3 - The default OpenFlow and OVSDB ports will change to
4 IANA-assigned numbers in a future release. Consider updating
5 your installations to specify port numbers instead of using the
8 * The OpenFlow 1.1+ "Write-Actions" instruction is now supported.
13 - The ovs-vswitchd process is no longer single-threaded. Multiple
14 threads are now used to handle flow set up and asynchronous
17 * Experimental support for OpenFlow 1.1 (in addition to 1.2 and
18 1.3, which had experimental support in 1.10).
19 * Experimental protocol support for OpenFlow 1.1+ groups. This
20 does not yet include an implementation in the Open vSwitch
22 * Experimental protocol support for OpenFlow 1.2+ meters. This
23 does not yet include an implementation in the Open vSwitch
25 * New support for matching outer source and destination IP address
26 of tunneled packets, for tunnel ports configured with the newly
27 added "remote_ip=flow" and "local_ip=flow" options.
28 * Support for matching on metadata 'pkt_mark' for interacting with
29 other system components. On Linux this corresponds to the skb
31 * Support matching, rewriting SCTP ports
32 - The Interface table in the database has a new "ifindex" column to
33 report the interface's OS-assigned ifindex.
34 - New "check-oftest" Makefile target for running OFTest against Open
35 vSwitch. See README-OFTest for details.
36 - The flow eviction threshold has been moved to the Open_vSwitch table.
37 - Database names are now mandatory when specifying ovsdb-server options
38 through database paths (e.g. Private key option with the database name
39 should look like "--private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key").
40 - Added ovs-dev.py, a utility script helpful for Open vSwitch developers.
41 - Support for Linux kernels up to 3.10
43 * New "ofp-parse" for printing OpenFlow messages read from a file.
44 * New commands for OpenFlow 1.1+ groups.
45 - Added configurable flow caching support to IPFIX exporter.
46 - Dropped support for Linux pre-2.6.32.
47 - Log file timestamps and ovsdb commit timestamps are now reported
48 with millisecond resolution. (Previous versions only reported
54 - Support for megaflows, which allows wildcarding in the kernel (and
55 any dpif implementation that supports wildcards). Depending on
56 the flow table and switch configuration, flow set up rates are
57 close to the Linux bridge.
58 - The "tutorial" directory contains a new tutorial for some advanced
59 Open vSwitch features.
60 - Stable bond mode has been removed.
61 - The autopath action has been removed.
62 - New support for the data encapsulation format of the LISP tunnel
63 protocol (RFC 6830). An external control plane or manual flow
64 setup is required for EID-to-RLOC mapping.
66 * The "dec_mpls_ttl" and "set_mpls_ttl" actions from OpenFlow
67 1.1 and later are now implemented.
68 * New "stack" extension for use in actions, to push and pop from
70 * The "load" and "set_field" actions can now modify the "in_port". (This
71 allows one to enable output to a flow's input port by setting the
72 in_port to some unused value, such as OFPP_NONE.)
74 * New debugging commands "add-flow", "mod-flow", "del-flow".
75 * "dump-flows" now has a -m option to increase output verbosity.
76 - In dpif-based bridges, cache action translations, which can improve
77 flow set up performance by 80% with a complicated flow table.
78 - New syslog format, prefixed with "ovs|", to be easier to filter.
79 - RHEL: Removes the default firewall rule that allowed GRE traffic to
80 pass through. Any users that relied on this automatic firewall hole
81 will have to manually configure it. The ovs-ctl(8) manpage documents
82 the "enable-protocol" command that can be used as an alternative.
83 - New CFM demand mode which uses data traffic to indicate interface
88 - Bridge compatibility support has been removed. Any uses that
89 rely on ovs-brcompatd will have to stick with Open vSwitch 1.9.x
90 or adapt to native Open vSwitch support (e.g. use ovs-vsctl instead
92 - The maximum size of the MAC learning table is now configurable.
