1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2 <database title="Open vSwitch Configuration Database">
4 A database with this schema holds the configuration for one Open
5 vSwitch daemon. The top-level configuration for the daemon is the
6 <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/> table, which must have exactly one
7 record. Records in other tables are significant only when they
8 can be reached directly or indirectly from the <ref
9 table="Open_vSwitch"/> table. Records that are not reachable from
10 the <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/> table are automatically deleted
11 from the database, except for records in a few distinguished
15 <h2>Common Columns</h2>
18 Most tables contain two special columns, named <code>other_config</code>
19 and <code>external_ids</code>. These columns have the same form and
20 purpose each place that they appear, so we describe them here to save space
25 <dt><code>other_config</code>: map of string-string pairs</dt>
28 Key-value pairs for configuring rarely used features. Supported keys,
29 along with the forms taken by their values, are documented individually
33 A few tables do not have <code>other_config</code> columns because no
34 key-value pairs have yet been defined for them.
38 <dt><code>external_ids</code>: map of string-string pairs</dt>
40 Key-value pairs for use by external frameworks that integrate with Open
41 vSwitch, rather than by Open vSwitch itself. System integrators should
42 either use the Open vSwitch development mailing list to coordinate on
43 common key-value definitions, or choose key names that are likely to be
44 unique. In some cases, where key-value pairs have been defined that are
45 likely to be widely useful, they are documented individually for each
50 <table name="Open_vSwitch" title="Open vSwitch configuration.">
51 Configuration for an Open vSwitch daemon. There must be exactly
52 one record in the <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/> table.
54 <group title="Configuration">
55 <column name="bridges">
56 Set of bridges managed by the daemon.
60 SSL used globally by the daemon.
63 <column name="external_ids" key="system-id">
64 A unique identifier for the Open vSwitch's physical host.
65 The form of the identifier depends on the type of the host.
66 On a Citrix XenServer, this will likely be the same as
67 <ref column="external_ids" key="xs-system-uuid"/>.
70 <column name="external_ids" key="xs-system-uuid">
71 The Citrix XenServer universally unique identifier for the physical
72 host as displayed by <code>xe host-list</code>.
75 <column name="other_config" key="flow-restore-wait"
76 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
78 When <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> starts up, it has an empty flow table
79 and therefore it handles all arriving packets in its default fashion
80 according to its configuration, by dropping them or sending them to
81 an OpenFlow controller or switching them as a standalone switch.
82 This behavior is ordinarily desirable. However, if
83 <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> is restarting as part of a ``hot-upgrade,''
84 then this leads to a relatively long period during which packets are
88 This option allows for improvement. When <code>ovs-vswitchd</code>
89 starts with this value set as <code>true</code>, it will neither
90 flush or expire previously set datapath flows nor will it send and
91 receive any packets to or from the datapath. When this value is
92 later set to <code>false</code>, <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> will
93 start receiving packets from the datapath and re-setup the flows.
96 Thus, with this option, the procedure for a hot-upgrade of
97 <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> becomes roughly the following:
101 Stop <code>ovs-vswitchd</code>.
104 Set <ref column="other_config" key="flow-restore-wait"/>
105 to <code>true</code>.
108 Start <code>ovs-vswitchd</code>.
111 Use <code>ovs-ofctl</code> (or some other program, such as an
112 OpenFlow controller) to restore the OpenFlow flow table
113 to the desired state.
116 Set <ref column="other_config" key="flow-restore-wait"/>
117 to <code>false</code> (or remove it entirely from the database).
121 The <code>ovs-ctl</code>'s ``restart'' and ``force-reload-kmod''
122 functions use the above config option during hot upgrades.
126 <column name="other_config" key="flow-eviction-threshold"
127 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0}'>
129 A number of flows as a nonnegative integer. This sets number of
130 flows at which eviction from the datapath flow table will be
131 triggered. If there are a large number of flows then increasing this
132 value to around the number of flows present can result in reduced CPU
133 usage and packet loss.
136 The default is 2500. Values below 100 will be rounded up to 100.
140 <column name="other_config" key="force-miss-model">
142 Specifies userspace behaviour for handling flow misses. This takes
143 precedence over flow-eviction-threshold.
147 <dt><code>auto</code></dt>
148 <dd>Handle automatically based on the flow-eviction-threshold and
149 the flow setup governer (default, recommended).</dd>
150 <dt><code>with-facets</code></dt>
151 <dd>Always create facets. Expensive kernel flow creation and
152 statistics tracking is always performed, even on flows with only
153 a small number of packets.</dd>
154 <dt><code>without-facets</code></dt>
155 <dd>Always handle without facets. Forces flow misses to be handled
156 in userspace. May cause an increase in CPU usage and packet loss
157 on high throughput.</dd>
162 <column name="other_config" key="n-handler-threads"
163 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
165 Specifies the number of threads for software datapaths to use for
166 handling new flows. The default is one less than the number of
167 online CPU cores (but at least 1).
170 This configuration is per datapath. If you have more than one
171 software datapath (e.g. some <code>system</code> bridges and some
172 <code>netdev</code> bridges), then the total number of threads is
173 <code>n-handler-threads</code> times the number of software
179 <group title="Status">
180 <column name="next_cfg">
181 Sequence number for client to increment. When a client modifies
182 any part of the database configuration and wishes to wait for
183 Open vSwitch to finish applying the changes, it may increment
184 this sequence number.
187 <column name="cur_cfg">
188 Sequence number that Open vSwitch sets to the current value of
189 <ref column="next_cfg"/> after it finishes applying a set of
190 configuration changes.
193 <group title="Statistics">
195 The <code>statistics</code> column contains key-value pairs that
196 report statistics about a system running an Open vSwitch. These are
197 updated periodically (currently, every 5 seconds). Key-value pairs
198 that cannot be determined or that do not apply to a platform are
202 <column name="other_config" key="enable-statistics"
203 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
204 Statistics are disabled by default to avoid overhead in the common
205 case when statistics gathering is not useful. Set this value to
206 <code>true</code> to enable populating the <ref column="statistics"/>
207 column or to <code>false</code> to explicitly disable it.
210 <column name="statistics" key="cpu"
211 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
213 Number of CPU processors, threads, or cores currently online and
214 available to the operating system on which Open vSwitch is running,
215 as an integer. This may be less than the number installed, if some
216 are not online or if they are not available to the operating
220 Open vSwitch userspace processes are not multithreaded, but the
221 Linux kernel-based datapath is.
225 <column name="statistics" key="load_average">
226 A comma-separated list of three floating-point numbers,
227 representing the system load average over the last 1, 5, and 15
228 minutes, respectively.
231 <column name="statistics" key="memory">
233 A comma-separated list of integers, each of which represents a
234 quantity of memory in kilobytes that describes the operating
235 system on which Open vSwitch is running. In respective order,
240 <li>Total amount of RAM allocated to the OS.</li>
241 <li>RAM allocated to the OS that is in use.</li>
242 <li>RAM that can be flushed out to disk or otherwise discarded
243 if that space is needed for another purpose. This number is
244 necessarily less than or equal to the previous value.</li>
245 <li>Total disk space allocated for swap.</li>
246 <li>Swap space currently in use.</li>
250 On Linux, all five values can be determined and are included. On
251 other operating systems, only the first two values can be
252 determined, so the list will only have two values.
256 <column name="statistics" key="process_NAME">
258 One such key-value pair, with <code>NAME</code> replaced by
259 a process name, will exist for each running Open vSwitch
260 daemon process, with <var>name</var> replaced by the
261 daemon's name (e.g. <code>process_ovs-vswitchd</code>). The
262 value is a comma-separated list of integers. The integers
263 represent the following, with memory measured in kilobytes
264 and durations in milliseconds:
268 <li>The process's virtual memory size.</li>
269 <li>The process's resident set size.</li>
270 <li>The amount of user and system CPU time consumed by the
272 <li>The number of times that the process has crashed and been
273 automatically restarted by the monitor.</li>
274 <li>The duration since the process was started.</li>
275 <li>The duration for which the process has been running.</li>
279 The interpretation of some of these values depends on whether the
280 process was started with the <option>--monitor</option>. If it
281 was not, then the crash count will always be 0 and the two
282 durations will always be the same. If <option>--monitor</option>
283 was given, then the crash count may be positive; if it is, the
284 latter duration is the amount of time since the most recent crash
289 There will be one key-value pair for each file in Open vSwitch's
290 ``run directory'' (usually <code>/var/run/openvswitch</code>)
291 whose name ends in <code>.pid</code>, whose contents are a
292 process ID, and which is locked by a running process. The
293 <var>name</var> is taken from the pidfile's name.
297 Currently Open vSwitch is only able to obtain all of the above
298 detail on Linux systems. On other systems, the same key-value
299 pairs will be present but the values will always be the empty
304 <column name="statistics" key="file_systems">
306 A space-separated list of information on local, writable file
307 systems. Each item in the list describes one file system and
308 consists in turn of a comma-separated list of the following:
312 <li>Mount point, e.g. <code>/</code> or <code>/var/log</code>.
313 Any spaces or commas in the mount point are replaced by
315 <li>Total size, in kilobytes, as an integer.</li>
316 <li>Amount of storage in use, in kilobytes, as an integer.</li>
320 This key-value pair is omitted if there are no local, writable
321 file systems or if Open vSwitch cannot obtain the needed
328 <group title="Version Reporting">
330 These columns report the types and versions of the hardware and
331 software running Open vSwitch. We recommend in general that software
332 should test whether specific features are supported instead of relying
333 on version number checks. These values are primarily intended for
334 reporting to human administrators.
337 <column name="ovs_version">
338 The Open vSwitch version number, e.g. <code>1.1.0</code>.
341 <column name="db_version">
343 The database schema version number in the form
344 <code><var>major</var>.<var>minor</var>.<var>tweak</var></code>,
345 e.g. <code>1.2.3</code>. Whenever the database schema is changed in
346 a non-backward compatible way (e.g. deleting a column or a table),
347 <var>major</var> is incremented. When the database schema is changed
348 in a backward compatible way (e.g. adding a new column),
349 <var>minor</var> is incremented. When the database schema is changed
350 cosmetically (e.g. reindenting its syntax), <var>tweak</var> is
355 The schema version is part of the database schema, so it can also be
356 retrieved by fetching the schema using the Open vSwitch database
361 <column name="system_type">
363 An identifier for the type of system on top of which Open vSwitch
364 runs, e.g. <code>XenServer</code> or <code>KVM</code>.
367 System integrators are responsible for choosing and setting an
368 appropriate value for this column.
372 <column name="system_version">
374 The version of the system identified by <ref column="system_type"/>,
375 e.g. <code>5.6.100-39265p</code> on XenServer 5.6.100 build 39265.
378 System integrators are responsible for choosing and setting an
379 appropriate value for this column.
385 <group title="Database Configuration">
387 These columns primarily configure the Open vSwitch database
388 (<code>ovsdb-server</code>), not the Open vSwitch switch
389 (<code>ovs-vswitchd</code>). The OVSDB database also uses the <ref
390 column="ssl"/> settings.
394 The Open vSwitch switch does read the database configuration to
395 determine remote IP addresses to which in-band control should apply.
398 <column name="manager_options">
399 Database clients to which the Open vSwitch database server should
400 connect or to which it should listen, along with options for how these
401 connection should be configured. See the <ref table="Manager"/> table
402 for more information.
406 <group title="Common Columns">
407 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
408 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
410 <column name="other_config"/>
411 <column name="external_ids"/>
415 <table name="Bridge">
417 Configuration for a bridge within an
418 <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/>.
421 A <ref table="Bridge"/> record represents an Ethernet switch with one or
422 more ``ports,'' which are the <ref table="Port"/> records pointed to by
423 the <ref table="Bridge"/>'s <ref column="ports"/> column.
426 <group title="Core Features">
428 Bridge identifier. Should be alphanumeric and no more than about 8
429 bytes long. Must be unique among the names of ports, interfaces, and
433 <column name="ports">
434 Ports included in the bridge.
437 <column name="mirrors">
438 Port mirroring configuration.
441 <column name="netflow">
442 NetFlow configuration.
445 <column name="sflow">
446 sFlow(R) configuration.
449 <column name="ipfix">
453 <column name="flood_vlans">
455 VLAN IDs of VLANs on which MAC address learning should be disabled,
456 so that packets are flooded instead of being sent to specific ports
457 that are believed to contain packets' destination MACs. This should
458 ordinarily be used to disable MAC learning on VLANs used for
459 mirroring (RSPAN VLANs). It may also be useful for debugging.
462 SLB bonding (see the <ref table="Port" column="bond_mode"/> column in
463 the <ref table="Port"/> table) is incompatible with
464 <code>flood_vlans</code>. Consider using another bonding mode or
465 a different type of mirror instead.
470 <group title="OpenFlow Configuration">
471 <column name="controller">
473 OpenFlow controller set. If unset, then no OpenFlow controllers
478 If there are primary controllers, removing all of them clears the
479 flow table. If there are no primary controllers, adding one also
480 clears the flow table. Other changes to the set of controllers, such
481 as adding or removing a service controller, adding another primary
482 controller to supplement an existing primary controller, or removing
483 only one of two primary controllers, have no effect on the flow
488 <column name="flow_tables">
489 Configuration for OpenFlow tables. Each pair maps from an OpenFlow
490 table ID to configuration for that table.
