1 .TH dpctl 8 "May 2008" "OpenFlow" "OpenFlow Manual"
4 dpctl \- administer OpenFlow datapaths
8 [\fIoptions\fR] \fIcommand \fR[\fIswitch\fR] [\fIargs\fR&...]
13 program is a command line tool for monitoring and administering OpenFlow
14 datapaths. It is able to show the current state of a datapath,
15 including features, configuration, and tables entries. When using the
16 OpenFlow kernel module,
18 is used to add, delete, modify, and monitor datapaths.
20 Most \fBdpctl\fR commands take an argument that specifies the
21 method for connecting to an OpenFlow switch. The following connection
22 methods are supported:
26 The local Netlink datapath numbered \fIdp_idx\fR. This form requires
27 that the local host has the OpenFlow kernel module for Linux loaded.
30 \fBssl:\fIhost\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]
31 The specified SSL \fIport\fR (default: 976) on the given remote
32 \fIhost\fR. The \fB--private-key\fR, \fB--certificate\fR, and
33 \fB--ca-cert\fR options are mandatory when this form is used.
36 \fBtcp:\fIhost\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]
37 The specified TCP \fIport\fR (default: 975) on the given remote
42 With the \fBdpctl\fR program, datapaths running in the kernel can be
43 created, deleted, modified, and monitored. A single machine may
44 host up to 32 datapaths (numbered 0 to 31). In most situations,
45 a machine hosts only one datapath.
47 A newly created datapath is not associated with any of the
48 host's network devices thus does not process any incoming
49 traffic. To intercept and process traffic on a given network device, the
50 network device must be explicitly added to a datapath through the
53 The following commands manage local datapaths.
56 \fBadddp nl:\fIdp_idx\fR
57 Creates datapath numbered \fIdp_idx\fR on the local host. This will
58 fail if \fIdp_idx\fR is not in the range 0 to 31, or if the datapath
59 with that number already exists on the host.
62 \fBdeldp nl:\fIdp_idx\fR
63 Deletes datapath \fIdp_idx\fR on the local host. \fIdp_idx\fR must be
64 an existing datapath. All of a datapath's network devices must be
65 explicitly removed before the datapath can be deleted (see \fBdelif\fR
69 \fBaddif nl:\fIdp_idx netdev\fR
70 Adds \fInetdev\fR to the list of network devices datapath
71 \fIdp_idx\fR monitors, where \fIdp_idx\fR is the ID of an existing
72 datapath, and \fInetdev\fR is the name of one of the host's
73 network devices, e.g. \fBeth0\fR. Once a network device has been added
74 to a datapath, the datapath has complete ownership of the network device's
75 traffic and the network device appears silent to the rest of the system.
78 \fBdelif nl:\fIdp_idx netdev\fR
79 Removes \fInetdev\fR from the list of network devices datapath
80 \fIdp_idx\fR monitors.
83 \fBmonitor nl:\fIdp_idx\fR
84 Prints to the console all OpenFlow packets sent by datapath
85 \fIdp_idx\fR to its controller, where \fIdp_idx\fR is the ID of an
89 \fBbenchmark-nl nl:\fIdp_idx n size\fR
90 Checks the netlink performance between the kernel and userspace.
91 This is done by sending \fIN\fR packets of \fIsize\fR bytes from
92 the kernel module to dpctl.
95 The following commands can be used regardless of the connection method.
99 Prints to the console information on datapath \fIswitch\fR including
100 information on its flow tables and ports.
103 \fBdump-tables \fIswitch\fR
104 Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by
105 datapath \fIswitch\fR.
108 \fBdump-ports \fIswitch\fR
109 Prints to the console statistics for each of the network devices
110 associated with datapath \fIswitch\fR.
113 \fBdump-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
114 Prints to the console all flow entries in datapath \fIswitch\fR's
115 tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted, all flows
116 in the datapath are retrieved. See \fBFLOW SYNTAX\fR, below, for the
117 syntax of \fIflows\fR.
