1 .TH ovs\-ofctl 8 "June 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
5 ovs\-ofctl \- administer OpenFlow switches
9 [\fIoptions\fR] \fIcommand \fR[\fIswitch\fR] [\fIargs\fR\&...]
14 program is a command line tool for monitoring and administering
15 OpenFlow switches. It can also show the current state of an OpenFlow
16 switch, including features, configuration, and table entries.
18 .SS "OpenFlow Switch Management Commands"
20 These commands allow \fBovs\-ofctl\fR to monitor and administer an OpenFlow
21 switch. It is able to show the current state of a switch, including
22 features, configuration, and table entries.
24 Most of these commands take an argument that specifies the method for
25 connecting to an OpenFlow switch. The following connection methods
29 .IP "\fBssl:\fIip\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]"
30 The specified SSL \fIport\fR (default: 6633) on the host at the given
31 \fIip\fR, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name).
32 The \fB--private-key\fR, \fB--certificate\fR, and \fB--ca-cert\fR
33 options are mandatory when this form is used.
35 .IP "\fBtcp:\fIip\fR[\fB:\fIport\fR]"
36 The specified TCP \fIport\fR (default: 6633) on the host at the given
37 \fIip\fR, which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name).
41 The Unix domain server socket named \fIfile\fR.
44 This is short for \fBunix:\fIfile\fR, as long as \fIfile\fR does not
48 This is short for \fBunix:@RUNDIR@/\fIdp\fB.mgmt\fR, as long as
49 \fIdp\fR does not contain a colon.
54 Prints to the console information on \fIswitch\fR, including
55 information on its flow tables and ports.
58 \fBstatus \fIswitch\fR [\fIkey\fR]
59 Prints to the console a series of key-value pairs that report the
60 status of \fIswitch\fR. If \fIkey\fR is specified, only the key-value
61 pairs whose key names begin with \fIkey\fR are printed. If \fIkey\fR is
62 omitted, all key-value pairs are printed.
65 \fBdump-tables \fIswitch\fR
66 Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by
70 \fBdump-ports \fIswitch\fR
71 Prints to the console statistics for each of the network devices
72 associated with \fIswitch\fR.
75 \fBmod-port \fIswitch\fR \fInetdev\fR \fIaction\fR
76 Modify characteristics of an interface monitored by \fIswitch\fR.
77 \fInetdev\fR can be referred to by its OpenFlow assigned port number or
78 the device name, e.g. \fBeth0\fR. The \fIaction\fR may be any one of the
83 Enables the interface. This is equivalent to ``ifconfig up'' on a Unix
87 Disables the interface. This is equivalent to ``ifconfig down'' on a Unix
91 When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will be sent out this
92 interface. This is the default posture for monitored ports.
95 When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will not be sent out
96 this interface. This is primarily useful to prevent loops when a
97 spanning tree protocol is not in use.
102 \fBdump-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
103 Prints to the console all flow entries in \fIswitch\fR's
104 tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted, all flows
105 in the switch are retrieved. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the
106 syntax of \fIflows\fR. The output format is described in
107 \fBTable Entry Output\fR.
110 \fBdump-aggregate \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
111 Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in
112 \fIswitch\fR's tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted,
113 the statistics are aggregated across all flows in the switch's flow
114 tables. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
115 The output format is descrbed in \fBTable Entry Output\fR.
118 \fBadd-flow \fIswitch flow\fR
119 Add the flow entry as described by \fIflow\fR to the \fIswitch\fR's
120 tables. The flow entry is in the format described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR,
124 \fBadd-flows \fIswitch file\fR
125 Add flow entries as described in \fIfile\fR to \fIswitch\fR's
126 tables. Each line in \fIfile\fR is a flow entry in the format
127 described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below.
130 \fBmod-flows \fIswitch flow\fR
131 Modify the actions in entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables
132 that match \fIflow\fR. When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option,
133 wildcards are not treated as active for matching purposes. See
134 \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
137 \fBdel-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflow\fR]
138 Deletes entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables that match
139 \fIflow\fR. When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option, wildcards are
140 not treated as active for matching purposes. If \fIflow\fR is
141 omitted and the \fB--strict\fR option is not used, all flows in the
142 switch's tables are removed. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the
143 syntax of \fIflows\fR.
