8 * Experimental support for OpenFlow 1.1 (in addition to 1.2 and
9 1.3, which had experimental support in 1.10).
10 * Experimental protocol support for OpenFlow 1.1+ groups. This
11 does not yet include an implementation in the Open vSwitch
13 * Experimental protocol support for OpenFlow 1.2+ meters. This
14 does not yet include an implementation in the Open vSwitch
16 * New support for matching outer source and destination IP address
17 of tunneled packets, for tunnel ports configured with the newly
18 added "remote_ip=flow" and "local_ip=flow" options.
19 * Support for matching on metadata 'pkt_mark' for interacting with
20 other system components. On Linux this corresponds to the skb
22 * Support matching, rewriting SCTP ports
23 - The Interface table in the database has a new "ifindex" column to
24 report the interface's OS-assigned ifindex.
25 - New "check-oftest" Makefile target for running OFTest against Open
26 vSwitch. See README-OFTest for details.
27 - The flow eviction threshold has been moved to the Open_vSwitch table.
28 - Database names are now mandatory when specifying ovsdb-server options
29 through database paths (e.g. Private key option with the database name
30 should look like "--private-key=db:Open_vSwitch,SSL,private_key").
31 - Added ovs-dev.py, a utility script helpful for Open vSwitch developers.
32 - Support for Linux kernels up to 3.10
34 * New "ofp-parse" for printing OpenFlow messages read from a file.
35 * New commands for OpenFlow 1.1+ groups.
36 - Added configurable flow caching support to IPFIX exporter.
37 - Dropped support for Linux pre-2.6.32.
38 - Log file timestamps and ovsdb commit timestamps are now reported
39 with millisecond resolution. (Previous versions only reported
45 - Support for megaflows, which allows wildcarding in the kernel (and
46 any dpif implementation that supports wildcards). Depending on
47 the flow table and switch configuration, flow set up rates are
48 close to the Linux bridge.
49 - The "tutorial" directory contains a new tutorial for some advanced
50 Open vSwitch features.
51 - Stable bond mode has been removed.
52 - The autopath action has been removed.
53 - New support for the data encapsulation format of the LISP tunnel
54 protocol (RFC 6830). An external control plane or manual flow
55 setup is required for EID-to-RLOC mapping.
57 * The "dec_mpls_ttl" and "set_mpls_ttl" actions from OpenFlow
58 1.1 and later are now implemented.
59 * New "stack" extension for use in actions, to push and pop from
61 * The "load" and "set_field" actions can now modify the "in_port". (This
62 allows one to enable output to a flow's input port by setting the
63 in_port to some unused value, such as OFPP_NONE.)
65 * New debugging commands "add-flow", "mod-flow", "del-flow".
66 * "dump-flows" now has a -m option to increase output verbosity.
67 - In dpif-based bridges, cache action translations, which can improve
68 flow set up performance by 80% with a complicated flow table.
69 - New syslog format, prefixed with "ovs|", to be easier to filter.
70 - RHEL: Removes the default firewall rule that allowed GRE traffic to
71 pass through. Any users that relied on this automatic firewall hole
72 will have to manually configure it. The ovs-ctl(8) manpage documents
73 the "enable-protocol" command that can be used as an alternative.
74 - New CFM demand mode which uses data traffic to indicate interface
79 - Bridge compatibility support has been removed. Any uses that
80 rely on ovs-brcompatd will have to stick with Open vSwitch 1.9.x
81 or adapt to native Open vSwitch support (e.g. use ovs-vsctl instead
83 - The maximum size of the MAC learning table is now configurable.
84 - With the Linux datapath, packets for new flows are now queued
85 separately on a per-port basis, so it should no longer be
86 possible for a large number of new flows arriving on one port to
87 prevent new flows from being processed on other ports.