493 <column name="fail_mode">
494 <p>When a controller is configured, it is, ordinarily, responsible
495 for setting up all flows on the switch. Thus, if the connection to
496 the controller fails, no new network connections can be set up.
497 If the connection to the controller stays down long enough,
498 no packets can pass through the switch at all. This setting
499 determines the switch's response to such a situation. It may be set
500 to one of the following:
502 <dt><code>standalone</code></dt>
503 <dd>If no message is received from the controller for three
504 times the inactivity probe interval
505 (see <ref column="inactivity_probe"/>), then Open vSwitch
506 will take over responsibility for setting up flows. In
507 this mode, Open vSwitch causes the bridge to act like an
508 ordinary MAC-learning switch. Open vSwitch will continue
509 to retry connecting to the controller in the background
510 and, when the connection succeeds, it will discontinue its
511 standalone behavior.</dd>
512 <dt><code>secure</code></dt>
513 <dd>Open vSwitch will not set up flows on its own when the
514 controller connection fails or when no controllers are
515 defined. The bridge will continue to retry connecting to
516 any defined controllers forever.</dd>
520 The default is <code>standalone</code> if the value is unset, but
521 future versions of Open vSwitch may change the default.
524 The <code>standalone</code> mode can create forwarding loops on a
525 bridge that has more than one uplink port unless STP is enabled. To
526 avoid loops on such a bridge, configure <code>secure</code> mode or
527 enable STP (see <ref column="stp_enable"/>).
529 <p>When more than one controller is configured,
530 <ref column="fail_mode"/> is considered only when none of the
531 configured controllers can be contacted.</p>
533 Changing <ref column="fail_mode"/> when no primary controllers are
534 configured clears the flow table.
538 <column name="datapath_id">
539 Reports the OpenFlow datapath ID in use. Exactly 16 hex digits.
540 (Setting this column has no useful effect. Set <ref
541 column="other-config" key="datapath-id"/> instead.)
544 <column name="other_config" key="datapath-id">
545 Exactly 16 hex digits to set the OpenFlow datapath ID to a specific
546 value. May not be all-zero.
549 <column name="other_config" key="dp-desc">
550 Human readable description of datapath. It it a maximum 256
551 byte-long free-form string to describe the datapath for
552 debugging purposes, e.g. <code>switch3 in room 3120</code>.
555 <column name="other_config" key="disable-in-band"
556 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
557 If set to <code>true</code>, disable in-band control on the bridge
558 regardless of controller and manager settings.
561 <column name="other_config" key="in-band-queue"
562 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 4294967295}'>
563 A queue ID as a nonnegative integer. This sets the OpenFlow queue ID
564 that will be used by flows set up by in-band control on this bridge.
565 If unset, or if the port used by an in-band control flow does not have
566 QoS configured, or if the port does not have a queue with the specified
567 ID, the default queue is used instead.
570 <column name="protocols">
571 List of OpenFlow protocols that may be used when negotiating a
572 connection with a controller. A default value of
573 <code>OpenFlow10</code> will be used if this column is empty.
577 <group title="Spanning Tree Configuration">
578 The IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol
579 that ensures loop-free topologies. It allows redundant links to
580 be included in the network to provide automatic backup paths if
581 the active links fails.
583 <column name="stp_enable">
584 Enable spanning tree on the bridge. By default, STP is disabled
585 on bridges. Bond, internal, and mirror ports are not supported
586 and will not participate in the spanning tree.
589 <column name="other_config" key="stp-system-id">
590 The bridge's STP identifier (the lower 48 bits of the bridge-id)
592 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>.
593 By default, the identifier is the MAC address of the bridge.
596 <column name="other_config" key="stp-priority"
597 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
598 The bridge's relative priority value for determining the root
599 bridge (the upper 16 bits of the bridge-id). A bridge with the
600 lowest bridge-id is elected the root. By default, the priority
604 <column name="other_config" key="stp-hello-time"
605 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 10}'>
606 The interval between transmissions of hello messages by
607 designated ports, in seconds. By default the hello interval is
611 <column name="other_config" key="stp-max-age"
612 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 6, "maxInteger": 40}'>
613 The maximum age of the information transmitted by the bridge
614 when it is the root bridge, in seconds. By default, the maximum
618 <column name="other_config" key="stp-forward-delay"
619 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 4, "maxInteger": 30}'>
620 The delay to wait between transitioning root and designated
621 ports to <code>forwarding</code>, in seconds. By default, the
622 forwarding delay is 15 seconds.
626 <group title="Other Features">
627 <column name="datapath_type">
628 Name of datapath provider. The kernel datapath has
629 type <code>system</code>. The userspace datapath has
630 type <code>netdev</code>.
633 <column name="external_ids" key="bridge-id">
634 A unique identifier of the bridge. On Citrix XenServer this will
635 commonly be the same as
636 <ref column="external_ids" key="xs-network-uuids"/>.
639 <column name="external_ids" key="xs-network-uuids">
640 Semicolon-delimited set of universally unique identifier(s) for the
641 network with which this bridge is associated on a Citrix XenServer
642 host. The network identifiers are RFC 4122 UUIDs as displayed by,
643 e.g., <code>xe network-list</code>.
646 <column name="other_config" key="hwaddr">
647 An Ethernet address in the form
648 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>
649 to set the hardware address of the local port and influence the
653 <column name="other_config" key="forward-bpdu"
654 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
655 Option to allow forwarding of BPDU frames when NORMAL action is
656 invoked. Frames with reserved Ethernet addresses (e.g. STP
657 BPDU) will be forwarded when this option is enabled and the
658 switch is not providing that functionality. If STP is enabled
659 on the port, STP BPDUs will never be forwarded. If the Open
660 vSwitch bridge is used to connect different Ethernet networks,
661 and if Open vSwitch node does not run STP, then this option
662 should be enabled. Default is disabled, set to
663 <code>true</code> to enable.
665 The following destination MAC addresss will not be forwarded when this
668 <dt><code>01:80:c2:00:00:00</code></dt>
669 <dd>IEEE 802.1D Spanning Tree Protocol (STP).</dd>
671 <dt><code>01:80:c2:00:00:01</code></dt>
672 <dd>IEEE Pause frame.</dd>
674 <dt><code>01:80:c2:00:00:0<var>x</var></code></dt>
675 <dd>Other reserved protocols.</dd>
677 <dt><code>00:e0:2b:00:00:00</code></dt>
678 <dd>Extreme Discovery Protocol (EDP).</dd>
681 <code>00:e0:2b:00:00:04</code> and <code>00:e0:2b:00:00:06</code>
683 <dd>Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS).</dd>
685 <dt><code>01:00:0c:cc:cc:cc</code></dt>
687 Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP),
688 Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP), Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP),
692 <dt><code>01:00:0c:cc:cc:cd</code></dt>
693 <dd>Cisco Shared Spanning Tree Protocol PVSTP+.</dd>
695 <dt><code>01:00:0c:cd:cd:cd</code></dt>
696 <dd>Cisco STP Uplink Fast.</dd>
698 <dt><code>01:00:0c:00:00:00</code></dt>
699 <dd>Cisco Inter Switch Link.</dd>
701 <dt><code>01:00:0c:cc:cc:c<var>x</var></code></dt>
706 <column name="other_config" key="mac-aging-time"
707 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
709 The maximum number of seconds to retain a MAC learning entry for
710 which no packets have been seen. The default is currently 300
711 seconds (5 minutes). The value, if specified, is forced into a
712 reasonable range, currently 15 to 3600 seconds.
716 A short MAC aging time allows a network to more quickly detect that a
717 host is no longer connected to a switch port. However, it also makes
718 it more likely that packets will be flooded unnecessarily, when they
719 are addressed to a connected host that rarely transmits packets. To
720 reduce the incidence of unnecessary flooding, use a MAC aging time
721 longer than the maximum interval at which a host will ordinarily
726 <column name="other_config" key="mac-table-size"
727 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
729 The maximum number of MAC addresses to learn. The default is
730 currently 2048. The value, if specified, is forced into a reasonable
731 range, currently 10 to 1,000,000.
736 <group title="Bridge Status">
738 Status information about bridges.
740 <column name="status">
741 Key-value pairs that report bridge status.
743 <column name="status" key="stp_bridge_id">
745 The bridge-id (in hex) used in spanning tree advertisements.
746 Configuring the bridge-id is described in the
747 <code>stp-system-id</code> and <code>stp-priority</code> keys
748 of the <code>other_config</code> section earlier.
751 <column name="status" key="stp_designated_root">
753 The designated root (in hex) for this spanning tree.
756 <column name="status" key="stp_root_path_cost">
758 The path cost of reaching the designated bridge. A lower
764 <group title="Common Columns">
765 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
766 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
768 <column name="other_config"/>
769 <column name="external_ids"/>
773 <table name="Port" table="Port or bond configuration.">
774 <p>A port within a <ref table="Bridge"/>.</p>
775 <p>Most commonly, a port has exactly one ``interface,'' pointed to by its
776 <ref column="interfaces"/> column. Such a port logically
777 corresponds to a port on a physical Ethernet switch. A port
778 with more than one interface is a ``bonded port'' (see
779 <ref group="Bonding Configuration"/>).</p>
780 <p>Some properties that one might think as belonging to a port are actually
781 part of the port's <ref table="Interface"/> members.</p>
784 Port name. Should be alphanumeric and no more than about 8
785 bytes long. May be the same as the interface name, for
786 non-bonded ports. Must otherwise be unique among the names of
787 ports, interfaces, and bridges on a host.
790 <column name="interfaces">
791 The port's interfaces. If there is more than one, this is a
795 <group title="VLAN Configuration">
796 <p>Bridge ports support the following types of VLAN configuration:</p>
801 A trunk port carries packets on one or more specified VLANs
802 specified in the <ref column="trunks"/> column (often, on every
803 VLAN). A packet that ingresses on a trunk port is in the VLAN
804 specified in its 802.1Q header, or VLAN 0 if the packet has no
805 802.1Q header. A packet that egresses through a trunk port will
806 have an 802.1Q header if it has a nonzero VLAN ID.
810 Any packet that ingresses on a trunk port tagged with a VLAN that
811 the port does not trunk is dropped.
818 An access port carries packets on exactly one VLAN specified in the
819 <ref column="tag"/> column. Packets egressing on an access port
820 have no 802.1Q header.
824 Any packet with an 802.1Q header with a nonzero VLAN ID that
825 ingresses on an access port is dropped, regardless of whether the
826 VLAN ID in the header is the access port's VLAN ID.
830 <dt>native-tagged</dt>
832 A native-tagged port resembles a trunk port, with the exception that
833 a packet without an 802.1Q header that ingresses on a native-tagged
834 port is in the ``native VLAN'' (specified in the <ref column="tag"/>
838 <dt>native-untagged</dt>
840 A native-untagged port resembles a native-tagged port, with the
841 exception that a packet that egresses on a native-untagged port in
842 the native VLAN will not have an 802.1Q header.
846 A packet will only egress through bridge ports that carry the VLAN of
847 the packet, as described by the rules above.
850 <column name="vlan_mode">
852 The VLAN mode of the port, as described above. When this column is
853 empty, a default mode is selected as follows:
857 If <ref column="tag"/> contains a value, the port is an access
858 port. The <ref column="trunks"/> column should be empty.
861 Otherwise, the port is a trunk port. The <ref column="trunks"/>
862 column value is honored if it is present.
869 For an access port, the port's implicitly tagged VLAN. For a
870 native-tagged or native-untagged port, the port's native VLAN. Must
871 be empty if this is a trunk port.
875 <column name="trunks">
877 For a trunk, native-tagged, or native-untagged port, the 802.1Q VLAN
878 or VLANs that this port trunks; if it is empty, then the port trunks
879 all VLANs. Must be empty if this is an access port.
882 A native-tagged or native-untagged port always trunks its native
883 VLAN, regardless of whether <ref column="trunks"/> includes that
888 <column name="other_config" key="priority-tags"
889 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
891 An 802.1Q header contains two important pieces of information: a VLAN
892 ID and a priority. A frame with a zero VLAN ID, called a
893 ``priority-tagged'' frame, is supposed to be treated the same way as
894 a frame without an 802.1Q header at all (except for the priority).
898 However, some network elements ignore any frame that has 802.1Q
899 header at all, even when the VLAN ID is zero. Therefore, by default
900 Open vSwitch does not output priority-tagged frames, instead omitting
901 the 802.1Q header entirely if the VLAN ID is zero. Set this key to
902 <code>true</code> to enable priority-tagged frames on a port.
906 Regardless of this setting, Open vSwitch omits the 802.1Q header on
907 output if both the VLAN ID and priority would be zero.
911 All frames output to native-tagged ports have a nonzero VLAN ID, so
912 this setting is not meaningful on native-tagged ports.