93 - With the Linux datapath, packets for new flows are now queued
94 separately on a per-port basis, so it should no longer be
95 possible for a large number of new flows arriving on one port to
96 prevent new flows from being processed on other ports.
98 * Previously ovs-vsctl would retry connecting to the database forever,
99 causing it to hang if ovsdb-server was not running. Now, ovs-vsctl
100 only tries once by default (use --retry to try forever). This change
101 means that you may want to remove uses of --timeout to avoid hangs
103 * Many "ovs-vsctl" database commands now accept an --if-exists option.
104 Please refer to the ovs-vsctl manpage for details.
106 - Experimental support for newer versions of OpenFlow. See
107 the "What versions of OpenFlow does Open vSwitch support?"
108 question in the FAQ for more details.
109 - The OpenFlow "dp_desc" may now be configured by setting the
110 value of other-config:dp-desc in the Bridge table.
111 - It is possible to request the OpenFlow port number with the
112 "ofport_request" column in the Interface table.
113 - The NXM flow_removed message now reports the OpenFlow table ID
114 from which the flow was removed.
116 - New support for the VXLAN tunnel protocol (see the IETF draft here:
117 http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-03).
118 - Tunneling requires the version of the kernel module paired with
119 Open vSwitch 1.9.0 or later.
120 - Inheritance of the Don't Fragment bit in IP tunnels (df_inherit)
121 is no longer supported.
122 - Path MTU discovery is no longer supported.
123 - CAPWAP tunneling support removed.
124 - Tunnels with multicast destination ports are no longer supported.
126 - The "dump-flows" and "del-flows" no longer require an argument
127 if only one datapath exists.
129 - New "vlog/disable-rate-limit" and "vlog/enable-rate-limit"
130 commands available allow control over logging rate limits.
131 - New "dpif/dump-dps", "dpif/show", and "dpif/dump-flows" command
132 that mimic the equivalent ovs-dpctl commands.
133 - The ofproto library is now responsible for assigning OpenFlow port
134 numbers. An ofproto implementation should assign them when
135 port_construct() is called.
136 - All dpif-based bridges of a particular type share a common
137 datapath called "ovs-<type>", e.g. "ovs-system". The ovs-dpctl
138 commands will now return information on that shared datapath. To
139 get the equivalent bridge-specific information, use the new
140 "ovs-appctl dpif/*" commands.
141 - Backward-incompatible changes:
142 - Earlier Open vSwitch versions treated ANY as a wildcard in flow
143 syntax. OpenFlow 1.1 adds a port named ANY, which introduces a
144 conflict. ANY was rarely used in flow syntax, so we chose to
145 retire that meaning of ANY in favor of the OpenFlow 1.1 meaning.
146 - Patch ports no longer require kernel support, so they now work
147 with FreeBSD and the kernel module built into Linux 3.3 and later.
148 - New "sample" action.
152 ------------------------
154 - Support for ipv6 set action.
155 - SKB mark matching and setting.
156 - support for Linux kernels up to 3.8
157 - FreeBSD is now a supported platform, thanks to code contributions from
158 Gaetano Catalli, Ed Maste, and Giuseppe Lettieri.
159 - ovs-bugtool: New --ovs option to report only OVS related information.
160 - New %t and %T log escapes to identify the subprogram within a
161 cooperating group of processes or threads that emitted a log message.
162 The default log patterns now include this information.
164 - Allow bitwise masking for SHA and THA fields in ARP, SLL and TLL
165 fields in IPv6 neighbor discovery messages, and IPv6 flow label.
166 - Adds support for writing to the metadata field for a flow.
168 - The tunneling code no longer assumes input and output keys are
169 symmetric. If they are not, PMTUD needs to be disabled for
170 tunneling to work. Note this only applies to flow-based keys.
171 - New support for a nonstandard form of GRE that supports a 64-bit key.
172 - Tunnel Path MTU Discovery default value was set to 'disabled'.
173 This feature is deprecated and will be removed soon.
174 - Tunnel header caching removed.