89 * Previously ovs-vsctl would retry connecting to the database forever,
90 causing it to hang if ovsdb-server was not running. Now, ovs-vsctl
91 only tries once by default (use --retry to try forever). This change
92 means that you may want to remove uses of --timeout to avoid hangs
94 * Many "ovs-vsctl" database commands now accept an --if-exists option.
95 Please refer to the ovs-vsctl manpage for details.
97 - Experimental support for newer versions of OpenFlow. See
98 the "What versions of OpenFlow does Open vSwitch support?"
99 question in the FAQ for more details.
100 - The OpenFlow "dp_desc" may now be configured by setting the
101 value of other-config:dp-desc in the Bridge table.
102 - It is possible to request the OpenFlow port number with the
103 "ofport_request" column in the Interface table.
104 - The NXM flow_removed message now reports the OpenFlow table ID
105 from which the flow was removed.
107 - New support for the VXLAN tunnel protocol (see the IETF draft here:
108 http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-03).
109 - Tunneling requires the version of the kernel module paired with
110 Open vSwitch 1.9.0 or later.
111 - Inheritance of the Don't Fragment bit in IP tunnels (df_inherit)
112 is no longer supported.
113 - Path MTU discovery is no longer supported.
114 - CAPWAP tunneling support removed.
115 - Tunnels with multicast destination ports are no longer supported.
117 - The "dump-flows" and "del-flows" no longer require an argument
118 if only one datapath exists.
120 - New "vlog/disable-rate-limit" and "vlog/enable-rate-limit"
121 commands available allow control over logging rate limits.
122 - New "dpif/dump-dps", "dpif/show", and "dpif/dump-flows" command
123 that mimic the equivalent ovs-dpctl commands.
124 - The ofproto library is now responsible for assigning OpenFlow port
125 numbers. An ofproto implementation should assign them when
126 port_construct() is called.
127 - All dpif-based bridges of a particular type share a common
128 datapath called "ovs-<type>", e.g. "ovs-system". The ovs-dpctl
129 commands will now return information on that shared datapath. To
130 get the equivalent bridge-specific information, use the new
131 "ovs-appctl dpif/*" commands.
132 - Backward-incompatible changes:
133 - Earlier Open vSwitch versions treated ANY as a wildcard in flow
134 syntax. OpenFlow 1.1 adds a port named ANY, which introduces a
135 conflict. ANY was rarely used in flow syntax, so we chose to
136 retire that meaning of ANY in favor of the OpenFlow 1.1 meaning.
137 - Patch ports no longer require kernel support, so they now work
138 with FreeBSD and the kernel module built into Linux 3.3 and later.
139 - New "sample" action.
143 ------------------------
145 - Support for ipv6 set action.
146 - SKB mark matching and setting.
147 - support for Linux kernels up to 3.8
148 - FreeBSD is now a supported platform, thanks to code contributions from
149 Gaetano Catalli, Ed Maste, and Giuseppe Lettieri.
150 - ovs-bugtool: New --ovs option to report only OVS related information.
151 - New %t and %T log escapes to identify the subprogram within a
152 cooperating group of processes or threads that emitted a log message.
153 The default log patterns now include this information.
155 - Allow bitwise masking for SHA and THA fields in ARP, SLL and TLL
156 fields in IPv6 neighbor discovery messages, and IPv6 flow label.
157 - Adds support for writing to the metadata field for a flow.
159 - The tunneling code no longer assumes input and output keys are
160 symmetric. If they are not, PMTUD needs to be disabled for
161 tunneling to work. Note this only applies to flow-based keys.
162 - New support for a nonstandard form of GRE that supports a 64-bit key.
163 - Tunnel Path MTU Discovery default value was set to 'disabled'.
164 This feature is deprecated and will be removed soon.
165 - Tunnel header caching removed.
167 - Commands and actions that accept port numbers now also accept keywords
168 that represent those ports (such as LOCAL, NONE, and ALL). This is
169 also the recommended way to specify these ports, for compatibility
170 with OpenFlow 1.1 and later (which use the OpenFlow 1.0 numbers
171 for these ports for different purposes).