917 <group title="Bonding Configuration">
918 <p>A port that has more than one interface is a ``bonded port.'' Bonding
919 allows for load balancing and fail-over.</p>
922 The following types of bonding will work with any kind of upstream
923 switch. On the upstream switch, do not configure the interfaces as a
928 <dt><code>balance-slb</code></dt>
930 Balances flows among slaves based on source MAC address and output
931 VLAN, with periodic rebalancing as traffic patterns change.
934 <dt><code>active-backup</code></dt>
936 Assigns all flows to one slave, failing over to a backup slave when
937 the active slave is disabled. This is the only bonding mode in which
938 interfaces may be plugged into different upstream switches.
943 The following modes require the upstream switch to support 802.3ad with
944 successful LACP negotiation:
948 <dt><code>balance-tcp</code></dt>
950 Balances flows among slaves based on L2, L3, and L4 protocol
951 information such as destination MAC address, IP address, and TCP
956 <p>These columns apply only to bonded ports. Their values are
957 otherwise ignored.</p>
959 <column name="bond_mode">
960 <p>The type of bonding used for a bonded port. Defaults to
961 <code>active-backup</code> if unset.
965 <column name="other_config" key="bond-hash-basis"
966 type='{"type": "integer"}'>
967 An integer hashed along with flows when choosing output slaves in load
968 balanced bonds. When changed, all flows will be assigned different
969 hash values possibly causing slave selection decisions to change. Does
970 not affect bonding modes which do not employ load balancing such as
971 <code>active-backup</code>.
974 <group title="Link Failure Detection">
976 An important part of link bonding is detecting that links are down so
977 that they may be disabled. These settings determine how Open vSwitch
978 detects link failure.
981 <column name="other_config" key="bond-detect-mode"
982 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["carrier", "miimon"]]}'>
983 The means used to detect link failures. Defaults to
984 <code>carrier</code> which uses each interface's carrier to detect
985 failures. When set to <code>miimon</code>, will check for failures
986 by polling each interface's MII.
989 <column name="other_config" key="bond-miimon-interval"
990 type='{"type": "integer"}'>
991 The interval, in milliseconds, between successive attempts to poll
992 each interface's MII. Relevant only when <ref column="other_config"
993 key="bond-detect-mode"/> is <code>miimon</code>.
996 <column name="bond_updelay">
998 The number of milliseconds for which the link must stay up on an
999 interface before the interface is considered to be up. Specify
1000 <code>0</code> to enable the interface immediately.
1004 This setting is honored only when at least one bonded interface is
1005 already enabled. When no interfaces are enabled, then the first
1006 bond interface to come up is enabled immediately.
1010 <column name="bond_downdelay">
1011 The number of milliseconds for which the link must stay down on an
1012 interface before the interface is considered to be down. Specify
1013 <code>0</code> to disable the interface immediately.
1017 <group title="LACP Configuration">
1019 LACP, the Link Aggregation Control Protocol, is an IEEE standard that
1020 allows switches to automatically detect that they are connected by
1021 multiple links and aggregate across those links. These settings
1022 control LACP behavior.
1025 <column name="lacp">
1026 Configures LACP on this port. LACP allows directly connected
1027 switches to negotiate which links may be bonded. LACP may be enabled
1028 on non-bonded ports for the benefit of any switches they may be
1029 connected to. <code>active</code> ports are allowed to initiate LACP
1030 negotiations. <code>passive</code> ports are allowed to participate
1031 in LACP negotiations initiated by a remote switch, but not allowed to
1032 initiate such negotiations themselves. If LACP is enabled on a port
1033 whose partner switch does not support LACP, the bond will be
1034 disabled. Defaults to <code>off</code> if unset.
1037 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-system-id">
1038 The LACP system ID of this <ref table="Port"/>. The system ID of a
1039 LACP bond is used to identify itself to its partners. Must be a
1040 nonzero MAC address. Defaults to the bridge Ethernet address if
1044 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-system-priority"
1045 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
1046 The LACP system priority of this <ref table="Port"/>. In LACP
1047 negotiations, link status decisions are made by the system with the
1048 numerically lower priority.
1051 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-time"
1052 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["fast", "slow"]]}'>
1054 The LACP timing which should be used on this <ref table="Port"/>.
1055 By default <code>slow</code> is used. When configured to be
1056 <code>fast</code> LACP heartbeats are requested at a rate of once
1057 per second causing connectivity problems to be detected more
1058 quickly. In <code>slow</code> mode, heartbeats are requested at a
1059 rate of once every 30 seconds.
1064 <group title="Rebalancing Configuration">
1066 These settings control behavior when a bond is in
1067 <code>balance-slb</code> or <code>balance-tcp</code> mode.
1070 <column name="other_config" key="bond-rebalance-interval"
1071 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 10000}'>
1072 For a load balanced bonded port, the number of milliseconds between
1073 successive attempts to rebalance the bond, that is, to move flows
1074 from one interface on the bond to another in an attempt to keep usage
1075 of each interface roughly equal. If zero, load balancing is disabled
1076 on the bond (link failure still cause flows to move). If
1077 less than 1000ms, the rebalance interval will be 1000ms.
1081 <column name="bond_fake_iface">
1082 For a bonded port, whether to create a fake internal interface with the
1083 name of the port. Use only for compatibility with legacy software that
1088 <group title="Spanning Tree Configuration">
1089 <column name="other_config" key="stp-enable"
1090 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1091 If spanning tree is enabled on the bridge, member ports are
1092 enabled by default (with the exception of bond, internal, and
1093 mirror ports which do not work with STP). If this column's
1094 value is <code>false</code> spanning tree is disabled on the
1098 <column name="other_config" key="stp-port-num"
1099 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 255}'>
1100 The port number used for the lower 8 bits of the port-id. By
1101 default, the numbers will be assigned automatically. If any
1102 port's number is manually configured on a bridge, then they
1106 <column name="other_config" key="stp-port-priority"
1107 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 255}'>
1108 The port's relative priority value for determining the root
1109 port (the upper 8 bits of the port-id). A port with a lower
1110 port-id will be chosen as the root port. By default, the
1114 <column name="other_config" key="stp-path-cost"
1115 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
1116 Spanning tree path cost for the port. A lower number indicates
1117 a faster link. By default, the cost is based on the maximum
1122 <group title="Other Features">
1124 Quality of Service configuration for this port.
1128 The MAC address to use for this port for the purpose of choosing the
1129 bridge's MAC address. This column does not necessarily reflect the
1130 port's actual MAC address, nor will setting it change the port's actual
1134 <column name="fake_bridge">
1135 Does this port represent a sub-bridge for its tagged VLAN within the
1136 Bridge? See ovs-vsctl(8) for more information.
1139 <column name="external_ids" key="fake-bridge-id-*">
1140 External IDs for a fake bridge (see the <ref column="fake_bridge"/>
1141 column) are defined by prefixing a <ref table="Bridge"/> <ref
1142 table="Bridge" column="external_ids"/> key with
1143 <code>fake-bridge-</code>,
1144 e.g. <code>fake-bridge-xs-network-uuids</code>.
1148 <group title="Port Status">
1150 Status information about ports attached to bridges.
1152 <column name="status">
1153 Key-value pairs that report port status.
1155 <column name="status" key="stp_port_id">
1157 The port-id (in hex) used in spanning tree advertisements for
1158 this port. Configuring the port-id is described in the
1159 <code>stp-port-num</code> and <code>stp-port-priority</code>
1160 keys of the <code>other_config</code> section earlier.
1163 <column name="status" key="stp_state"
1164 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set",
1165 ["disabled", "listening", "learning",
1166 "forwarding", "blocking"]]}'>
1168 STP state of the port.
1171 <column name="status" key="stp_sec_in_state"
1172 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0}'>
1174 The amount of time (in seconds) port has been in the current
1178 <column name="status" key="stp_role"
1179 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set",
1180 ["root", "designated", "alternate"]]}'>
1182 STP role of the port.
1187 <group title="Port Statistics">
1189 Key-value pairs that report port statistics.
1191 <group title="Statistics: STP transmit and receive counters">
1192 <column name="statistics" key="stp_tx_count">
1193 Number of STP BPDUs sent on this port by the spanning
1196 <column name="statistics" key="stp_rx_count">
1197 Number of STP BPDUs received on this port and accepted by the
1198 spanning tree library.
1200 <column name="statistics" key="stp_error_count">
1201 Number of bad STP BPDUs received on this port. Bad BPDUs
1202 include runt packets and those with an unexpected protocol ID.
1207 <group title="Common Columns">
1208 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
1209 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
1211 <column name="other_config"/>
1212 <column name="external_ids"/>
1216 <table name="Interface" title="One physical network device in a Port.">
1217 An interface within a <ref table="Port"/>.
1219 <group title="Core Features">
1220 <column name="name">
1221 Interface name. Should be alphanumeric and no more than about 8 bytes
1222 long. May be the same as the port name, for non-bonded ports. Must
1223 otherwise be unique among the names of ports, interfaces, and bridges
1227 <column name="ifindex">
1228 A positive interface index as defined for SNMP MIB-II in RFCs 1213 and
1229 2863, if the interface has one, otherwise 0. The ifindex is useful for
1230 seamless integration with protocols such as SNMP and sFlow.
1233 <column name="mac_in_use">
1234 The MAC address in use by this interface.
1238 <p>Ethernet address to set for this interface. If unset then the
1239 default MAC address is used:</p>
1241 <li>For the local interface, the default is the lowest-numbered MAC
1242 address among the other bridge ports, either the value of the
1243 <ref table="Port" column="mac"/> in its <ref table="Port"/> record,
1244 if set, or its actual MAC (for bonded ports, the MAC of its slave
1245 whose name is first in alphabetical order). Internal ports and
1246 bridge ports that are used as port mirroring destinations (see the
1247 <ref table="Mirror"/> table) are ignored.</li>
1248 <li>For other internal interfaces, the default MAC is randomly
1250 <li>External interfaces typically have a MAC address associated with
1251 their hardware.</li>
1253 <p>Some interfaces may not have a software-controllable MAC
1257 <column name="ofport">
1258 <p>OpenFlow port number for this interface. Unlike most columns, this
1259 column's value should be set only by Open vSwitch itself. Other
1260 clients should set this column to an empty set (the default) when
1261 creating an <ref table="Interface"/>.</p>
1262 <p>Open vSwitch populates this column when the port number becomes
1263 known. If the interface is successfully added,
1264 <ref column="ofport"/> will be set to a number between 1 and 65535
1265 (generally either in the range 1 to 65279, inclusive, or 65534, the
1266 port number for the OpenFlow ``local port''). If the interface
1267 cannot be added then Open vSwitch sets this column
1269 <p>When <ref column="ofport_request"/> is not set, Open vSwitch picks
1270 an appropriate value for this column and then tries to keep the value
1271 constant across restarts.</p>
1274 <column name="ofport_request">
1275 <p>Requested OpenFlow port number for this interface. The port
1276 number must be between 1 and 65279, inclusive. Some datapaths
1277 cannot satisfy all requests for particular port numbers. When
1278 this column is empty or the request cannot be fulfilled, the
1279 system will choose a free port. The <ref column="ofport"/>
1280 column reports the assigned OpenFlow port number.</p>
1281 <p>The port number must be requested in the same transaction
1282 that creates the port.</p>
1286 <group title="System-Specific Details">
1287 <column name="type">
1289 The interface type, one of:
1293 <dt><code>system</code></dt>
1294 <dd>An ordinary network device, e.g. <code>eth0</code> on Linux.
1295 Sometimes referred to as ``external interfaces'' since they are
1296 generally connected to hardware external to that on which the Open
1297 vSwitch is running. The empty string is a synonym for
1298 <code>system</code>.</dd>
1300 <dt><code>internal</code></dt>
1301 <dd>A simulated network device that sends and receives traffic. An
1302 internal interface whose <ref column="name"/> is the same as its
1303 bridge's <ref table="Open_vSwitch" column="name"/> is called the
1304 ``local interface.'' It does not make sense to bond an internal
1305 interface, so the terms ``port'' and ``interface'' are often used
1306 imprecisely for internal interfaces.</dd>
1308 <dt><code>tap</code></dt>
1309 <dd>A TUN/TAP device managed by Open vSwitch.</dd>
1311 <dt><code>gre</code></dt>
1313 An Ethernet over RFC 2890 Generic Routing Encapsulation over IPv4
1317 <dt><code>ipsec_gre</code></dt>
1319 An Ethernet over RFC 2890 Generic Routing Encapsulation over IPv4
1323 <dt><code>gre64</code></dt>
1325 It is same as GRE, but it allows 64 bit key. To store higher 32-bits
1326 of key, it uses GRE protocol sequence number field. This is non
1327 standard use of GRE protocol since OVS does not increment
1328 sequence number for every packet at time of encap as expected by
1329 standard GRE implementation. See <ref group="Tunnel Options"/>
1330 for information on configuring GRE tunnels.
1333 <dt><code>ipsec_gre64</code></dt>
1335 Same as IPSEC_GRE except 64 bit key.
1338 <dt><code>vxlan</code></dt>
1341 An Ethernet tunnel over the experimental, UDP-based VXLAN
1342 protocol described at
1343 <code>http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-mahalingam-dutt-dcops-vxlan-03</code>.
1344 VXLAN is currently supported only with the Linux kernel datapath
1345 with kernel version 2.6.26 or later.