120 \fBdump-aggregate \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
121 Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in datapath
122 \fSWITCH\fR's tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted,
123 the statistics are aggregated across all flows in the datapath's flow
124 tables. See \fBFLOW SYNTAX\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
127 \fBadd-flow \fIswitch flow\fR
128 Add the flow entry as described by \fIflow\fR to the datapath \fIswitch\fR's
129 tables. The flow entry is in the format described in \fBFLOW SYNTAX\fR,
133 \fBadd-flows \fIswitch file\fR
134 Add flow entries as described in \fIfile\fR to the datapath \fIswitch\fR's
135 tables. Each line in \fIfile\fR is a flow entry in the format
136 described in \fBFLOW SYNTAX\fR, below.
139 \fBdel-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflow\fR]
140 Deletes entries from the datapath \fIswitch\fR's tables that match
141 \fIflow\fR. If \fIflow\fR is omitted, all flows in the datapath's
142 tables are removed. See \fBFLOW SYNTAX\fR, below, for the syntax of
146 \fBping \fIswitch \fR[\fIn\fR]
147 Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to \fIswitch\fR and times
148 each reply. The echo request packets consist of an OpenFlow header
149 plus \fIn\fR bytes (default: 64) of randomly generated payload.
153 Some \fBdpctl\fR commands accept an argument that describes a flow or
154 flows. Such flow descriptions comprise a series
155 \fIfield\fB=\fIvalue\fR assignments, separated by commas or white
158 The following field assignments describe how a flow matches a packet.
159 If any of these assignments is omitted from the flow syntax, the field
160 is treated as a wildcard; thus, if all of them are omitted, the
161 resulting flow matches all packets. The string \fB*\fR or \fBANY\fR
162 may be specified a value to explicitly mark any of these fields as a
165 .IP \fBin_port=\fIport_no\fR
166 Matches physical port \fIport_no\fR. Switch ports are numbered as
167 displayed by \fBdpctl show\fR.
169 .IP \fBdl_vlan=\fIvlan\fR
170 Matches IEEE 802.1q virtual LAN tag \fIvlan\fR. Specify \fB0xffff\fR
171 as \fIvlan\fR to match packets that are not tagged with a virtual LAN;
172 otherwise, specify a number between 0 and 4095, inclusive, as the
173 12-bit VLAN ID to match.
175 .IP \fBdl_src=\fImac\fR
176 Matches Ethernet source address \fImac\fR, which should be specified
177 as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons,
178 e.g. \fB00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0\fR.
180 .IP \fBdl_dst=\fImac\fR
181 Matches Ethernet destination address \fImac\fR.
183 .IP \fBdl_type=\fIethertype\fR
184 Matches Ethernet protocol type \fIethertype\fR, which should be
185 specified as a integer between 0 and 65535, inclusive, either in
186 decimal or as a hexadecimal number prefixed by \fB0x\fR,
187 e.g. \fB0x0806\fR to match ARP packets.
189 .IP \fBnw_src=\fIip\fR
190 Matches IPv4 source address \fIip\fR, which should be specified as an
191 IP address or host name, e.g. \fB192.168.1.1\fR or
192 \fBwww.example.com\fR.
194 .IP \fBnw_dst=\fInw_dst\fR
195 Matches IPv4 destination address \fIip\fR.
197 .IP \fBnw_proto=\fIproto\fR
198 Matches IP protocol type \fIproto\fR, which should be specified as a
199 decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive, e.g. 6 to match TCP
202 .IP \fBtp_src=\fIport\fR
203 Matches UDP or TCP source port \fIport\fR, which should be specified
204 as a decimal number between 0 and 65535, inclusive, e.g. 80 to match
205 packets originating from a HTTP server.
207 .IP \fBtp_dst=\fIport\fR
208 Matches UDP or TCP destination port \fIport\fR.
211 The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands require an additional field:
213 .IP \fIactions\fB=\fItarget\fR[\fB,\fItarget\fR...]\fR
214 Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the
215 flow entry matches. The \fItarget\fR may be a decimal port number
216 designating the physical port on which to output the packet, or one of
217 the following keywords:
220 .IP \fBoutput\fR:\fIport\fR
221 Outputs the packet on the port specified by \fIport\fR.
224 Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing. (This
225 action is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
228 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
229 which it was received and any ports on which flooding is disabled
230 (typically, these would be ports disabled by the IEEE 802.1D spanning
234 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
235 which it was received.