176 - Commands and actions that accept port numbers now also accept keywords
177 that represent those ports (such as LOCAL, NONE, and ALL). This is
178 also the recommended way to specify these ports, for compatibility
179 with OpenFlow 1.1 and later (which use the OpenFlow 1.0 numbers
180 for these ports for different purposes).
182 - Support requesting the port number with the "port_no" option in
183 the "add-if" command.
184 - ovs-pki: The "online PKI" features have been removed, along with
185 the ovs-pki-cgi program that facilitated it, because of some
186 alarmist insecurity claims. We do not believe that these claims
187 are true, but because we do not know of any users for this
188 feature it seems better on balance to remove it. (The ovs-pki-cgi
189 program was not included in distribution packaging.)
190 - ovsdb-server now enforces the immutability of immutable columns. This
191 was not enforced in earlier versions due to an oversight.
192 - The following features are now deprecated. They will be removed no
193 earlier than February 2013. Please email dev@openvswitch.org with
195 - Bridge compatibility.
197 - The autopath action.
198 - Interface type "null".
199 - Numeric values for reserved ports (see "ovs-ofctl" note above).
200 - Tunnel Path MTU Discovery.
201 - CAPWAP tunnel support.
202 - The data in the RARP packets can now be matched in the same way as the
207 ------------------------
208 *** Internal only release ***
209 - New FAQ. Please send updates and additions!
210 - Authors of controllers, please read the new section titled "Action
211 Reproduction" in DESIGN, which describes an Open vSwitch change in
212 behavior in corner cases that may affect some controllers.
214 - A new test utility that can create L3 tunnel between two Open
215 vSwitches and detect connectivity issues.
217 - New --sort and --rsort options for "dump-flows" command.
218 - "mod-port" command can now control all OpenFlow config flags.
220 - Allow general bitwise masking for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in
221 IPv4, IPv6, and ARP packets. (Previously, only CIDR masks
223 - Allow support for arbitrary Ethernet masks. (Previously, only
224 the multicast bit in the destination address could be individually
226 - New field OXM_OF_METADATA, to align with OpenFlow 1.1.
227 - The OFPST_QUEUE request now reports an error if a specified port or
228 queue does not exist, or for requests for a specific queue on all
229 ports, if the specified queue does not exist on any port. (Previous
230 versions generally reported an empty set of results.)
231 - New "flow monitor" feature to allow controllers to be notified of
232 flow table changes as they happen.
233 - Additional protocols are not mirrored and dropped when forward-bpdu is
234 false. For a full list, see the ovs-vswitchd.conf.db man page.
235 - Open vSwitch now sends RARP packets in situations where it previously
236 sent a custom protocol, making it consistent with behavior of QEMU and
238 - All Open vSwitch programs and log files now show timestamps in UTC,
239 instead the local timezone, by default.
243 ------------------------
244 - kernel modules are renamed. openvswitch_mod.ko is now
245 openvswitch.ko and brcompat_mod.ko is now brcompat.ko.
246 - Increased the number of NXM registers to 8.
247 - Added ability to configure DSCP setting for manager and controller
248 connections. By default, these connections have a DSCP value of
249 Internetwork Control (0xc0).
250 - Added the granular link health statistics, 'cfm_health', to an
253 - Added support to mask nd_target for ICMPv6 neighbor discovery flows.
254 - Added support for OpenFlow 1.3 port description (OFPMP_PORT_DESC)
257 - Added the "dump-ports-desc" command to retrieve port
258 information using the new port description multipart messages.
260 - Added support for spawning ovs-test server from the client.
261 - Now ovs-test is able to automatically create test bridges and ports.
262 - "ovs-dpctl dump-flows" now prints observed TCP flags in TCP flows.
263 - Tripled flow setup performance.
264 - The "coverage/log" command previously available through ovs-appctl
265 has been replaced by "coverage/show". The new command replies with
266 coverage counter values, instead of logging them.
270 ------------------------
271 - Allow OFPP_CONTROLLER as the in_port for packet-out messages.