1348 Open vSwitch uses UDP destination port 4789. The source port used for
1349 VXLAN traffic varies on a per-flow basis and is in the ephemeral port
1354 <dt><code>lisp</code></dt>
1356 A layer 3 tunnel over the experimental, UDP-based Locator/ID
1357 Separation Protocol (RFC 6830). LISP is currently supported only
1358 with the Linux kernel datapath with kernel version 2.6.26 or later.
1361 <dt><code>patch</code></dt>
1363 A pair of virtual devices that act as a patch cable.
1366 <dt><code>null</code></dt>
1367 <dd>An ignored interface. Deprecated and slated for removal in
1373 <group title="Tunnel Options">
1375 These options apply to interfaces with <ref column="type"/> of
1376 <code>gre</code>, <code>ipsec_gre</code>, <code>gre64</code>,
1377 <code>ipsec_gre64</code>, <code>vxlan</code>, and <code>lisp</code>.
1381 Each tunnel must be uniquely identified by the combination of <ref
1382 column="type"/>, <ref column="options" key="remote_ip"/>, <ref
1383 column="options" key="local_ip"/>, and <ref column="options"
1384 key="in_key"/>. If two ports are defined that are the same except one
1385 has an optional identifier and the other does not, the more specific
1386 one is matched first. <ref column="options" key="in_key"/> is
1387 considered more specific than <ref column="options" key="local_ip"/> if
1388 a port defines one and another port defines the other.
1391 <column name="options" key="remote_ip">
1392 <p>Required. The remote tunnel endpoint, one of:</p>
1396 An IPv4 address (not a DNS name), e.g. <code>192.168.0.123</code>.
1397 Only unicast endpoints are supported.
1400 The word <code>flow</code>. The tunnel accepts packets from any
1401 remote tunnel endpoint. To process only packets from a specific
1402 remote tunnel endpoint, the flow entries may match on the
1403 <code>tun_src</code> field. When sending packets to a
1404 <code>remote_ip=flow</code> tunnel, the flow actions must
1405 explicitly set the <code>tun_dst</code> field to the IP address of
1406 the desired remote tunnel endpoint, e.g. with a
1407 <code>set_field</code> action.
1412 The remote tunnel endpoint for any packet received from a tunnel
1413 is available in the <code>tun_src</code> field for matching in the
1418 <column name="options" key="local_ip">
1420 Optional. The tunnel destination IP that received packets must
1421 match. Default is to match all addresses. If specified, may be one
1427 An IPv4 address (not a DNS name), e.g. <code>192.168.12.3</code>.
1430 The word <code>flow</code>. The tunnel accepts packets sent to any
1431 of the local IP addresses of the system running OVS. To process
1432 only packets sent to a specific IP address, the flow entries may
1433 match on the <code>tun_dst</code> field. When sending packets to a
1434 <code>local_ip=flow</code> tunnel, the flow actions may
1435 explicitly set the <code>tun_src</code> field to the desired IP
1436 address, e.g. with a <code>set_field</code> action. However, while
1437 routing the tunneled packet out, the local system may override the
1438 specified address with the local IP address configured for the
1439 outgoing system interface.
1442 This option is valid only for tunnels also configured with the
1443 <code>remote_ip=flow</code> option.
1449 The tunnel destination IP address for any packet received from a
1450 tunnel is available in the <code>tun_dst</code> field for matching in
1455 <column name="options" key="in_key">
1456 <p>Optional. The key that received packets must contain, one of:</p>
1460 <code>0</code>. The tunnel receives packets with no key or with a
1461 key of 0. This is equivalent to specifying no <ref column="options"
1462 key="in_key"/> at all.
1465 A positive 24-bit (for VXLAN and LISP), 32-bit (for GRE) or 64-bit
1466 (for GRE64) number. The tunnel receives only packets with the
1470 The word <code>flow</code>. The tunnel accepts packets with any
1471 key. The key will be placed in the <code>tun_id</code> field for
1472 matching in the flow table. The <code>ovs-ofctl</code> manual page
1473 contains additional information about matching fields in OpenFlow
1482 <column name="options" key="out_key">
1483 <p>Optional. The key to be set on outgoing packets, one of:</p>
1487 <code>0</code>. Packets sent through the tunnel will have no key.
1488 This is equivalent to specifying no <ref column="options"
1489 key="out_key"/> at all.
1492 A positive 24-bit (for VXLAN and LISP), 32-bit (for GRE) or 64-bit
1493 (for GRE64) number. Packets sent through the tunnel will have the
1497 The word <code>flow</code>. Packets sent through the tunnel will
1498 have the key set using the <code>set_tunnel</code> Nicira OpenFlow
1499 vendor extension (0 is used in the absence of an action). The
1500 <code>ovs-ofctl</code> manual page contains additional information
1501 about the Nicira OpenFlow vendor extensions.
1506 <column name="options" key="key">
1507 Optional. Shorthand to set <code>in_key</code> and
1508 <code>out_key</code> at the same time.
1511 <column name="options" key="tos">
1512 Optional. The value of the ToS bits to be set on the encapsulating
1513 packet. ToS is interpreted as DSCP and ECN bits, ECN part must be
1514 zero. It may also be the word <code>inherit</code>, in which case
1515 the ToS will be copied from the inner packet if it is IPv4 or IPv6
1516 (otherwise it will be 0). The ECN fields are always inherited.
1520 <column name="options" key="ttl">
1521 Optional. The TTL to be set on the encapsulating packet. It may also
1522 be the word <code>inherit</code>, in which case the TTL will be copied
1523 from the inner packet if it is IPv4 or IPv6 (otherwise it will be the
1524 system default, typically 64). Default is the system default TTL.
1527 <column name="options" key="df_default"
1528 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1529 Optional. If enabled, the Don't Fragment bit will be set on tunnel
1530 outer headers to allow path MTU discovery. Default is enabled; set
1531 to <code>false</code> to disable.
1534 <group title="Tunnel Options: gre and ipsec_gre only">
1536 Only <code>gre</code> and <code>ipsec_gre</code> interfaces support
1540 <column name="options" key="csum" type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1542 Optional. Compute GRE checksums on outgoing packets. Default is
1543 disabled, set to <code>true</code> to enable. Checksums present on
1544 incoming packets will be validated regardless of this setting.
1548 GRE checksums impose a significant performance penalty because they
1549 cover the entire packet. The encapsulated L3, L4, and L7 packet
1550 contents typically have their own checksums, so this additional
1551 checksum only adds value for the GRE and encapsulated L2 headers.
1555 This option is supported for <code>ipsec_gre</code>, but not useful
1556 because GRE checksums are weaker than, and redundant with, IPsec
1557 payload authentication.
1562 <group title="Tunnel Options: ipsec_gre only">
1564 Only <code>ipsec_gre</code> interfaces support these options.
1567 <column name="options" key="peer_cert">
1568 Required for certificate authentication. A string containing the
1569 peer's certificate in PEM format. Additionally the host's
1570 certificate must be specified with the <code>certificate</code>
1574 <column name="options" key="certificate">
1575 Required for certificate authentication. The name of a PEM file
1576 containing a certificate that will be presented to the peer during
1580 <column name="options" key="private_key">
1581 Optional for certificate authentication. The name of a PEM file
1582 containing the private key associated with <code>certificate</code>.
1583 If <code>certificate</code> contains the private key, this option may
1587 <column name="options" key="psk">
1588 Required for pre-shared key authentication. Specifies a pre-shared
1589 key for authentication that must be identical on both sides of the
1595 <group title="Patch Options">
1597 Only <code>patch</code> interfaces support these options.
1600 <column name="options" key="peer">
1601 The <ref column="name"/> of the <ref table="Interface"/> for the other
1602 side of the patch. The named <ref table="Interface"/>'s own
1603 <code>peer</code> option must specify this <ref table="Interface"/>'s
1604 name. That is, the two patch interfaces must have reversed <ref
1605 column="name"/> and <code>peer</code> values.
1609 <group title="Interface Status">
1611 Status information about interfaces attached to bridges, updated every
1612 5 seconds. Not all interfaces have all of these properties; virtual
1613 interfaces don't have a link speed, for example. Non-applicable
1614 columns will have empty values.
1616 <column name="admin_state">
1618 The administrative state of the physical network link.
1622 <column name="link_state">
1624 The observed state of the physical network link. This is ordinarily
1625 the link's carrier status. If the interface's <ref table="Port"/> is
1626 a bond configured for miimon monitoring, it is instead the network
1627 link's miimon status.
1631 <column name="link_resets">
1633 The number of times Open vSwitch has observed the
1634 <ref column="link_state"/> of this <ref table="Interface"/> change.
1638 <column name="link_speed">
1640 The negotiated speed of the physical network link.
1641 Valid values are positive integers greater than 0.
1645 <column name="duplex">
1647 The duplex mode of the physical network link.
1653 The MTU (maximum transmission unit); i.e. the largest
1654 amount of data that can fit into a single Ethernet frame.
1655 The standard Ethernet MTU is 1500 bytes. Some physical media
1656 and many kinds of virtual interfaces can be configured with
1660 This column will be empty for an interface that does not
1661 have an MTU as, for example, some kinds of tunnels do not.
1665 <column name="lacp_current">
1666 Boolean value indicating LACP status for this interface. If true, this
1667 interface has current LACP information about its LACP partner. This
1668 information may be used to monitor the health of interfaces in a LACP
1669 enabled port. This column will be empty if LACP is not enabled.
1672 <column name="status">
1673 Key-value pairs that report port status. Supported status values are
1674 <ref column="type"/>-dependent; some interfaces may not have a valid
1675 <ref column="status" key="driver_name"/>, for example.
1678 <column name="status" key="driver_name">
1679 The name of the device driver controlling the network adapter.
1682 <column name="status" key="driver_version">
1683 The version string of the device driver controlling the network
1687 <column name="status" key="firmware_version">
1688 The version string of the network adapter's firmware, if available.
1691 <column name="status" key="source_ip">
1692 The source IP address used for an IPv4 tunnel end-point, such as
1696 <column name="status" key="tunnel_egress_iface">
1697 Egress interface for tunnels. Currently only relevant for GRE tunnels
1698 On Linux systems, this column will show the name of the interface
1699 which is responsible for routing traffic destined for the configured
1700 <ref column="options" key="remote_ip"/>. This could be an internal
1701 interface such as a bridge port.
1704 <column name="status" key="tunnel_egress_iface_carrier"
1705 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["down", "up"]]}'>
1706 Whether carrier is detected on <ref column="status"
1707 key="tunnel_egress_iface"/>.
1711 <group title="Statistics">
1713 Key-value pairs that report interface statistics. The current
1714 implementation updates these counters periodically. Future
1715 implementations may update them when an interface is created, when they
1716 are queried (e.g. using an OVSDB <code>select</code> operation), and
1717 just before an interface is deleted due to virtual interface hot-unplug
1718 or VM shutdown, and perhaps at other times, but not on any regular
1722 These are the same statistics reported by OpenFlow in its <code>struct
1723 ofp_port_stats</code> structure. If an interface does not support a
1724 given statistic, then that pair is omitted.
1726 <group title="Statistics: Successful transmit and receive counters">
1727 <column name="statistics" key="rx_packets">
1728 Number of received packets.
1730 <column name="statistics" key="rx_bytes">
1731 Number of received bytes.
1733 <column name="statistics" key="tx_packets">
1734 Number of transmitted packets.
1736 <column name="statistics" key="tx_bytes">
1737 Number of transmitted bytes.
1740 <group title="Statistics: Receive errors">
1741 <column name="statistics" key="rx_dropped">
1742 Number of packets dropped by RX.
1744 <column name="statistics" key="rx_frame_err">
1745 Number of frame alignment errors.
1747 <column name="statistics" key="rx_over_err">
1748 Number of packets with RX overrun.
1750 <column name="statistics" key="rx_crc_err">
1751 Number of CRC errors.
1753 <column name="statistics" key="rx_errors">
1754 Total number of receive errors, greater than or equal to the sum of
1758 <group title="Statistics: Transmit errors">
1759 <column name="statistics" key="tx_dropped">
1760 Number of packets dropped by TX.
1762 <column name="statistics" key="collisions">
1763 Number of collisions.
1765 <column name="statistics" key="tx_errors">
1766 Total number of transmit errors, greater than or equal to the sum of
1772 <group title="Ingress Policing">
1774 These settings control ingress policing for packets received on this
1775 interface. On a physical interface, this limits the rate at which
1776 traffic is allowed into the system from the outside; on a virtual
1777 interface (one connected to a virtual machine), this limits the rate at
1778 which the VM is able to transmit.
1781 Policing is a simple form of quality-of-service that simply drops
1782 packets received in excess of the configured rate. Due to its
1783 simplicity, policing is usually less accurate and less effective than
1784 egress QoS (which is configured using the <ref table="QoS"/> and <ref
1785 table="Queue"/> tables).
1788 Policing is currently implemented only on Linux. The Linux
1789 implementation uses a simple ``token bucket'' approach:
1793 The size of the bucket corresponds to <ref
1794 column="ingress_policing_burst"/>. Initially the bucket is full.
