7 .TH ovs\-vswitchd 8 "June 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
8 .\" This program's name:
10 .\" SSL peer program's name:
11 .ds SN ovs\-controller
14 ovs\-vswitchd \- Open vSwitch daemon
21 A daemon that manages and controls any number of Open vSwitch switches
24 The mandatory \fIdatabase\fR argument normally takes the form
25 \fBunix:\fIfile\fR, where \fIfile\fR is the name of a Unix domain
26 socket on which \fBovsdb\-server\fR is listening. However, all of the
27 following forms are accepted:
28 .so ovsdb/remote-active.man
29 .so ovsdb/remote-passive.man
31 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR retrieves its configuration from \fIdatabase\fR at
32 startup. It sets up Open vSwitch datapaths and then operates
33 switching across each bridge described in its configuration files. As
34 the database changes, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR automatically updates its
35 configuration to match.
37 Upon receipt of a SIGHUP signal, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR reopens its log
38 file, if one was specified on the command line.
40 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR switches may be configured with any of the following
44 L2 switching with MAC learning.
47 NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX load
54 Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
57 NetFlow v5 flow logging.
63 Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
66 Only a single instance of \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is intended to run at a time.
67 A single \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR can manage any number of switch instances, up
68 to the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
70 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR provides all the features of \fBovs-openflowd\fR,
71 and more. Do not run both daemons at the same time.
73 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch datapaths
74 itself. Thus, external tools, such \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8), are not needed for
75 managing datapaths in conjunction with \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR, and their use
76 to modify datapaths when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is running can interfere with
77 its operation. (\fBovs\-dpctl\fR may still be useful for diagnostics.)
79 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR
80 to be useful. Please refer to the \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR file included in the
81 Open vSwitch distribution for instructions on how to build and load
82 the Open vSwitch kernel module.
85 .IP "\fB\-\-mlockall\fR"
86 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to call the \fBmlockall()\fR function, to
87 attempt to lock all of its process memory into physical RAM,
88 preventing the kernel from paging any of its memory to disk. This
89 helps to avoid networking interruptions due to system memory pressure.
91 Some systems do not support \fBmlockall()\fR at all, and other systems
92 only allow privileged users, such as the superuser, to use it.
93 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR emits a log message if \fBmlockall()\fR is
94 unavailable or unsuccessful.
97 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR detaches only after it has connected to the \
98 database, retrieved the initial configuration, and set up that \
101 .SS "Public Key Infrastructure Options"
103 .so lib/ssl-bootstrap.man
106 .so lib/leak-checker.man
108 .SH "RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS"
109 \fBovs\-appctl\fR(8) can send commands to a running
110 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR process. The currently supported commands are
111 described below. The command descriptions assume an understanding of
112 how to configure Open vSwitch.
113 .SS "GENERAL COMMANDS"
115 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to gracefully terminate.
116 .IP "\fBqos/show\fR \fIinterface\fR"
117 Queries the kernel for Quality of Service configuration and statistics
118 associated with the given \fIinterface\fR.
119 .SS "BRIDGE COMMANDS"
120 These commands manage bridges.
121 .IP "\fBfdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
122 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
123 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
125 .IP "\fBbridge/reconnect\fR [\fIbridge\fR]"
126 Makes \fIbridge\fR drop all of its OpenFlow controller connections and
127 reconnect. If \fIbridge\fR is not specified, then all bridges drop
128 their controller connections and reconnect.
130 This command might be useful for debugging OpenFlow controller issues.
132 .IP "\fBbridge/dump\-flows\fR \fIbridge\fR"
133 Lists all flows in \fIbridge\fR, including those normally hidden to
134 commands such as \fBovs\-ofctl dump\-flows\fR. Flows set up by mechanisms
135 such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the controller
136 since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
138 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges. To
139 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
140 detail of the bonding implementation called ``source load balancing''
141 (SLB). Instead of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to
142 slaves, the bonding implementation computes a function that maps an
143 48-bit Ethernet source addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash''
144 value). All of the Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit
145 value are then assigned to a single slave.
146 .IP "\fBbond/list\fR"
147 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
149 .IP "\fBbond/show\fR \fIport\fR"
150 Lists all of the bond-specific information about the given bonded
151 \fIport\fR: updelay, downdelay, time until the next rebalance. Also
152 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
153 the time to completion of an updelay or downdelay if one is in
154 progress, whether it is the active slave, the MAC hashes assigned to
155 the slave, and the MAC learning table entries that hash to each MAC.
156 Any LACP information related to this bond may be found using the
157 \fBlacp/show\fR command.
158 .IP "\fBbond/migrate\fR \fIport\fR \fIhash\fR \fIslave\fR"
159 Only valid for SLB bonds. Assigns a given MAC hash to a new slave.
160 \fIport\fR specifies the bond port, \fIhash\fR the MAC hash to be
161 migrated (as a decimal number between 0 and 255), and \fIslave\fR the
162 new slave to be assigned.
164 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
165 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
168 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
169 .IP "\fBbond/set\-active\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
170 Sets \fIslave\fR as the active slave on \fIport\fR. \fIslave\fR must
171 currently be enabled.
173 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be selected
174 if \fIslave\fR becomes disabled.
175 .IP "\fBbond/enable\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
176 .IQ "\fBbond/disable\-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
177 Enables (or disables) \fIslave\fR on the given bond \fIport\fR, skipping any
178 updelay (or downdelay).
180 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the carrier
181 status of \fIslave\fR changes.
182 .IP "\fBbond/hash\fR \fImac\fR [\fIvlan\fR]"
183 Returns the hash value which would be used for \fImac\fR with \fIvlan\fR
186 .IP "\fBlacp/show\fR \fIport\fR"
187 Lists all of the LACP related information about the given \fIport\fR:
188 active or passive, aggregation key, system id, and system priority. Also
189 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
190 whether it is attached or detached, port id and priority, actor
191 information, and partner information.
193 .so ofproto/ofproto-unixctl.man
194 .so lib/vlog-unixctl.man
195 .so lib/stress-unixctl.man
198 .BR ovs\-brcompatd (8),
199 .BR ovsdb\-server (1),
200 \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR in the Open vSwitch distribution.