275 ------------------------
276 *** Internal only release ***
278 - LACP bonds no longer fall back to balance-slb when negotiations fail.
279 Instead they drop traffic.
280 - The default bond_mode changed from SLB to active-backup, to protect
281 unsuspecting users from the significant risks of SLB bonds (which are
282 documented in vswitchd/INTERNALS).
283 - Load balancing can be disabled by setting the bond-rebalance-interval
286 - Added support for bitwise matching on TCP and UDP ports.
287 See ovs-ofctl(8) for more information.
288 - NXM flow dumps now include times elapsed toward idle and hard
290 - Added an OpenFlow extension NXT_SET_ASYNC_CONFIG that allows
291 controllers more precise control over which OpenFlow messages they
292 receive asynchronously.
293 - New "fin_timeout" action.
294 - Added "fin_timeout" support to "learn" action.
295 - New Nicira action NXAST_CONTROLLER that offers additional features
296 over output to OFPP_CONTROLLER.
297 - When QoS settings for an interface do not configure a default queue
298 (queue 0), Open vSwitch now uses a default configuration for that
299 queue, instead of dropping all packets as in previous versions.
301 - Logging to console and file will have UTC timestamp as a default for
302 all the daemons. An example of the default format is
303 2012-01-27T16:35:17Z. ovs-appctl can be used to change the default
305 - The syntax of commands and options to set log levels was simplified,
306 to make it easier to remember.
307 - New support for limiting the number of flows in an OpenFlow flow
308 table, with configurable policy for evicting flows upon
309 overflow. See the Flow_Table table in ovs-vswitch.conf.db(5)
310 for more information.
311 - New "enable-async-messages" column in the Controller table. If set to
312 false, OpenFlow connections to the controller will initially have all
313 asynchronous messages disabled, overriding normal OpenFlow behavior.
314 - ofproto-provider interface:
315 - "struct rule" has a new member "used" that ofproto implementations
316 should maintain by updating with ofproto_rule_update_used().
318 - The new option --timestamp causes the "monitor" command to print
319 a timestamp with every update.
320 - CFM module CCM broadcasts can now be tagged with an 802.1p priority.
324 ------------------------
326 - Added support for querying, modifying, and deleting flows
327 based on flow cookie when using NXM.
328 - Added new NXM_PACKET_IN format.
329 - Added new NXAST_DEC_TTL action.
331 - Added daemonization support to the monitor and snoop commands.
333 - The "find" command supports new set relational operators
334 {=}, {!=}, {<}, {>}, {<=}, and {>=}.
335 - ovsdb-tool now uses the typical database and schema installation
336 directories as defaults.
337 - The default MAC learning timeout has been increased from 60 seconds
338 to 300 seconds. The MAC learning timeout is now configurable.
342 ------------------------
343 - Compatible with Open vSwitch kernel module included in Linux 3.3.
344 - New "VLAN splinters" feature to work around buggy device drivers
345 in old Linux versions. (This feature is deprecated. When
346 broken device drivers are no longer in widespread use, we will
347 delete this feature.) See ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for more
350 - Added ability to match on IPv6 flow label through NXM.
351 - Added ability to match on ECN bits in IPv4 and IPv6 through NXM.
352 - Added ability to match on TTL in IPv4 and IPv6 through NXM.
353 - Added ability to modify ECN bits in IPv4.
354 - Added ability to modify TTL in IPv4.
356 - Don't require the "normal" action to use mirrors. Traffic will
357 now be properly mirrored for any flows, regardless of their
359 - Track packet and byte statistics sent on mirrors.
360 - The sFlow implementation can now usually infer the correct agent
361 device instead of having to be told explicitly.
363 - New "fdb/flush" command to flush bridge's MAC learning table.
365 - A new distributed testing tool that allows one to diagnose performance
366 and connectivity issues. This tool currently is not included in RH or
368 - RHEL packaging now supports integration with Red Hat network scripts.