1797 Whenever a packet is received, its size (converted to tokens) is
1798 compared to the number of tokens currently in the bucket. If the
1799 required number of tokens are available, they are removed and the
1800 packet is forwarded. Otherwise, the packet is dropped.
1803 Whenever it is not full, the bucket is refilled with tokens at the
1804 rate specified by <ref column="ingress_policing_rate"/>.
1808 Policing interacts badly with some network protocols, and especially
1809 with fragmented IP packets. Suppose that there is enough network
1810 activity to keep the bucket nearly empty all the time. Then this token
1811 bucket algorithm will forward a single packet every so often, with the
1812 period depending on packet size and on the configured rate. All of the
1813 fragments of an IP packets are normally transmitted back-to-back, as a
1814 group. In such a situation, therefore, only one of these fragments
1815 will be forwarded and the rest will be dropped. IP does not provide
1816 any way for the intended recipient to ask for only the remaining
1817 fragments. In such a case there are two likely possibilities for what
1818 will happen next: either all of the fragments will eventually be
1819 retransmitted (as TCP will do), in which case the same problem will
1820 recur, or the sender will not realize that its packet has been dropped
1821 and data will simply be lost (as some UDP-based protocols will do).
1822 Either way, it is possible that no forward progress will ever occur.
1824 <column name="ingress_policing_rate">
1826 Maximum rate for data received on this interface, in kbps. Data
1827 received faster than this rate is dropped. Set to <code>0</code>
1828 (the default) to disable policing.
1832 <column name="ingress_policing_burst">
1833 <p>Maximum burst size for data received on this interface, in kb. The
1834 default burst size if set to <code>0</code> is 1000 kb. This value
1835 has no effect if <ref column="ingress_policing_rate"/>
1836 is <code>0</code>.</p>
1838 Specifying a larger burst size lets the algorithm be more forgiving,
1839 which is important for protocols like TCP that react severely to
1840 dropped packets. The burst size should be at least the size of the
1841 interface's MTU. Specifying a value that is numerically at least as
1842 large as 10% of <ref column="ingress_policing_rate"/> helps TCP come
1843 closer to achieving the full rate.
1848 <group title="Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD)">
1850 BFD, defined in RFC 5880 and RFC 5881, allows point to point
1851 detection of connectivity failures by occasional transmission of
1852 BFD control messages. It is implemented in Open vSwitch to serve
1853 as a more popular and standards compliant alternative to CFM.
1857 BFD operates by regularly transmitting BFD control messages at a
1858 rate negotiated independently in each direction. Each endpoint
1859 specifies the rate at which it expects to receive control messages,
1860 and the rate at which it's willing to transmit them. Open vSwitch
1861 uses a detection multiplier of three, meaning that an endpoint
1862 which fails to receive BFD control messages for a period of three
1863 times the expected reception rate, will signal a connectivity
1864 fault. In the case of a unidirectional connectivity issue, the
1865 system not receiving BFD control messages will signal the problem
1866 to its peer in the messages it transmits.
1870 The Open vSwitch implementation of BFD aims to comply faithfully
1871 with the requirements put forth in RFC 5880. Currently, the only
1872 known omission is ``Demand Mode'', which we hope to include in
1873 future. Open vSwitch does not implement the optional
1874 Authentication or ``Echo Mode'' features.
1877 <column name="bfd" key="enable">
1878 When <code>true</code> BFD is enabled on this
1879 <ref table="Interface"/>, otherwise it's disabled. Defaults to
1883 <column name="bfd" key="min_rx"
1884 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
1885 The fastest rate, in milliseconds, at which this BFD session is
1886 willing to receive BFD control messages. The actual rate may be
1887 slower if the remote endpoint isn't willing to transmit as quickly as
1888 specified. Defaults to <code>1000</code>.
1891 <column name="bfd" key="min_tx"
1892 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
1893 The fastest rate, in milliseconds, at which this BFD session is
1894 willing to transmit BFD control messages. The actual rate may be
1895 slower if the remote endpoint isn't willing to receive as quickly as
1896 specified. Defaults to <code>100</code>.
1899 <column name="bfd" key="decay_min_rx" type='{"type": "integer"}'>
1900 <code>decay_min_rx</code> is used to set the <code>min_rx</code>,
1901 when there is no obvious incoming data traffic at the interface.
1902 It cannot be set less than the <code>min_rx</code>. The decay feature
1903 is disabled by setting the <code>decay_min_rx</code> to 0. And the
1904 feature is reset everytime itself or <code>min_rx</code> is
1909 <column name="bfd" key="cpath_down" type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1910 Concatenated path down may be used when the local system should not
1911 have traffic forwarded to it for some reason other than a connectivty
1912 failure on the interface being monitored. When a controller thinks
1913 this may be the case, it may set <code>cpath_down</code> to
1914 <code>true</code> which may cause the remote BFD session not to
1915 forward traffic to this <ref table="Interface"/>. Defaults to
1919 <column name="bfd" key="check_tnl_key" type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1920 When set to true, Check Tunnel Key will make BFD only accept control
1921 messages with an <code>in_key</code> of zero. Defaults to
1925 <column name="bfd" key="bfd_dst_mac">
1926 An Ethernet address in the form
1927 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>
1928 to set the destination mac address of the bfd packet. If this
1929 field is set, it is assumed that all the bfd packets destined to this
1930 interface also has the same destination mac address. If not set, a
1931 default value of <code>00:23:20:00:00:01</code> is used.
1934 <column name="bfd_status" key="state"
1935 type='{"type": "string",
1936 "enum": ["set", ["admin_down", "down", "init", "up"]]}'>
1937 State of the BFD session. The BFD session is fully healthy and
1938 negotiated if <code>UP</code>.
1941 <column name="bfd_status" key="forwarding" type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
1942 True if the BFD session believes this <ref table="Interface"/> may be
1943 used to forward traffic. Typically this means the local session is
1944 signaling <code>UP</code>, and the remote system isn't signaling a
1945 problem such as concatenated path down.
1948 <column name="bfd_status" key="diagnostic">
1949 A short message indicating what the BFD session thinks is wrong in
1953 <column name="bfd_status" key="remote_state"
1954 type='{"type": "string",
1955 "enum": ["set", ["admin_down", "down", "init", "up"]]}'>
1956 State of the remote endpoint's BFD session.
1959 <column name="bfd_status" key="remote_diagnostic">
1960 A short message indicating what the remote endpoint's BFD session
1961 thinks is wrong in case of a problem.
1965 <group title="Connectivity Fault Management">
1967 802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management (CFM) allows a group of
1968 Maintenance Points (MPs) called a Maintenance Association (MA) to
1969 detect connectivity problems with each other. MPs within a MA should
1970 have complete and exclusive interconnectivity. This is verified by
1971 occasionally broadcasting Continuity Check Messages (CCMs) at a
1972 configurable transmission interval.
1976 According to the 802.1ag specification, each Maintenance Point should
1977 be configured out-of-band with a list of Remote Maintenance Points it
1978 should have connectivity to. Open vSwitch differs from the
1979 specification in this area. It simply assumes the link is faulted if
1980 no Remote Maintenance Points are reachable, and considers it not
1985 When operating over tunnels which have no <code>in_key</code>, or an
1986 <code>in_key</code> of <code>flow</code>. CFM will only accept CCMs
1987 with a tunnel key of zero.
1990 <column name="cfm_mpid">
1991 A Maintenance Point ID (MPID) uniquely identifies each endpoint within
1992 a Maintenance Association. The MPID is used to identify this endpoint
1993 to other Maintenance Points in the MA. Each end of a link being
1994 monitored should have a different MPID. Must be configured to enable
1995 CFM on this <ref table="Interface"/>.
1998 <column name="cfm_fault">
2000 Indicates a connectivity fault triggered by an inability to receive
2001 heartbeats from any remote endpoint. When a fault is triggered on
2002 <ref table="Interface"/>s participating in bonds, they will be
2006 Faults can be triggered for several reasons. Most importantly they
2007 are triggered when no CCMs are received for a period of 3.5 times the
2008 transmission interval. Faults are also triggered when any CCMs
2009 indicate that a Remote Maintenance Point is not receiving CCMs but
2010 able to send them. Finally, a fault is triggered if a CCM is
2011 received which indicates unexpected configuration. Notably, this
2012 case arises when a CCM is received which advertises the local MPID.
2016 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="recv">
2017 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to a lack of CCMs received on
2018 the <ref table="Interface"/>.
2021 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="rdi">
2022 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of a CCM with
2023 the RDI bit flagged. Endpoints set the RDI bit in their CCMs when they
2024 are not receiving CCMs themselves. This typically indicates a
2025 unidirectional connectivity failure.
2028 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="maid">
2029 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of a CCM with
2030 a MAID other than the one Open vSwitch uses. CFM broadcasts are tagged
2031 with an identification number in addition to the MPID called the MAID.
2032 Open vSwitch only supports receiving CCM broadcasts tagged with the
2033 MAID it uses internally.
2036 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="loopback">
2037 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of a CCM
2038 advertising the same MPID configured in the <ref column="cfm_mpid"/>
2039 column of this <ref table="Interface"/>. This may indicate a loop in
2043 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="overflow">
2044 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered because the CFM module received
2045 CCMs from more remote endpoints than it can keep track of.
2048 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="override">
2049 Indicates a CFM fault was manually triggered by an administrator using
2050 an <code>ovs-appctl</code> command.
2053 <column name="cfm_fault_status" key="interval">
2054 Indicates a CFM fault was triggered due to the reception of a CCM
2055 frame having an invalid interval.
2058 <column name="cfm_remote_opstate">
2059 <p>When in extended mode, indicates the operational state of the
2060 remote endpoint as either <code>up</code> or <code>down</code>. See
2061 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_opstate"/>.
2065 <column name="cfm_health">
2067 Indicates the health of the interface as a percentage of CCM frames
2068 received over 21 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_interval"/>s.
2069 The health of an interface is undefined if it is communicating with
2070 more than one <ref column="cfm_remote_mpids"/>. It reduces if
2071 healthy heartbeats are not received at the expected rate, and
2072 gradually improves as healthy heartbeats are received at the desired
2073 rate. Every 21 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_interval"/>s, the
2074 health of the interface is refreshed.
2077 As mentioned above, the faults can be triggered for several reasons.
2078 The link health will deteriorate even if heartbeats are received but
2079 they are reported to be unhealthy. An unhealthy heartbeat in this
2080 context is a heartbeat for which either some fault is set or is out
2081 of sequence. The interface health can be 100 only on receiving
2082 healthy heartbeats at the desired rate.
2086 <column name="cfm_remote_mpids">
2087 When CFM is properly configured, Open vSwitch will occasionally
2088 receive CCM broadcasts. These broadcasts contain the MPID of the
2089 sending Maintenance Point. The list of MPIDs from which this
2090 <ref table="Interface"/> is receiving broadcasts from is regularly
2091 collected and written to this column.
2094 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_interval"
2095 type='{"type": "integer"}'>
2097 The interval, in milliseconds, between transmissions of CFM
2098 heartbeats. Three missed heartbeat receptions indicate a
2103 In standard operation only intervals of 3, 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000,
2104 60,000, or 600,000 ms are supported. Other values will be rounded
2105 down to the nearest value on the list. Extended mode (see <ref
2106 column="other_config" key="cfm_extended"/>) supports any interval up
2107 to 65,535 ms. In either mode, the default is 1000 ms.
2110 <p>We do not recommend using intervals less than 100 ms.</p>
2113 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_extended"
2114 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
2115 When <code>true</code>, the CFM module operates in extended mode. This
2116 causes it to use a nonstandard destination address to avoid conflicting
2117 with compliant implementations which may be running concurrently on the
2118 network. Furthermore, extended mode increases the accuracy of the
2119 <code>cfm_interval</code> configuration parameter by breaking wire
2120 compatibility with 802.1ag compliant implementations. Defaults to
2124 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_demand" type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
2126 When <code>true</code>, and
2127 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_extended"/> is true, the CFM
2128 module operates in demand mode. When in demand mode, traffic
2129 received on the <ref table="Interface"/> is used to indicate
2130 liveness. CCMs are still transmitted and received, but if the
2131 <ref table="Interface"/> is receiving traffic, their absence does not
2132 cause a connectivity fault.
2136 Demand mode has a couple of caveats:
2139 To ensure that ovs-vswitchd has enough time to pull statistics
2140 from the datapath, the minimum
2141 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_interval"/> is 500ms.
2145 To avoid ambiguity, demand mode disables itself when there are
2146 multiple remote maintenance points.
2150 If the <ref table="Interface"/> is heavily congested, CCMs
2151 containing the <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_opstate"/>
2152 status may be dropped causing changes in the operational state to
2153 be delayed. Similarly, if CCMs containing the RDI bit are not
2154 received, unidirectional link failures may not be detected.
2160 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_opstate"
2161 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["down", "up"]]}'>
2162 When <code>down</code>, the CFM module marks all CCMs it generates as
2163 operationally down without triggering a fault. This allows remote
2164 maintenance points to choose not to forward traffic to the
2165 <ref table="Interface"/> on which this CFM module is running.