173 - Support requesting the port number with the "port_no" option in
174 the "add-if" command.
175 - ovs-pki: The "online PKI" features have been removed, along with
176 the ovs-pki-cgi program that facilitated it, because of some
177 alarmist insecurity claims. We do not believe that these claims
178 are true, but because we do not know of any users for this
179 feature it seems better on balance to remove it. (The ovs-pki-cgi
180 program was not included in distribution packaging.)
181 - ovsdb-server now enforces the immutability of immutable columns. This
182 was not enforced in earlier versions due to an oversight.
183 - The following features are now deprecated. They will be removed no
184 earlier than February 2013. Please email dev@openvswitch.org with
186 - Bridge compatibility.
188 - The autopath action.
189 - Interface type "null".
190 - Numeric values for reserved ports (see "ovs-ofctl" note above).
191 - Tunnel Path MTU Discovery.
192 - CAPWAP tunnel support.
193 - The data in the RARP packets can now be matched in the same way as the
198 ------------------------
199 *** Internal only release ***
200 - New FAQ. Please send updates and additions!
201 - Authors of controllers, please read the new section titled "Action
202 Reproduction" in DESIGN, which describes an Open vSwitch change in
203 behavior in corner cases that may affect some controllers.
205 - A new test utility that can create L3 tunnel between two Open
206 vSwitches and detect connectivity issues.
208 - New --sort and --rsort options for "dump-flows" command.
209 - "mod-port" command can now control all OpenFlow config flags.
211 - Allow general bitwise masking for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses in
212 IPv4, IPv6, and ARP packets. (Previously, only CIDR masks
214 - Allow support for arbitrary Ethernet masks. (Previously, only
215 the multicast bit in the destination address could be individually
217 - New field OXM_OF_METADATA, to align with OpenFlow 1.1.
218 - The OFPST_QUEUE request now reports an error if a specified port or
219 queue does not exist, or for requests for a specific queue on all
220 ports, if the specified queue does not exist on any port. (Previous
221 versions generally reported an empty set of results.)
222 - New "flow monitor" feature to allow controllers to be notified of
223 flow table changes as they happen.
224 - Additional protocols are not mirrored and dropped when forward-bpdu is
225 false. For a full list, see the ovs-vswitchd.conf.db man page.
226 - Open vSwitch now sends RARP packets in situations where it previously
227 sent a custom protocol, making it consistent with behavior of QEMU and
229 - All Open vSwitch programs and log files now show timestamps in UTC,
230 instead the local timezone, by default.
234 ------------------------
235 - kernel modules are renamed. openvswitch_mod.ko is now
236 openvswitch.ko and brcompat_mod.ko is now brcompat.ko.
237 - Increased the number of NXM registers to 8.
238 - Added ability to configure DSCP setting for manager and controller
239 connections. By default, these connections have a DSCP value of
240 Internetwork Control (0xc0).
241 - Added the granular link health statistics, 'cfm_health', to an
244 - Added support to mask nd_target for ICMPv6 neighbor discovery flows.
245 - Added support for OpenFlow 1.3 port description (OFPMP_PORT_DESC)
248 - Added the "dump-ports-desc" command to retrieve port
249 information using the new port description multipart messages.
251 - Added support for spawning ovs-test server from the client.
252 - Now ovs-test is able to automatically create test bridges and ports.
253 - "ovs-dpctl dump-flows" now prints observed TCP flags in TCP flows.
254 - Tripled flow setup performance.
255 - The "coverage/log" command previously available through ovs-appctl
256 has been replaced by "coverage/show". The new command replies with
257 coverage counter values, instead of logging them.
261 ------------------------
262 - Allow OFPP_CONTROLLER as the in_port for packet-out messages.
266 ------------------------
267 *** Internal only release ***
269 - LACP bonds no longer fall back to balance-slb when negotiations fail.