370 - Post 1.4.*, OVS will be changing the default bond mode from balance-slb
371 to active-backup. SLB bonds carry significant risks with them
372 (documented vswitchd/INTERNALS) which we want to prevent unsuspecting
373 users from running into. Users are advised to update any scripts or
374 configuration which may be negatively impacted by explicitly setting
375 the bond mode which they want to use.
379 ------------------------
381 - Added an OpenFlow extension which allows the "output" action to accept
383 - Added an OpenFlow extension for flexible learning.
384 - Bumped number of NXM registers from four to five.
386 - New "version" command to determine version of running daemon.
387 - If no argument is provided for "cfm/show", displays detailed
388 information about all interfaces with CFM enabled.
389 - If no argument is provided for "lacp/show", displays detailed
390 information about all ports with LACP enabled.
392 - New "set-if" command to modify a datapath port's configuration.
394 - The software switch now supports 255 OpenFlow tables, instead
395 of just one. By default, only table 0 is consulted, but the
396 new NXAST_RESUBMIT_TABLE action can look up in additional
397 tables. Tables 128 and above are reserved for use by the
398 switch itself; please use only tables 0 through 127.
399 - Add support for 802.1D spanning tree (STP).
400 - Fragment handling extensions:
401 - New OFPC_FRAG_NX_MATCH fragment handling mode, in which L4
402 fields are made available for matching in fragments with
404 - New NXM_NX_IP_FRAG match field for matching IP fragments (usable
405 via "ip_frag" in ovs-ofctl).
406 - New ovs-ofctl "get-frags" and "set-frags" commands to get and set
407 fragment handling policy.
408 - CAPWAP tunneling now supports an extension to transport a 64-bit key.
409 By default it remains compatible with the old version and other
410 standards-based implementations.
411 - Flow setups are now processed in a round-robin manner across ports
412 to prevent any single client from monopolizing the CPU and conducting
413 a denial of service attack.
414 - Added support for native VLAN tagging. A new "vlan_mode"
415 parameter can be set for "port". Possible values: "access",
416 "trunk", "native-tagged" and "native-untagged".
417 - test-openflowd has been removed. Please use ovs-vswitchd instead.
420 ------------------------
421 - New "ofproto" abstraction layer to ease porting to hardware
423 - Packaging for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 and 6.0.
424 - Datapath support for Linux kernels up to 3.0.
426 - New "bundle" and "bundle_load" action extensions.
428 - Implement table unique constraints.
429 - Support cooperative locking between callers.
431 - New "-s" option for "show" command prints packet and byte
432 counters for each port.
434 - New "--readd" option for "replace-flows".
436 - New "show" command to print an overview of configuration.
437 - New "comment" command to add remark that explains intentions.
438 - ovs-brcompatd has been rewritten to fix long-standing bugs.
439 - ovs-openflowd has been renamed test-openflowd and moved into the
440 tests directory. Its presence confused too many users. Please
441 use ovs-vswitchd instead.
442 - New ovs-benchmark utility to test flow setup performance.
443 - A new log level "off" has been added. Configuring a log facility
444 "off" prevents any messages from being logged to it. Previously,
445 "emer" was effectively "off" because no messages were ever logged at
446 level "emer". Now, errors that cause a process to exit are logged
448 - "configure" option --with-l26 has been renamed --with-linux, and
449 --with-l26-source has been renamed --with-linux-source. The old
450 names will be removed after the next release, so please update
452 - The "-2.6" suffix has been dropped from the datapath/linux-2.6 and
453 datapath/linux-2.6/compat-2.6 directories.
455 - Dropped support for "tun_id_from_cookie" OpenFlow extension.
456 Please use the extensible match extensions instead.
457 - Removed the Maintenance_Point and Monitor tables in an effort
458 to simplify 802.1ag configuration.
459 - Performance and scalability improvements
463 ------------------------
464 - Ability to define policies over IPv6
467 - Support for extensible match extensions to OpenFlow
469 - Support for HFSC qdisc.
470 - Queue used by in-band control can now be configured.