146 \fBmonitor \fIswitch\fR [\fImiss-len\fR [\fIsend-exp]]
147 Connects to \fIswitch\fR and prints to the console all OpenFlow
148 messages received. Usually, \fIswitch\fR should specify a connection
149 named on \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8)'s \fB-l\fR or \fB--listen\fR command line
152 If \fImiss-len\fR is provided, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR sends an OpenFlow ``set
153 configuration'' message at connection setup time that requests
154 \fImiss-len\fR bytes of each packet that misses the flow table. The
155 OpenFlow reference implementation does not send these messages to the
156 \fBovs\-ofctl monitor\fR client connection unless a nonzero value is
157 specified on this argument.
159 If \fIsend-exp\fR is specified as \fB1\fR, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR will also
160 request to be sent flow expiration messages. If this argument is
161 omitted, or \fB0\fR is specified, then \fRovs\-ofctl\fR will not request
164 This command may be useful for debugging switch or controller
168 \fBexecute \fIswitch command \fR[\fIarg\fR...]
169 Sends a request to \fIswitch\fR to execute \fIcommand\fR along with
170 each \fIarg\fR, if any, then waits for the command to complete and
171 reports its completion status on \fBstderr\fR and its output, if any,
172 on \fBstdout\fR. The set of available commands and their argument is
173 switch-dependent. (This command uses a Nicira extension to OpenFlow
174 that may not be available on all switches.)
176 .SS "OpenFlow Switch and Controller Commands"
178 The following commands, like those in the previous section, may be
179 applied to OpenFlow switches, using any of the connection methods
180 described in that section. Unlike those commands, these may also be
181 applied to OpenFlow controllers.
184 \fBprobe \fItarget\fR
185 Sends a single OpenFlow echo-request message to \fItarget\fR and waits
186 for the response. With the \fB-t\fR or \fB--timeout\fR option, this
187 command can test whether an OpenFlow switch or controller is up and
191 \fBping \fItarget \fR[\fIn\fR]
192 Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to \fItarget\fR and times
193 each reply. The echo request packets consist of an OpenFlow header
194 plus \fIn\fR bytes (default: 64) of randomly generated payload. This
195 measures the latency of individual requests.
198 \fBbenchmark \fItarget n count\fR
199 Sends \fIcount\fR echo request packets that each consist of an
200 OpenFlow header plus \fIn\fR bytes of payload and waits for each
201 response. Reports the total time required. This is a measure of the
202 maximum bandwidth to \fItarget\fR for round-trips of \fIn\fR-byte
207 Some \fBovs\-ofctl\fR commands accept an argument that describes a flow or
208 flows. Such flow descriptions comprise a series
209 \fIfield\fB=\fIvalue\fR assignments, separated by commas or white
210 space. (Embedding spaces into a flow description normally requires
211 quoting to prevent the shell from breaking the description into
214 The following field assignments describe how a flow matches a packet.
215 If any of these assignments is omitted from the flow syntax, the field
216 is treated as a wildcard; thus, if all of them are omitted, the
217 resulting flow matches all packets. The string \fB*\fR or \fBANY\fR
218 may be specified to explicitly mark any of these fields as a wildcard.
219 (\fB*\fR should be quoted to protect it from shell expansion.)
221 .IP \fBin_port=\fIport_no\fR
222 Matches physical port \fIport_no\fR. Switch ports are numbered as
223 displayed by \fBovs\-ofctl show\fR.
225 .IP \fBdl_vlan=\fIvlan\fR
226 Matches IEEE 802.1q Virtual LAN tag \fIvlan\fR. Specify \fB0xffff\fR
227 as \fIvlan\fR to match packets that are not tagged with a Virtual LAN;
228 otherwise, specify a number between 0 and 4095, inclusive, as the
229 12-bit VLAN ID to match.
231 .IP \fBdl_vlan_pcp=\fIpriority\fR
232 Matches IEEE 802.1q Priority Code Point (PCP) \fIpriority\fR, which is
233 specified as a value between 0 and 7, inclusive. A higher value
234 indicates a higher frame priority level.