270 Instead they drop traffic.
271 - The default bond_mode changed from SLB to active-backup, to protect
272 unsuspecting users from the significant risks of SLB bonds (which are
273 documented in vswitchd/INTERNALS).
274 - Load balancing can be disabled by setting the bond-rebalance-interval
277 - Added support for bitwise matching on TCP and UDP ports.
278 See ovs-ofctl(8) for more information.
279 - NXM flow dumps now include times elapsed toward idle and hard
281 - Added an OpenFlow extension NXT_SET_ASYNC_CONFIG that allows
282 controllers more precise control over which OpenFlow messages they
283 receive asynchronously.
284 - New "fin_timeout" action.
285 - Added "fin_timeout" support to "learn" action.
286 - New Nicira action NXAST_CONTROLLER that offers additional features
287 over output to OFPP_CONTROLLER.
288 - When QoS settings for an interface do not configure a default queue
289 (queue 0), Open vSwitch now uses a default configuration for that
290 queue, instead of dropping all packets as in previous versions.
292 - Logging to console and file will have UTC timestamp as a default for
293 all the daemons. An example of the default format is
294 2012-01-27T16:35:17Z. ovs-appctl can be used to change the default
296 - The syntax of commands and options to set log levels was simplified,
297 to make it easier to remember.
298 - New support for limiting the number of flows in an OpenFlow flow
299 table, with configurable policy for evicting flows upon
300 overflow. See the Flow_Table table in ovs-vswitch.conf.db(5)
301 for more information.
302 - New "enable-async-messages" column in the Controller table. If set to
303 false, OpenFlow connections to the controller will initially have all
304 asynchronous messages disabled, overriding normal OpenFlow behavior.
305 - ofproto-provider interface:
306 - "struct rule" has a new member "used" that ofproto implementations
307 should maintain by updating with ofproto_rule_update_used().
309 - The new option --timestamp causes the "monitor" command to print
310 a timestamp with every update.
311 - CFM module CCM broadcasts can now be tagged with an 802.1p priority.
315 ------------------------
317 - Added support for querying, modifying, and deleting flows
318 based on flow cookie when using NXM.
319 - Added new NXM_PACKET_IN format.
320 - Added new NXAST_DEC_TTL action.
322 - Added daemonization support to the monitor and snoop commands.
324 - The "find" command supports new set relational operators
325 {=}, {!=}, {<}, {>}, {<=}, and {>=}.
326 - ovsdb-tool now uses the typical database and schema installation
327 directories as defaults.
328 - The default MAC learning timeout has been increased from 60 seconds
329 to 300 seconds. The MAC learning timeout is now configurable.
333 ------------------------
334 - Compatible with Open vSwitch kernel module included in Linux 3.3.
335 - New "VLAN splinters" feature to work around buggy device drivers
336 in old Linux versions. (This feature is deprecated. When
337 broken device drivers are no longer in widespread use, we will
338 delete this feature.) See ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(5) for more
341 - Added ability to match on IPv6 flow label through NXM.
342 - Added ability to match on ECN bits in IPv4 and IPv6 through NXM.
343 - Added ability to match on TTL in IPv4 and IPv6 through NXM.
344 - Added ability to modify ECN bits in IPv4.
345 - Added ability to modify TTL in IPv4.
347 - Don't require the "normal" action to use mirrors. Traffic will
348 now be properly mirrored for any flows, regardless of their
350 - Track packet and byte statistics sent on mirrors.
351 - The sFlow implementation can now usually infer the correct agent
352 device instead of having to be told explicitly.
354 - New "fdb/flush" command to flush bridge's MAC learning table.
356 - A new distributed testing tool that allows one to diagnose performance
357 and connectivity issues. This tool currently is not included in RH or
359 - RHEL packaging now supports integration with Red Hat network scripts.