2166 Currently, in Open vSwitch, the opdown bit of CCMs affects
2167 <ref table="Interface"/>s participating in bonds, and the bundle
2168 OpenFlow action. This setting is ignored when CFM is not in extended
2169 mode. Defaults to <code>up</code>.
2172 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_ccm_vlan"
2173 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 4095}'>
2174 When set, the CFM module will apply a VLAN tag to all CCMs it generates
2175 with the given value. May be the string <code>random</code> in which
2176 case each CCM will be tagged with a different randomly generated VLAN.
2179 <column name="other_config" key="cfm_ccm_pcp"
2180 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 7}'>
2181 When set, the CFM module will apply a VLAN tag to all CCMs it generates
2182 with the given PCP value, the VLAN ID of the tag is governed by the
2183 value of <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_ccm_vlan"/>. If
2184 <ref column="other_config" key="cfm_ccm_vlan"/> is unset, a VLAN ID of
2190 <group title="Bonding Configuration">
2191 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-port-id"
2192 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
2193 The LACP port ID of this <ref table="Interface"/>. Port IDs are
2194 used in LACP negotiations to identify individual ports
2195 participating in a bond.
2198 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-port-priority"
2199 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
2200 The LACP port priority of this <ref table="Interface"/>. In LACP
2201 negotiations <ref table="Interface"/>s with numerically lower
2202 priorities are preferred for aggregation.
2205 <column name="other_config" key="lacp-aggregation-key"
2206 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1, "maxInteger": 65535}'>
2207 The LACP aggregation key of this <ref table="Interface"/>. <ref
2208 table="Interface"/>s with different aggregation keys may not be active
2209 within a given <ref table="Port"/> at the same time.
2213 <group title="Virtual Machine Identifiers">
2215 These key-value pairs specifically apply to an interface that
2216 represents a virtual Ethernet interface connected to a virtual
2217 machine. These key-value pairs should not be present for other types
2218 of interfaces. Keys whose names end in <code>-uuid</code> have
2219 values that uniquely identify the entity in question. For a Citrix
2220 XenServer hypervisor, these values are UUIDs in RFC 4122 format.
2221 Other hypervisors may use other formats.
2224 <column name="external_ids" key="attached-mac">
2225 The MAC address programmed into the ``virtual hardware'' for this
2226 interface, in the form
2227 <var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>:<var>xx</var>.
2228 For Citrix XenServer, this is the value of the <code>MAC</code> field
2229 in the VIF record for this interface.
2232 <column name="external_ids" key="iface-id">
2233 A system-unique identifier for the interface. On XenServer, this will
2234 commonly be the same as <ref column="external_ids" key="xs-vif-uuid"/>.
2237 <column name="external_ids" key="iface-status"
2238 type='{"type": "string",
2239 "enum": ["set", ["active", "inactive"]]}'>
2241 Hypervisors may sometimes have more than one interface associated
2242 with a given <ref column="external_ids" key="iface-id"/>, only one of
2243 which is actually in use at a given time. For example, in some
2244 circumstances XenServer has both a ``tap'' and a ``vif'' interface
2245 for a single <ref column="external_ids" key="iface-id"/>, but only
2246 uses one of them at a time. A hypervisor that behaves this way must
2247 mark the currently in use interface <code>active</code> and the
2248 others <code>inactive</code>. A hypervisor that never has more than
2249 one interface for a given <ref column="external_ids" key="iface-id"/>
2250 may mark that interface <code>active</code> or omit <ref
2251 column="external_ids" key="iface-status"/> entirely.
2255 During VM migration, a given <ref column="external_ids"
2256 key="iface-id"/> might transiently be marked <code>active</code> on
2257 two different hypervisors. That is, <code>active</code> means that
2258 this <ref column="external_ids" key="iface-id"/> is the active
2259 instance within a single hypervisor, not in a broader scope.
2260 There is one exception: some hypervisors support ``migration'' from a
2261 given hypervisor to itself (most often for test purposes). During
2262 such a ``migration,'' two instances of a single <ref
2263 column="external_ids" key="iface-id"/> might both be briefly marked
2264 <code>active</code> on a single hypervisor.
2268 <column name="external_ids" key="xs-vif-uuid">
2269 The virtual interface associated with this interface.
2272 <column name="external_ids" key="xs-network-uuid">
2273 The virtual network to which this interface is attached.
2276 <column name="external_ids" key="vm-id">
2277 The VM to which this interface belongs. On XenServer, this will be the
2278 same as <ref column="external_ids" key="xs-vm-uuid"/>.
2281 <column name="external_ids" key="xs-vm-uuid">
2282 The VM to which this interface belongs.
2286 <group title="VLAN Splinters">
2288 The ``VLAN splinters'' feature increases Open vSwitch compatibility
2289 with buggy network drivers in old versions of Linux that do not
2290 properly support VLANs when VLAN devices are not used, at some cost
2291 in memory and performance.
2295 When VLAN splinters are enabled on a particular interface, Open vSwitch
2296 creates a VLAN device for each in-use VLAN. For sending traffic tagged
2297 with a VLAN on the interface, it substitutes the VLAN device. Traffic
2298 received on the VLAN device is treated as if it had been received on
2299 the interface on the particular VLAN.
2303 VLAN splinters consider a VLAN to be in use if:
2308 The VLAN is the <ref table="Port" column="tag"/> value in any <ref
2309 table="Port"/> record.
2313 The VLAN is listed within the <ref table="Port" column="trunks"/>
2314 column of the <ref table="Port"/> record of an interface on which
2315 VLAN splinters are enabled.
2317 An empty <ref table="Port" column="trunks"/> does not influence the
2318 in-use VLANs: creating 4,096 VLAN devices is impractical because it
2319 will exceed the current 1,024 port per datapath limit.
2323 An OpenFlow flow within any bridge matches the VLAN.
2328 The same set of in-use VLANs applies to every interface on which VLAN
2329 splinters are enabled. That is, the set is not chosen separately for
2330 each interface but selected once as the union of all in-use VLANs based
2335 It does not make sense to enable VLAN splinters on an interface for an
2336 access port, or on an interface that is not a physical port.
2340 VLAN splinters are deprecated. When broken device drivers are no
2341 longer in widespread use, we will delete this feature.
2344 <column name="other_config" key="enable-vlan-splinters"
2345 type='{"type": "boolean"}'>
2347 Set to <code>true</code> to enable VLAN splinters on this interface.
2348 Defaults to <code>false</code>.
2352 VLAN splinters increase kernel and userspace memory overhead, so do
2353 not use them unless they are needed.
2357 VLAN splinters do not support 802.1p priority tags. Received
2358 priorities will appear to be 0, regardless of their actual values,
2359 and priorities on transmitted packets will also be cleared to 0.
2364 <group title="Common Columns">
2365 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
2366 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
2368 <column name="other_config"/>
2369 <column name="external_ids"/>
2373 <table name="Flow_Table" title="OpenFlow table configuration">
2374 <p>Configuration for a particular OpenFlow table.</p>
2376 <column name="name">
2377 The table's name. Set this column to change the name that controllers
2378 will receive when they request table statistics, e.g. <code>ovs-ofctl
2379 dump-tables</code>. The name does not affect switch behavior.
2382 <column name="flow_limit">
2383 If set, limits the number of flows that may be added to the table. Open
2384 vSwitch may limit the number of flows in a table for other reasons,
2385 e.g. due to hardware limitations or for resource availability or
2386 performance reasons.
2389 <column name="overflow_policy">
2391 Controls the switch's behavior when an OpenFlow flow table modification
2392 request would add flows in excess of <ref column="flow_limit"/>. The
2393 supported values are:
2397 <dt><code>refuse</code></dt>
2399 Refuse to add the flow or flows. This is also the default policy
2400 when <ref column="overflow_policy"/> is unset.
2403 <dt><code>evict</code></dt>
2405 Delete the flow that will expire soonest. See <ref column="groups"/>
2411 <column name="groups">
2413 When <ref column="overflow_policy"/> is <code>evict</code>, this
2414 controls how flows are chosen for eviction when the flow table would
2415 otherwise exceed <ref column="flow_limit"/> flows. Its value is a set
2416 of NXM fields or sub-fields, each of which takes one of the forms
2417 <code><var>field</var>[]</code> or
2418 <code><var>field</var>[<var>start</var>..<var>end</var>]</code>,
2419 e.g. <code>NXM_OF_IN_PORT[]</code>. Please see
2420 <code>nicira-ext.h</code> for a complete list of NXM field names.
2424 When a flow must be evicted due to overflow, the flow to evict is
2425 chosen through an approximation of the following algorithm:
2430 Divide the flows in the table into groups based on the values of the
2431 specified fields or subfields, so that all of the flows in a given
2432 group have the same values for those fields. If a flow does not
2433 specify a given field, that field's value is treated as 0.
2437 Consider the flows in the largest group, that is, the group that
2438 contains the greatest number of flows. If two or more groups all
2439 have the same largest number of flows, consider the flows in all of
2444 Among the flows under consideration, choose the flow that expires
2445 soonest for eviction.
2450 The eviction process only considers flows that have an idle timeout or
2451 a hard timeout. That is, eviction never deletes permanent flows.
2452 (Permanent flows do count against <ref column="flow_limit"/>.)
2456 Open vSwitch ignores any invalid or unknown field specifications.
2460 When <ref column="overflow_policy"/> is not <code>evict</code>, this
2461 column has no effect.
2466 <table name="QoS" title="Quality of Service configuration">
2467 <p>Quality of Service (QoS) configuration for each Port that
2470 <column name="type">
2471 <p>The type of QoS to implement. The currently defined types are
2474 <dt><code>linux-htb</code></dt>
2476 Linux ``hierarchy token bucket'' classifier. See tc-htb(8) (also at
2477 <code>http://linux.die.net/man/8/tc-htb</code>) and the HTB manual
2478 (<code>http://luxik.cdi.cz/~devik/qos/htb/manual/userg.htm</code>)
2479 for information on how this classifier works and how to configure it.
2483 <dt><code>linux-hfsc</code></dt>
2485 Linux "Hierarchical Fair Service Curve" classifier.
2486 See <code>http://linux-ip.net/articles/hfsc.en/</code> for
2487 information on how this classifier works.
2492 <column name="queues">
2493 <p>A map from queue numbers to <ref table="Queue"/> records. The
2494 supported range of queue numbers depend on <ref column="type"/>. The
2495 queue numbers are the same as the <code>queue_id</code> used in
2496 OpenFlow in <code>struct ofp_action_enqueue</code> and other
2500 Queue 0 is the ``default queue.'' It is used by OpenFlow output
2501 actions when no specific queue has been set. When no configuration for
2502 queue 0 is present, it is automatically configured as if a <ref
2503 table="Queue"/> record with empty <ref table="Queue" column="dscp"/>
2504 and <ref table="Queue" column="other_config"/> columns had been
2506 (Before version 1.6, Open vSwitch would leave queue 0 unconfigured in
2507 this case. With some queuing disciplines, this dropped all packets
2508 destined for the default queue.)
2512 <group title="Configuration for linux-htb and linux-hfsc">
2514 The <code>linux-htb</code> and <code>linux-hfsc</code> classes support
2515 the following key-value pair:
2518 <column name="other_config" key="max-rate" type='{"type": "integer"}'>
2519 Maximum rate shared by all queued traffic, in bit/s. Optional. If not
2520 specified, for physical interfaces, the default is the link rate. For
2521 other interfaces or if the link rate cannot be determined, the default
2522 is currently 100 Mbps.
2526 <group title="Common Columns">
2527 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
2528 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
2530 <column name="other_config"/>
2531 <column name="external_ids"/>
2535 <table name="Queue" title="QoS output queue.">
2536 <p>A configuration for a port output queue, used in configuring Quality of
2537 Service (QoS) features. May be referenced by <ref column="queues"
2538 table="QoS"/> column in <ref table="QoS"/> table.</p>
2540 <column name="dscp">
2541 If set, Open vSwitch will mark all traffic egressing this
2542 <ref table="Queue"/> with the given DSCP bits. Traffic egressing the
2543 default <ref table="Queue"/> is only marked if it was explicitly selected
2544 as the <ref table="Queue"/> at the time the packet was output. If unset,
2545 the DSCP bits of traffic egressing this <ref table="Queue"/> will remain
2549 <group title="Configuration for linux-htb QoS">
2551 <ref table="QoS"/> <ref table="QoS" column="type"/>
2552 <code>linux-htb</code> may use <code>queue_id</code>s less than 61440.
2553 It has the following key-value pairs defined.
2556 <column name="other_config" key="min-rate"
2557 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
2558 Minimum guaranteed bandwidth, in bit/s.
2561 <column name="other_config" key="max-rate"
2562 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
2563 Maximum allowed bandwidth, in bit/s. Optional. If specified, the
2564 queue's rate will not be allowed to exceed the specified value, even
2565 if excess bandwidth is available. If unspecified, defaults to no
2569 <column name="other_config" key="burst"
2570 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
2571 Burst size, in bits. This is the maximum amount of ``credits'' that a
2572 queue can accumulate while it is idle. Optional. Details of the
2573 <code>linux-htb</code> implementation require a minimum burst size, so
2574 a too-small <code>burst</code> will be silently ignored.