472 - Kernel<->userspace interface has been reworked and should be
473 close to a stable ABI now.
474 - "Port group" concept has been dropped.
475 - GRE over IPSEC tunnels
477 - New active backup bonding mode.
478 - New L4 hashing support when LACP is enabled.
479 - Source MAC hash now includes VLAN field also.
481 - Greatly improved handling of large flow tables
483 - "show" command now prints full vport configuration.
484 - "dump-groups" command removed since kernel support for
485 port groups was dropped.
487 - New commands for working with the new Managers table.
488 - "list" command enhanced with new formatting options and --columns
490 - "get" command now accepts new --id option.
491 - New "find" command.
493 - New "queue-stats" command for printing queue stats.
494 - New commands "replace-flows" and "diff-flows".
495 - Commands to add and remove flows can now read from files.
496 - New --flow-format option to enable or disable NXM.
497 - New --more option to increase OpenFlow message verbosity.
498 - Removed "tun-cookie" command, which is no longer useful.
499 - ovs-controller enhancements for testing various features.
500 - New ovs-vlan-test command for testing for Linux kernel driver VLAN
501 bugs. New ovs-vlan-bug-workaround command for enabling and
502 disabling a workaround for these driver bugs.
504 - "Resubmit" actions now update flow statistics.
505 - New "register" extension for use in matching and actions, via NXM.
506 - New "multipath" experimental action extension.
507 - New support for matching multicast Ethernet frames, via NXM.
508 - New extension for OpenFlow vendor error codes.
509 - New extension to set the QoS output queue without actually
510 sending to an output port.
511 - Open vSwitch now reports a single flow table, instead of
512 separate hash and wildcard tables. This better models the
513 current implementation.
514 - New experimental "note" action.
515 - New "ofproto/trace" ovs-appctl command and associated utilities
516 to ease debugging complex flow tables.
518 - Schema documentation now includes an entity-relationship diagram.
519 - The database is now garbage collected. In most tables,
520 unreferenced rows will be deleted automatically.
521 - Many tables now include statistics updated periodically by
522 ovs-vswitchd or ovsdb-server.
523 - Every table now has an "external-ids" column for use by OVS
525 - There is no default controller anymore. Each bridge must have its
526 controller individually specified.
527 - The "fail-mode" is now a property of a Bridge instead of a Controller.
528 - New versioning and checksum features.
529 - New Managers table and manager_options column in Open_vSwitch table
530 for specifying managers. The old "managers" column in the
531 Open_vSwitch table has been removed.
532 - Many "name" columns are now immutable.
534 - Dropped support for XenServer pre-5.6.100.
535 - Dropped support for Linux pre-2.6.18.
536 - Dropped controller discovery support.
537 - Dropped "ovs-ofctl status" and the OpenFlow extension that it used.
538 Statistics reporting in the database is a rough equivalent.
539 - Dropped the "corekeeper" package (now separate, at
540 http://openvswitch.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=corekeeper).
541 - Performance and scalability improvements
544 v1.1.0pre2 - 13 Sep 2010
545 ------------------------
548 v1.1.0pre1 - 31 Aug 2010
549 ------------------------
550 - OpenFlow 1.0 slicing (QoS) functionality
551 - Python bindings for configuration database (no write support)
552 - Performance and scalability improvements
557 - New "patch" interface type
562 - Configuration database with remote management
565 - Support for XenServer 5.5 and 5.6
566 - Performance and scalability improvements
569 v0.99.2 - 18 Feb 2010
570 ---------------------
573 v0.99.1 - 25 Jan 2010
574 ---------------------
575 - Add support for sFlow(R)
576 - Make headers compatible with C++
579 v0.99.0 - 14 Jan 2010
580 ---------------------
581 - User-space forwarding engine
584 v0.90.7 - 29 Nov 2009
585 ---------------------
586 - Add support for NetFlow active timeouts
593 v0.90.5 - 21 Sep 2009
594 ---------------------
595 - Generalize in-band control to more diverse network setups