237 .IP \fBcontroller\fR:\fImax_len\fR
238 Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in''
239 message. If \fImax_len\fR is a number, then it specifies the maximum
240 number of bytes that should be sent. If \fImax_len\fR is \fBALL\fR or
241 omitted, then the entire packet is sent.
244 Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the
245 \fBof\fIn\fR network device (see \fBCONTACTING THE CONTROLLER\fR in
246 \fBsecchan\fR(8) for information on the \fBof\fIn\fR network device).
248 .IP \fBmod_vlan\fR:\fIvlan_id\fR
249 Modifies the VLAN tag on a packet. If \fIvlan_id\fR is a number, then
250 the VLAN tag is added or modified as necessary to match the value
251 specified. If \fIvlan_id\fR is \fBSTRIP\fR, then the VLAN tag is
252 stripped from the packet if one is present. (This action is not
253 implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
257 (The OpenFlow protocol supports other actions that \fBdpctl\fR does
258 not yet expose to the user.)
261 The \fBadd-flows\fR and \fBdel-flows\fR commands support an additional
264 .IP \fBpriority=\fIvalue\fR
265 Sets the priority of the flow to be added or deleted to \fIvalue\fR,
266 which should be a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive. If this
267 field is not specified, it defaults to 32768.
270 The \fBdump-flows\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands support an
271 additional optional field:
273 .IP \fBtable=\fInumber\fR
274 If specified, limits the flows about which statistics are gathered to
275 those in the table with the given \fInumber\fR. Tables are numbered
276 as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.
278 If this field is not specified, or if \fInumber\fR is given as
279 \fB255\fR, statistics are gathered about flows from all tables.
283 \fB-p\fR, \fB--private-key=\fIprivkey.pem\fR
284 Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as the
285 identity for SSL connections to a switch.
288 \fB-c\fR, \fB--certificate=\fIcert.pem\fR
289 Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the
290 controller's certificate authority (CA), that certifies the
291 private key to identify a trustworthy controller.
294 \fB-C\fR, \fB--ca-cert=\fIcacert.pem\fR
295 Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify that
296 a switch is trustworthy.
299 .BR \-h ", " \-\^\-help
300 Prints a brief help message to the console.
303 \fB-v\fR \fImodule\fB:\fIfacility\fB:\fIlevel\fR, \fB--verbose=\fImodule\fB:\fIfacility\fB:\fIlevel\fR
304 Sets the logging level for \fImodule\fR in \fIfacility\fR to
305 \fIlevel\fR. The \fImodule\fR may be any valid module name (as
306 displayed by the \fB--list\fR action on \fBvlogconf\fR(8)), or the
307 special name \fBANY\fR to set the logging levels for all modules. The
308 \fIfacility\fR may be \fBsyslog\fR or \fBconsole\fR to set the levels
309 for logging to the system log or to the console, respectively, or
310 \fBANY\fR to set the logging levels for both facilities. The
311 \fIlevel\fR must be one of \fBemer\fR, \fBerr\fR, \fBwarn\fR, or
312 \fBdbg\fR, designating the minimum severity of a message for it to be
316 \fB-v\fR, \fB--verbose\fR
317 Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to
318 \fB--verbose=ANY:ANY:dbg\fR.
321 .BR \-V ", " \-\^\-version
322 Prints version information to the console.
326 A typical dpctl command sequence for controlling an OpenFlow kernel module:
329 Create datapath numbered 0:
331 .B % dpctl adddp nl:0
334 Add two network devices to the new datapath:
336 .B % dpctl addif nl:0 eth0
337 .B % dpctl addif nl:0 eth1
340 Monitor traffic received by the datapath (exit with control-C):
342 .B % dpctl monitor nl:0
346 View the datapath's table stats after some traffic has passed through:
348 .B % dpctl dump-tables nl:0
351 View the flow entries in the datapath:
353 .B % dpctl dump-flows nl:0
356 Remove network devices from the datapath when finished:
358 .B % dpctl delif nl:0 eth0
359 .B % dpctl delif nl:0 eth1
364 .B % dpctl deldp nl:0