2577 <column name="other_config" key="priority"
2578 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0, "maxInteger": 4294967295}'>
2579 A queue with a smaller <code>priority</code> will receive all the
2580 excess bandwidth that it can use before a queue with a larger value
2581 receives any. Specific priority values are unimportant; only relative
2582 ordering matters. Defaults to 0 if unspecified.
2586 <group title="Configuration for linux-hfsc QoS">
2588 <ref table="QoS"/> <ref table="QoS" column="type"/>
2589 <code>linux-hfsc</code> may use <code>queue_id</code>s less than 61440.
2590 It has the following key-value pairs defined.
2593 <column name="other_config" key="min-rate"
2594 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
2595 Minimum guaranteed bandwidth, in bit/s.
2598 <column name="other_config" key="max-rate"
2599 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
2600 Maximum allowed bandwidth, in bit/s. Optional. If specified, the
2601 queue's rate will not be allowed to exceed the specified value, even if
2602 excess bandwidth is available. If unspecified, defaults to no
2607 <group title="Common Columns">
2608 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
2609 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
2611 <column name="other_config"/>
2612 <column name="external_ids"/>
2616 <table name="Mirror" title="Port mirroring.">
2617 <p>A port mirror within a <ref table="Bridge"/>.</p>
2618 <p>A port mirror configures a bridge to send selected frames to special
2619 ``mirrored'' ports, in addition to their normal destinations. Mirroring
2620 traffic may also be referred to as SPAN or RSPAN, depending on how
2621 the mirrored traffic is sent.</p>
2623 <column name="name">
2624 Arbitrary identifier for the <ref table="Mirror"/>.
2627 <group title="Selecting Packets for Mirroring">
2629 To be selected for mirroring, a given packet must enter or leave the
2630 bridge through a selected port and it must also be in one of the
2634 <column name="select_all">
2635 If true, every packet arriving or departing on any port is
2636 selected for mirroring.
2639 <column name="select_dst_port">
2640 Ports on which departing packets are selected for mirroring.
2643 <column name="select_src_port">
2644 Ports on which arriving packets are selected for mirroring.
2647 <column name="select_vlan">
2648 VLANs on which packets are selected for mirroring. An empty set
2649 selects packets on all VLANs.
2653 <group title="Mirroring Destination Configuration">
2655 These columns are mutually exclusive. Exactly one of them must be
2659 <column name="output_port">
2660 <p>Output port for selected packets, if nonempty.</p>
2661 <p>Specifying a port for mirror output reserves that port exclusively
2662 for mirroring. No frames other than those selected for mirroring
2664 will be forwarded to the port, and any frames received on the port
2665 will be discarded.</p>
2667 The output port may be any kind of port supported by Open vSwitch.
2668 It may be, for example, a physical port (sometimes called SPAN) or a
2673 <column name="output_vlan">
2674 <p>Output VLAN for selected packets, if nonempty.</p>
2675 <p>The frames will be sent out all ports that trunk
2676 <ref column="output_vlan"/>, as well as any ports with implicit VLAN
2677 <ref column="output_vlan"/>. When a mirrored frame is sent out a
2678 trunk port, the frame's VLAN tag will be set to
2679 <ref column="output_vlan"/>, replacing any existing tag; when it is
2680 sent out an implicit VLAN port, the frame will not be tagged. This
2681 type of mirroring is sometimes called RSPAN.</p>
2683 See the documentation for
2684 <ref column="other_config" key="forward-bpdu"/> in the
2685 <ref table="Interface"/> table for a list of destination MAC
2686 addresses which will not be mirrored to a VLAN to avoid confusing
2687 switches that interpret the protocols that they represent.
2689 <p><em>Please note:</em> Mirroring to a VLAN can disrupt a network that
2690 contains unmanaged switches. Consider an unmanaged physical switch
2691 with two ports: port 1, connected to an end host, and port 2,
2692 connected to an Open vSwitch configured to mirror received packets
2693 into VLAN 123 on port 2. Suppose that the end host sends a packet on
2694 port 1 that the physical switch forwards to port 2. The Open vSwitch
2695 forwards this packet to its destination and then reflects it back on
2696 port 2 in VLAN 123. This reflected packet causes the unmanaged
2697 physical switch to replace the MAC learning table entry, which
2698 correctly pointed to port 1, with one that incorrectly points to port
2699 2. Afterward, the physical switch will direct packets destined for
2700 the end host to the Open vSwitch on port 2, instead of to the end
2701 host on port 1, disrupting connectivity. If mirroring to a VLAN is
2702 desired in this scenario, then the physical switch must be replaced
2703 by one that learns Ethernet addresses on a per-VLAN basis. In
2704 addition, learning should be disabled on the VLAN containing mirrored
2705 traffic. If this is not done then intermediate switches will learn
2706 the MAC address of each end host from the mirrored traffic. If
2707 packets being sent to that end host are also mirrored, then they will
2708 be dropped since the switch will attempt to send them out the input
2709 port. Disabling learning for the VLAN will cause the switch to
2710 correctly send the packet out all ports configured for that VLAN. If
2711 Open vSwitch is being used as an intermediate switch, learning can be
2712 disabled by adding the mirrored VLAN to <ref column="flood_vlans"/>
2713 in the appropriate <ref table="Bridge"/> table or tables.</p>
2715 Mirroring to a GRE tunnel has fewer caveats than mirroring to a
2716 VLAN and should generally be preferred.
2721 <group title="Statistics: Mirror counters">
2723 Key-value pairs that report mirror statistics.
2725 <column name="statistics" key="tx_packets">
2726 Number of packets transmitted through this mirror.
2728 <column name="statistics" key="tx_bytes">
2729 Number of bytes transmitted through this mirror.
2733 <group title="Common Columns">
2734 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
2735 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
2737 <column name="external_ids"/>
2741 <table name="Controller" title="OpenFlow controller configuration.">
2742 <p>An OpenFlow controller.</p>
2745 Open vSwitch supports two kinds of OpenFlow controllers:
2749 <dt>Primary controllers</dt>
2752 This is the kind of controller envisioned by the OpenFlow 1.0
2753 specification. Usually, a primary controller implements a network
2754 policy by taking charge of the switch's flow table.
2758 Open vSwitch initiates and maintains persistent connections to
2759 primary controllers, retrying the connection each time it fails or
2760 drops. The <ref table="Bridge" column="fail_mode"/> column in the
2761 <ref table="Bridge"/> table applies to primary controllers.
2765 Open vSwitch permits a bridge to have any number of primary
2766 controllers. When multiple controllers are configured, Open
2767 vSwitch connects to all of them simultaneously. Because
2768 OpenFlow 1.0 does not specify how multiple controllers
2769 coordinate in interacting with a single switch, more than
2770 one primary controller should be specified only if the
2771 controllers are themselves designed to coordinate with each
2772 other. (The Nicira-defined <code>NXT_ROLE</code> OpenFlow
2773 vendor extension may be useful for this.)
2776 <dt>Service controllers</dt>
2779 These kinds of OpenFlow controller connections are intended for
2780 occasional support and maintenance use, e.g. with
2781 <code>ovs-ofctl</code>. Usually a service controller connects only
2782 briefly to inspect or modify some of a switch's state.
2786 Open vSwitch listens for incoming connections from service
2787 controllers. The service controllers initiate and, if necessary,
2788 maintain the connections from their end. The <ref table="Bridge"
2789 column="fail_mode"/> column in the <ref table="Bridge"/> table does
2790 not apply to service controllers.
2794 Open vSwitch supports configuring any number of service controllers.
2800 The <ref column="target"/> determines the type of controller.
2803 <group title="Core Features">
2804 <column name="target">
2805 <p>Connection method for controller.</p>
2807 The following connection methods are currently supported for primary
2811 <dt><code>ssl:<var>ip</var></code>[<code>:<var>port</var></code>]</dt>
2813 <p>The specified SSL <var>port</var> (default: 6633) on the host at
2814 the given <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an IP address
2815 (not a DNS name). The <ref table="Open_vSwitch" column="ssl"/>
2816 column in the <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/> table must point to a
2817 valid SSL configuration when this form is used.</p>
2818 <p>SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as
2819 part of Open vSwitch.</p>
2821 <dt><code>tcp:<var>ip</var></code>[<code>:<var>port</var></code>]</dt>
2822 <dd>The specified TCP <var>port</var> (default: 6633) on the host at
2823 the given <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an IP address
2824 (not a DNS name).</dd>
2827 The following connection methods are currently supported for service
2831 <dt><code>pssl:</code>[<var>port</var>][<code>:<var>ip</var></code>]</dt>
2834 Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP <var>port</var>
2835 (default: 6633). If <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an
2836 IP address (not a DNS name), is specified, then connections are
2837 restricted to the specified local IP address.
2840 The <ref table="Open_vSwitch" column="ssl"/> column in the <ref
2841 table="Open_vSwitch"/> table must point to a valid SSL
2842 configuration when this form is used.
2844 <p>SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as
2845 part of Open vSwitch.</p>
2847 <dt><code>ptcp:</code>[<var>port</var>][<code>:<var>ip</var></code>]</dt>
2849 Listens for connections on the specified TCP <var>port</var>
2850 (default: 6633). If <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an
2851 IP address (not a DNS name), is specified, then connections are
2852 restricted to the specified local IP address.
2855 <p>When multiple controllers are configured for a single bridge, the
2856 <ref column="target"/> values must be unique. Duplicate
2857 <ref column="target"/> values yield unspecified results.</p>
2860 <column name="connection_mode">
2861 <p>If it is specified, this setting must be one of the following
2862 strings that describes how Open vSwitch contacts this OpenFlow
2863 controller over the network:</p>
2866 <dt><code>in-band</code></dt>
2867 <dd>In this mode, this controller's OpenFlow traffic travels over the
2868 bridge associated with the controller. With this setting, Open
2869 vSwitch allows traffic to and from the controller regardless of the
2870 contents of the OpenFlow flow table. (Otherwise, Open vSwitch
2871 would never be able to connect to the controller, because it did
2872 not have a flow to enable it.) This is the most common connection
2873 mode because it is not necessary to maintain two independent
2875 <dt><code>out-of-band</code></dt>
2876 <dd>In this mode, OpenFlow traffic uses a control network separate
2877 from the bridge associated with this controller, that is, the
2878 bridge does not use any of its own network devices to communicate
2879 with the controller. The control network must be configured
2880 separately, before or after <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> is started.
2884 <p>If not specified, the default is implementation-specific.</p>
2888 <group title="Controller Failure Detection and Handling">
2889 <column name="max_backoff">
2890 Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection attempts.
2891 Default is implementation-specific.
2894 <column name="inactivity_probe">
2895 Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection to
2896 controller before sending an inactivity probe message. If Open
2897 vSwitch does not communicate with the controller for the specified
2898 number of seconds, it will send a probe. If a response is not
2899 received for the same additional amount of time, Open vSwitch
2900 assumes the connection has been broken and attempts to reconnect.
2901 Default is implementation-specific. A value of 0 disables
2906 <group title="Asynchronous Message Configuration">
2908 OpenFlow switches send certain messages to controllers spontanenously,
2909 that is, not in response to any request from the controller. These
2910 messages are called ``asynchronous messages.'' These columns allow
2911 asynchronous messages to be limited or disabled to ensure the best use
2912 of network resources.
2915 <column name="enable_async_messages">
2916 The OpenFlow protocol enables asynchronous messages at time of
2917 connection establishment, which means that a controller can receive
2918 asynchronous messages, potentially many of them, even if it turns them
2919 off immediately after connecting. Set this column to
2920 <code>false</code> to change Open vSwitch behavior to disable, by
2921 default, all asynchronous messages. The controller can use the
2922 <code>NXT_SET_ASYNC_CONFIG</code> Nicira extension to OpenFlow to turn
2923 on any messages that it does want to receive, if any.
2926 <column name="controller_rate_limit">
2928 The maximum rate at which the switch will forward packets to the
2929 OpenFlow controller, in packets per second. This feature prevents a
2930 single bridge from overwhelming the controller. If not specified,
2931 the default is implementation-specific.
2935 In addition, when a high rate triggers rate-limiting, Open vSwitch
2936 queues controller packets for each port and transmits them to the
2937 controller at the configured rate. The <ref
2938 column="controller_burst_limit"/> value limits the number of queued
2939 packets. Ports on a bridge share the packet queue fairly.
2943 Open vSwitch maintains two such packet rate-limiters per bridge: one
2944 for packets sent up to the controller because they do not correspond
2945 to any flow, and the other for packets sent up to the controller by
2946 request through flow actions. When both rate-limiters are filled with
2947 packets, the actual rate that packets are sent to the controller is
2948 up to twice the specified rate.
2952 <column name="controller_burst_limit">
2953 In conjunction with <ref column="controller_rate_limit"/>,
2954 the maximum number of unused packet credits that the bridge will
2955 allow to accumulate, in packets. If not specified, the default
2956 is implementation-specific.