361 - Post 1.4.*, OVS will be changing the default bond mode from balance-slb
362 to active-backup. SLB bonds carry significant risks with them
363 (documented vswitchd/INTERNALS) which we want to prevent unsuspecting
364 users from running into. Users are advised to update any scripts or
365 configuration which may be negatively impacted by explicitly setting
366 the bond mode which they want to use.
370 ------------------------
372 - Added an OpenFlow extension which allows the "output" action to accept
374 - Added an OpenFlow extension for flexible learning.
375 - Bumped number of NXM registers from four to five.
377 - New "version" command to determine version of running daemon.
378 - If no argument is provided for "cfm/show", displays detailed
379 information about all interfaces with CFM enabled.
380 - If no argument is provided for "lacp/show", displays detailed
381 information about all ports with LACP enabled.
383 - New "set-if" command to modify a datapath port's configuration.
385 - The software switch now supports 255 OpenFlow tables, instead
386 of just one. By default, only table 0 is consulted, but the
387 new NXAST_RESUBMIT_TABLE action can look up in additional
388 tables. Tables 128 and above are reserved for use by the
389 switch itself; please use only tables 0 through 127.
390 - Add support for 802.1D spanning tree (STP).
391 - Fragment handling extensions:
392 - New OFPC_FRAG_NX_MATCH fragment handling mode, in which L4
393 fields are made available for matching in fragments with
395 - New NXM_NX_IP_FRAG match field for matching IP fragments (usable
396 via "ip_frag" in ovs-ofctl).
397 - New ovs-ofctl "get-frags" and "set-frags" commands to get and set
398 fragment handling policy.
399 - CAPWAP tunneling now supports an extension to transport a 64-bit key.
400 By default it remains compatible with the old version and other
401 standards-based implementations.
402 - Flow setups are now processed in a round-robin manner across ports
403 to prevent any single client from monopolizing the CPU and conducting
404 a denial of service attack.
405 - Added support for native VLAN tagging. A new "vlan_mode"
406 parameter can be set for "port". Possible values: "access",
407 "trunk", "native-tagged" and "native-untagged".
408 - test-openflowd has been removed. Please use ovs-vswitchd instead.
411 ------------------------
412 - New "ofproto" abstraction layer to ease porting to hardware
414 - Packaging for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 and 6.0.
415 - Datapath support for Linux kernels up to 3.0.
417 - New "bundle" and "bundle_load" action extensions.
419 - Implement table unique constraints.
420 - Support cooperative locking between callers.
422 - New "-s" option for "show" command prints packet and byte
423 counters for each port.
425 - New "--readd" option for "replace-flows".
427 - New "show" command to print an overview of configuration.
428 - New "comment" command to add remark that explains intentions.
429 - ovs-brcompatd has been rewritten to fix long-standing bugs.
430 - ovs-openflowd has been renamed test-openflowd and moved into the
431 tests directory. Its presence confused too many users. Please
432 use ovs-vswitchd instead.
433 - New ovs-benchmark utility to test flow setup performance.
434 - A new log level "off" has been added. Configuring a log facility
435 "off" prevents any messages from being logged to it. Previously,
436 "emer" was effectively "off" because no messages were ever logged at
437 level "emer". Now, errors that cause a process to exit are logged
439 - "configure" option --with-l26 has been renamed --with-linux, and
440 --with-l26-source has been renamed --with-linux-source. The old
441 names will be removed after the next release, so please update
443 - The "-2.6" suffix has been dropped from the datapath/linux-2.6 and
444 datapath/linux-2.6/compat-2.6 directories.
446 - Dropped support for "tun_id_from_cookie" OpenFlow extension.
447 Please use the extensible match extensions instead.
448 - Removed the Maintenance_Point and Monitor tables in an effort
449 to simplify 802.1ag configuration.
450 - Performance and scalability improvements
454 ------------------------
455 - Ability to define policies over IPv6
458 - Support for extensible match extensions to OpenFlow
460 - Support for HFSC qdisc.
461 - Queue used by in-band control can now be configured.
463 - Kernel<->userspace interface has been reworked and should be
464 close to a stable ABI now.