236 .IP \fBdl_src=\fImac\fR
237 Matches Ethernet source address \fImac\fR, which is specified as 6 pairs
238 of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g. \fB00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0\fR).
240 .IP \fBdl_dst=\fImac\fR
241 Matches Ethernet destination address \fImac\fR.
243 .IP \fBdl_type=\fIethertype\fR
244 Matches Ethernet protocol type \fIethertype\fR, which is specified as an
245 integer between 0 and 65535, inclusive, either in decimal or as a
246 hexadecimal number prefixed by \fB0x\fR (e.g. \fB0x0806\fR to match ARP
249 .IP \fBnw_src=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
250 Matches IPv4 source address \fIip\fR, which may be specified as an
251 IP address or host name (e.g. \fB192.168.1.1\fR or
252 \fBwww.example.com\fR). The optional \fInetmask\fR allows restricting a
253 match to an IPv4 address prefix. The netmask may be specified as a dotted
254 quad (e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0\fR) or as a CIDR block
255 (e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/24\fR).
257 .IP \fBnw_dst=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
258 Matches IPv4 destination address \fIip\fR.
260 .IP \fBnw_proto=\fIproto\fR
261 Matches IP protocol type \fIproto\fR, which is specified as a decimal
262 number between 0 and 255, inclusive (e.g. 6 to match TCP packets).
264 .IP \fBtp_src=\fIport\fR
265 Matches UDP or TCP source port \fIport\fR, which is specified as a decimal
266 number between 0 and 65535, inclusive (e.g. 80 to match packets originating
269 .IP \fBtp_dst=\fIport\fR
270 Matches UDP or TCP destination port \fIport\fR.
272 .IP \fBicmp_type=\fItype\fR
273 Matches ICMP message with \fItype\fR, which is specified as a decimal
274 number between 0 and 255, inclusive.
276 .IP \fBicmp_code=\fIcode\fR
277 Matches ICMP messages with \fIcode\fR.
280 The following shorthand notations are also available:
283 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800\fR.
286 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=1\fR.
289 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=6\fR.
292 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=17\fR.
295 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0806\fR.
298 The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands require an additional field:
300 .IP \fBactions=\fR[\fItarget\fR][\fB,\fItarget\fR...]\fR
301 Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the
302 flow entry matches. If no \fItarget\fR is specified, then packets
303 matching the flow are dropped. The \fItarget\fR may be a decimal port
304 number designating the physical port on which to output the packet, or one
305 of the following keywords:
308 .IP \fBoutput\fR:\fIport\fR
309 Outputs the packet on the port specified by \fIport\fR.
312 Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing. (This
313 action is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
316 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
317 which it was received and any ports on which flooding is disabled
318 (typically, these would be ports disabled by the IEEE 802.1D spanning
322 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
323 which it was received.
325 .IP \fBcontroller\fR:\fImax_len\fR
326 Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in''
327 message. If \fImax_len\fR is a number, then it specifies the maximum
328 number of bytes that should be sent. If \fImax_len\fR is \fBALL\fR or
329 omitted, then the entire packet is sent.
332 Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the
333 \fBof\fIn\fR network device (see \fBCONTACTING THE CONTROLLER\fR in
334 \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8) for information on the \fBof\fIn\fR network device).
337 Discards the packet, so no further processing or forwarding takes place.
338 If a drop action is used, no other actions may be specified.
340 .IP \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR:\fIvlan_vid\fR
341 Modifies the VLAN id on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
342 as necessary to match the value specified. If the VLAN tag is added,
343 a priority of zero is used (see the \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR action to set
346 .IP \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR:\fIvlan_pcp\fR
347 Modifies the VLAN priority on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
348 as necessary to match the value specified. Valid values are between 0
349 (lowest) and 7 (highest). If the VLAN tag is added, a vid of zero is used
350 (see the \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR action to set this).
