc compatible with the libc used for build.
85 - libssl compatible with the libssl used for build, if OpenSSL was
88 - The Linux kernel version configured as part of the build.
90 - For optional support of ingress policing, the "tc" program from
91 iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at
92 http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2).
94 - For debugging purposes, Open vSwitch expects that "tcpdump" is
95 installed as /usr/sbin/tcpdump. If tcpdump is not installed, or
96 if it is installed in a different location, then some Open
97 vSwitch log messages will not be as detailed.
99 To run the ovsdmonitor tool, the machine must also have the following
102 - Python 2.x, for x >= 4.
104 - Python Twisted Conch.
110 - Python Zope interface module.
112 (On Debian "lenny" the above can be installed with "apt-get install
113 python-json python-qt4 python-zopeinterface python-twisted-conch".)
115 Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux
116 ==============================================
118 Once you have installed all the prerequisites listed above in the Base
119 Prerequisites section, follow the procedure below to build.
121 1. If you pulled the sources directly from an Open vSwitch Git tree,
122 run boot.sh in the top source directory:
126 2. In the top source directory, configure the package by running the
127 configure script. You can usually invoke configure without any
132 By default all files are installed under /usr/local. If you want
133 to install into, e.g., /usr and /var instead of /usr/local and
134 /usr/local/var, add options as shown here:
136 % ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var
138 To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user
139 programs, also specify it on the configure command line, like so:
141 % ./configure CC=gcc-4.2
143 To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the
144 kernel-based switch, pass the location of the kernel build
145 directory on --with-l26. For example, to build for a running
146 instance of Linux 2.6:
148 % ./configure --with-l26=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
150 If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other
151 than the architecture of the machine used for the build, you may
152 specify the kernel architecture string using the KARCH variable
153 when invoking the configure script. For example, to build for MIPS
156 % ./configure --with-l26=/path/to/linux-2.6 KARCH=mips
158 The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors
159 additional environment variables. For a full list, invoke
160 configure with the --help option.
162 3. Run make in the top source directory:
166 4. Become root by running "su" or another program.
168 5. Run "make install" to install the executables and manpages into the
169 running system, by default under /usr/local.
171 6. If you built kernel modules, you may load them with "insmod", e.g.:
173 % insmod datapath/linux-2.6/openvswitch_mod.ko
175 You may need to specify a full path to insmod, e.g. /sbin/insmod.
176 To verify that the modules have been loaded, run "/sbin/lsmod" and
177 check that openvswitch_mod is listed.
179 7. Initialize the configuration database using ovsdb-tool, e.g.:
181 % ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/ovs-vswitchd.conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema
186 Before starting ovs-vswitchd itself, you need to start its
187 configuration database, ovsdb-server. Configure it to use the
188 database you created during step 7 of installation, above, and to
189 listen on a Unix domain socket, e.g.:
191 % ovsdb-server /usr/local/etc/ovs-vswitchd.conf.db --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock
193 Then initialize the database with "ovs-vsctl init". This is only
194 necessary the first time after you create the database with
195 ovsdb-tool (but running it at any time is harmless):
199 Then start the main Open vSwitch daemon, telling it to connect to the
200 same Unix domain socket:
202 % ovs-vswitchd unix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock
204 Now you may use ovs-vsctl to set up bridges and other Open vSwitch
205 features. For example, to create a bridge named br0 and add ports
206 eth0 and vif1.0 to it:
208 % ovs-vsctl add-br br0
209 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0
210 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 vif1.0
212 Please refer to ovs-vsctl(8) for more details.
217 Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.