465 - "Port group" concept has been dropped.
466 - GRE over IPSEC tunnels
468 - New active backup bonding mode.
469 - New L4 hashing support when LACP is enabled.
470 - Source MAC hash now includes VLAN field also.
472 - Greatly improved handling of large flow tables
474 - "show" command now prints full vport configuration.
475 - "dump-groups" command removed since kernel support for
476 port groups was dropped.
478 - New commands for working with the new Managers table.
479 - "list" command enhanced with new formatting options and --columns
481 - "get" command now accepts new --id option.
482 - New "find" command.
484 - New "queue-stats" command for printing queue stats.
485 - New commands "replace-flows" and "diff-flows".
486 - Commands to add and remove flows can now read from files.
487 - New --flow-format option to enable or disable NXM.
488 - New --more option to increase OpenFlow message verbosity.
489 - Removed "tun-cookie" command, which is no longer useful.
490 - ovs-controller enhancements for testing various features.
491 - New ovs-vlan-test command for testing for Linux kernel driver VLAN
492 bugs. New ovs-vlan-bug-workaround command for enabling and
493 disabling a workaround for these driver bugs.
495 - "Resubmit" actions now update flow statistics.
496 - New "register" extension for use in matching and actions, via NXM.
497 - New "multipath" experimental action extension.
498 - New support for matching multicast Ethernet frames, via NXM.
499 - New extension for OpenFlow vendor error codes.
500 - New extension to set the QoS output queue without actually
501 sending to an output port.
502 - Open vSwitch now reports a single flow table, instead of
503 separate hash and wildcard tables. This better models the
504 current implementation.
505 - New experimental "note" action.
506 - New "ofproto/trace" ovs-appctl command and associated utilities
507 to ease debugging complex flow tables.
509 - Schema documentation now includes an entity-relationship diagram.
510 - The database is now garbage collected. In most tables,
511 unreferenced rows will be deleted automatically.
512 - Many tables now include statistics updated periodically by
513 ovs-vswitchd or ovsdb-server.
514 - Every table now has an "external-ids" column for use by OVS
516 - There is no default controller anymore. Each bridge must have its
517 controller individually specified.
518 - The "fail-mode" is now a property of a Bridge instead of a Controller.
519 - New versioning and checksum features.
520 - New Managers table and manager_options column in Open_vSwitch table
521 for specifying managers. The old "managers" column in the
522 Open_vSwitch table has been removed.
523 - Many "name" columns are now immutable.
525 - Dropped support for XenServer pre-5.6.100.
526 - Dropped support for Linux pre-2.6.18.
527 - Dropped controller discovery support.
528 - Dropped "ovs-ofctl status" and the OpenFlow extension that it used.
529 Statistics reporting in the database is a rough equivalent.
530 - Dropped the "corekeeper" package (now separate, at
531 http://openvswitch.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=corekeeper).
532 - Performance and scalability improvements
535 v1.1.0pre2 - 13 Sep 2010
536 ------------------------
539 v1.1.0pre1 - 31 Aug 2010
540 ------------------------
541 - OpenFlow 1.0 slicing (QoS) functionality
542 - Python bindings for configuration database (no write support)
543 - Performance and scalability improvements
548 - New "patch" interface type
553 - Configuration database with remote management
556 - Support for XenServer 5.5 and 5.6
557 - Performance and scalability improvements
560 v0.99.2 - 18 Feb 2010
561 ---------------------
564 v0.99.1 - 25 Jan 2010
565 ---------------------
566 - Add support for sFlow(R)
567 - Make headers compatible with C++
570 v0.99.0 - 14 Jan 2010
571 ---------------------
572 - User-space forwarding engine
575 v0.90.7 - 29 Nov 2009
576 ---------------------
577 - Add support for NetFlow active timeouts
584 v0.90.5 - 21 Sep 2009
585 ---------------------
586 - Generalize in-band control to more diverse network setups