353 Strips the VLAN tag from a packet if it is present.
355 .IP \fBmod_dl_src\fB:\fImac\fR
356 Sets the source Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.
358 .IP \fBmod_dl_dst\fB:\fImac\fR
359 Sets the destination Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.
361 .IP \fBmod_nw_src\fB:\fIip\fR
362 Sets the IPv4 source address to \fIip\fR.
364 .IP \fBmod_nw_dst\fB:\fIip\fR
365 Sets the IPv4 destination address to \fIip\fR.
367 .IP \fBmod_tp_src\fB:\fIport\fR
368 Sets the TCP or UDP source port to \fIport\fR.
370 .IP \fBmod_tp_dst\fB:\fIport\fR
371 Sets the TCP or UDP destination port to \fIport\fR.
373 .IP \fBmod_nw_tos\fB:\fItos\fR
374 Sets the IP ToS/DSCP field to \fItos\fR. Valid values are between 0 and
375 255, inclusive. Note that the two lower reserved bits are never
381 (The OpenFlow protocol supports other actions that \fBovs\-ofctl\fR does
382 not yet expose to the user.)
385 The \fBadd-flow\fR, \fBadd-flows\fR, and \fBdel-flows\fR commands
386 support an additional optional field:
388 .IP \fBpriority=\fIvalue\fR
389 The priority at which a wildcarded entry will match in comparison to
390 others. \fIvalue\fR is a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive. A higher
391 \fIvalue\fR will match before a lower one. An exact-match entry will always
392 have priority over an entry containing wildcards, so it has an implicit
393 priority value of 65535. When adding a flow, if the field is not specified,
394 the flow's priority will default to 32768.
397 The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands support additional
401 \fBidle_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
402 Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of
403 inactivity. A value of 0 prevents a flow from expiring due to
404 inactivity. The default is 60 seconds.
406 .IP \fBhard_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
407 Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds,
408 regardless of activity. A value of 0 (the default) gives the flow no
409 hard expiration deadline.
412 The \fBdump-flows\fR, \fBdump-aggregate\fR, \fBdel-flow\fR
413 and \fBdel-flows\fR commands support one additional optional field:
416 \fBout_port=\fIport\fR
417 If set, a matching flow must include an output action to \fIport\fR.
420 The \fBdump-flows\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands support an
421 additional optional field:
423 .IP \fBtable=\fInumber\fR
424 If specified, limits the flows about which statistics are gathered to
425 those in the table with the given \fInumber\fR. Tables are numbered
426 as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.
428 If this field is not specified, or if \fInumber\fR is given as
429 \fB255\fR, statistics are gathered about flows from all tables.
431 .SS "Table Entry Output"
433 The \fBdump-tables\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands print information
434 about the entries in a datapath's tables. Each line of output is a
435 unique flow entry, which begins with some common information:
438 The number of seconds the entry has been in the table.
441 The table that contains the flow. When a packet arrives, the switch
442 begins searching for an entry at the lowest numbered table. Tables are
443 numbered as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.
446 The priority of the entry in relation to other entries within the same
447 table. A higher value will match before a lower one.
450 The number of packets that have matched the entry.
453 The total number of bytes from packets that have matched the entry.
456 The rest of the line consists of a description of the flow entry as
457 described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, above.
463 Uses strict matching when running flow modification commands.
466 \fB-t\fR, \fB--timeout=\fIsecs\fR
467 Limits \fBovs\-ofctl\fR runtime to approximately \fIsecs\fR seconds. If
468 the timeout expires, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR will exit with a \fBSIGALRM\fR
472 \fB-p\fR, \fB--private-key=\fIprivkey.pem\fR
473 Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as the
474 identity for SSL connections to a switch.
477 \fB-c\fR, \fB--certificate=\fIcert.pem\fR
478 Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the
479 controller's certificate authority (CA), that certifies the
480 private key to identify a trustworthy controller.
483 \fB-C\fR, \fB--ca-cert=\fIcacert.pem\fR
484 Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify that
485 a switch is trustworthy.
492 The following examples assume that an OpenFlow switch on the local
493 host has been configured to listen for management connections on a
494 Unix domain socket named \fB@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR, e.g. by
495 specifying \fB--listen=punix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR on the
496 \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8) command line.
499 \fBovs\-ofctl dump-tables unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
500 Prints out the switch's table stats. (This is more interesting after
501 some traffic has passed through.)
504 \fBovs\-ofctl dump-flows unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
505 Prints the flow entries in the switch.
510 .BR ovs\-controller (8),
511 .BR ovs\-vswitchd (8)