2960 <group title="Additional In-Band Configuration">
2961 <p>These values are considered only in in-band control mode (see
2962 <ref column="connection_mode"/>).</p>
2964 <p>When multiple controllers are configured on a single bridge, there
2965 should be only one set of unique values in these columns. If different
2966 values are set for these columns in different controllers, the effect
2969 <column name="local_ip">
2970 The IP address to configure on the local port,
2971 e.g. <code>192.168.0.123</code>. If this value is unset, then
2972 <ref column="local_netmask"/> and <ref column="local_gateway"/> are
2976 <column name="local_netmask">
2977 The IP netmask to configure on the local port,
2978 e.g. <code>255.255.255.0</code>. If <ref column="local_ip"/> is set
2979 but this value is unset, then the default is chosen based on whether
2980 the IP address is class A, B, or C.
2983 <column name="local_gateway">
2984 The IP address of the gateway to configure on the local port, as a
2985 string, e.g. <code>192.168.0.1</code>. Leave this column unset if
2986 this network has no gateway.
2990 <group title="Controller Status">
2991 <column name="is_connected">
2992 <code>true</code> if currently connected to this controller,
2993 <code>false</code> otherwise.
2997 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["other", "master", "slave"]]}'>
2998 <p>The level of authority this controller has on the associated
2999 bridge. Possible values are:</p>
3001 <dt><code>other</code></dt>
3002 <dd>Allows the controller access to all OpenFlow features.</dd>
3003 <dt><code>master</code></dt>
3004 <dd>Equivalent to <code>other</code>, except that there may be at
3005 most one master controller at a time. When a controller configures
3006 itself as <code>master</code>, any existing master is demoted to
3007 the <code>slave</code>role.</dd>
3008 <dt><code>slave</code></dt>
3009 <dd>Allows the controller read-only access to OpenFlow features.
3010 Attempts to modify the flow table will be rejected with an
3011 error. Slave controllers do not receive OFPT_PACKET_IN or
3012 OFPT_FLOW_REMOVED messages, but they do receive OFPT_PORT_STATUS
3017 <column name="status" key="last_error">
3018 A human-readable description of the last error on the connection
3019 to the controller; i.e. <code>strerror(errno)</code>. This key
3020 will exist only if an error has occurred.
3023 <column name="status" key="state"
3024 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["VOID", "BACKOFF", "CONNECTING", "ACTIVE", "IDLE"]]}'>
3026 The state of the connection to the controller:
3029 <dt><code>VOID</code></dt>
3030 <dd>Connection is disabled.</dd>
3032 <dt><code>BACKOFF</code></dt>
3033 <dd>Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.</dd>
3035 <dt><code>CONNECTING</code></dt>
3036 <dd>Attempting to connect.</dd>
3038 <dt><code>ACTIVE</code></dt>
3039 <dd>Connected, remote host responsive.</dd>
3041 <dt><code>IDLE</code></dt>
3042 <dd>Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-alive.</dd>
3045 These values may change in the future. They are provided only for
3050 <column name="status" key="sec_since_connect"
3051 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0}'>
3052 The amount of time since this controller last successfully connected to
3053 the switch (in seconds). Value is empty if controller has never
3054 successfully connected.
3057 <column name="status" key="sec_since_disconnect"
3058 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 1}'>
3059 The amount of time since this controller last disconnected from
3060 the switch (in seconds). Value is empty if controller has never
3065 <group title="Connection Parameters">
3067 Additional configuration for a connection between the controller
3068 and the Open vSwitch.
3071 <column name="other_config" key="dscp"
3072 type='{"type": "integer"}'>
3073 The Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) is specified using 6 bits
3074 in the Type of Service (TOS) field in the IP header. DSCP provides a
3075 mechanism to classify the network traffic and provide Quality of
3076 Service (QoS) on IP networks.
3078 The DSCP value specified here is used when establishing the connection
3079 between the controller and the Open vSwitch. If no value is specified,
3080 a default value of 48 is chosen. Valid DSCP values must be in the
3086 <group title="Common Columns">
3087 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3088 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3090 <column name="external_ids"/>
3091 <column name="other_config"/>
3095 <table name="Manager" title="OVSDB management connection.">
3097 Configuration for a database connection to an Open vSwitch database
3102 This table primarily configures the Open vSwitch database
3103 (<code>ovsdb-server</code>), not the Open vSwitch switch
3104 (<code>ovs-vswitchd</code>). The switch does read the table to determine
3105 what connections should be treated as in-band.
3109 The Open vSwitch database server can initiate and maintain active
3110 connections to remote clients. It can also listen for database
3114 <group title="Core Features">
3115 <column name="target">
3116 <p>Connection method for managers.</p>
3118 The following connection methods are currently supported:
3121 <dt><code>ssl:<var>ip</var></code>[<code>:<var>port</var></code>]</dt>
3124 The specified SSL <var>port</var> (default: 6632) on the host at
3125 the given <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an IP address
3126 (not a DNS name). The <ref table="Open_vSwitch" column="ssl"/>
3127 column in the <ref table="Open_vSwitch"/> table must point to a
3128 valid SSL configuration when this form is used.
3131 SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as
3132 part of Open vSwitch.
3136 <dt><code>tcp:<var>ip</var></code>[<code>:<var>port</var></code>]</dt>
3138 The specified TCP <var>port</var> (default: 6632) on the host at
3139 the given <var>ip</var>, which must be expressed as an IP address
3142 <dt><code>pssl:</code>[<var>port</var>][<code>:<var>ip</var></code>]</dt>
3145 Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP <var>port</var>
3146 (default: 6632). Specify 0 for <var>port</var> to have the
3147 kernel automatically choose an available port. If <var>ip</var>,
3148 which must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name), is
3149 specified, then connections are restricted to the specified local
3153 The <ref table="Open_vSwitch" column="ssl"/> column in the <ref
3154 table="Open_vSwitch"/> table must point to a valid SSL
3155 configuration when this form is used.
3158 SSL support is an optional feature that is not always built as
3159 part of Open vSwitch.
3162 <dt><code>ptcp:</code>[<var>port</var>][<code>:<var>ip</var></code>]</dt>
3164 Listens for connections on the specified TCP <var>port</var>
3165 (default: 6632). Specify 0 for <var>port</var> to have the kernel
3166 automatically choose an available port. If <var>ip</var>, which
3167 must be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name), is specified,
3168 then connections are restricted to the specified local IP address.
3171 <p>When multiple managers are configured, the <ref column="target"/>
3172 values must be unique. Duplicate <ref column="target"/> values yield
3173 unspecified results.</p>
3176 <column name="connection_mode">
3178 If it is specified, this setting must be one of the following strings
3179 that describes how Open vSwitch contacts this OVSDB client over the
3184 <dt><code>in-band</code></dt>
3186 In this mode, this connection's traffic travels over a bridge
3187 managed by Open vSwitch. With this setting, Open vSwitch allows
3188 traffic to and from the client regardless of the contents of the
3189 OpenFlow flow table. (Otherwise, Open vSwitch would never be able
3190 to connect to the client, because it did not have a flow to enable
3191 it.) This is the most common connection mode because it is not
3192 necessary to maintain two independent networks.
3194 <dt><code>out-of-band</code></dt>
3196 In this mode, the client's traffic uses a control network separate
3197 from that managed by Open vSwitch, that is, Open vSwitch does not
3198 use any of its own network devices to communicate with the client.
3199 The control network must be configured separately, before or after
3200 <code>ovs-vswitchd</code> is started.
3205 If not specified, the default is implementation-specific.
3210 <group title="Client Failure Detection and Handling">
3211 <column name="max_backoff">
3212 Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection attempts.
3213 Default is implementation-specific.
3216 <column name="inactivity_probe">
3217 Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection to the client
3218 before sending an inactivity probe message. If Open vSwitch does not
3219 communicate with the client for the specified number of seconds, it
3220 will send a probe. If a response is not received for the same
3221 additional amount of time, Open vSwitch assumes the connection has been
3222 broken and attempts to reconnect. Default is implementation-specific.
3223 A value of 0 disables inactivity probes.
3227 <group title="Status">
3228 <column name="is_connected">
3229 <code>true</code> if currently connected to this manager,
3230 <code>false</code> otherwise.
3233 <column name="status" key="last_error">
3234 A human-readable description of the last error on the connection
3235 to the manager; i.e. <code>strerror(errno)</code>. This key
3236 will exist only if an error has occurred.
3239 <column name="status" key="state"
3240 type='{"type": "string", "enum": ["set", ["VOID", "BACKOFF", "CONNECTING", "ACTIVE", "IDLE"]]}'>
3242 The state of the connection to the manager:
3245 <dt><code>VOID</code></dt>
3246 <dd>Connection is disabled.</dd>
3248 <dt><code>BACKOFF</code></dt>
3249 <dd>Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.</dd>
3251 <dt><code>CONNECTING</code></dt>
3252 <dd>Attempting to connect.</dd>
3254 <dt><code>ACTIVE</code></dt>
3255 <dd>Connected, remote host responsive.</dd>
3257 <dt><code>IDLE</code></dt>
3258 <dd>Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-alive.</dd>
3261 These values may change in the future. They are provided only for
3266 <column name="status" key="sec_since_connect"
3267 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0}'>
3268 The amount of time since this manager last successfully connected
3269 to the database (in seconds). Value is empty if manager has never
3270 successfully connected.
3273 <column name="status" key="sec_since_disconnect"
3274 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 0}'>
3275 The amount of time since this manager last disconnected from the
3276 database (in seconds). Value is empty if manager has never
3280 <column name="status" key="locks_held">
3281 Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection
3282 holds. Omitted if the connection does not hold any locks.
3285 <column name="status" key="locks_waiting">
3286 Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection is
3287 currently waiting to acquire. Omitted if the connection is not waiting
3291 <column name="status" key="locks_lost">
3292 Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection
3293 has had stolen by another OVSDB client. Omitted if no locks have been
3294 stolen from this connection.
3297 <column name="status" key="n_connections"
3298 type='{"type": "integer", "minInteger": 2}'>
3300 When <ref column="target"/> specifies a connection method that
3301 listens for inbound connections (e.g. <code>ptcp:</code> or
3302 <code>pssl:</code>) and more than one connection is actually active,
3303 the value is the number of active connections. Otherwise, this
3304 key-value pair is omitted.
3307 When multiple connections are active, status columns and key-value
3308 pairs (other than this one) report the status of one arbitrarily
3313 <column name="status" key="bound_port" type='{"type": "integer"}'>
3314 When <ref column="target"/> is <code>ptcp:</code> or
3315 <code>pssl:</code>, this is the TCP port on which the OVSDB server is
3316 listening. (This is is particularly useful when <ref
3317 column="target"/> specifies a port of 0, allowing the kernel to
3318 choose any available port.)
3322 <group title="Connection Parameters">
3324 Additional configuration for a connection between the manager
3325 and the Open vSwitch Database.
3328 <column name="other_config" key="dscp"
3329 type='{"type": "integer"}'>
3330 The Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) is specified using 6 bits
3331 in the Type of Service (TOS) field in the IP header. DSCP provides a
3332 mechanism to classify the network traffic and provide Quality of
3333 Service (QoS) on IP networks.
3335 The DSCP value specified here is used when establishing the connection
3336 between the manager and the Open vSwitch. If no value is specified, a
3337 default value of 48 is chosen. Valid DSCP values must be in the range
3342 <group title="Common Columns">
3343 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3344 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3346 <column name="external_ids"/>
3347 <column name="other_config"/>
3351 <table name="NetFlow">
3352 A NetFlow target. NetFlow is a protocol that exports a number of
3353 details about terminating IP flows, such as the principals involved
3356 <column name="targets">
3357 NetFlow targets in the form
3358 <code><var>ip</var>:<var>port</var></code>. The <var>ip</var>
3359 must be specified numerically, not as a DNS name.
3362 <column name="engine_id">
3363 Engine ID to use in NetFlow messages. Defaults to datapath index
3367 <column name="engine_type">
3368 Engine type to use in NetFlow messages. Defaults to datapath
3369 index if not specified.
3372 <column name="active_timeout">
3373 The interval at which NetFlow records are sent for flows that are
3374 still active, in seconds. A value of <code>0</code> requests the
3375 default timeout (currently 600 seconds); a value of <code>-1</code>
3376 disables active timeouts.
3379 <column name="add_id_to_interface">
3380 <p>If this column's value is <code>false</code>, the ingress and egress
3381 interface fields of NetFlow flow records are derived from OpenFlow port
3382 numbers. When it is <code>true</code>, the 7 most significant bits of
3383 these fields will be replaced by the least significant 7 bits of the
3384 engine id. This is useful because many NetFlow collectors do not
3385 expect multiple switches to be sending messages from the same host, so
3386 they do not store the engine information which could be used to
3387 disambiguate the traffic.</p>
3388 <p>When this option is enabled, a maximum of 508 ports are supported.</p>
3391 <group title="Common Columns">
3392 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3393 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3395 <column name="external_ids"/>
3400 SSL configuration for an Open_vSwitch.
3402 <column name="private_key">
3403 Name of a PEM file containing the private key used as the switch's
3404 identity for SSL connections to the controller.
3407 <column name="certificate">
3408 Name of a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the
3409 certificate authority (CA) used by the controller and manager,
3410 that certifies the switch's private key, identifying a trustworthy
3414 <column name="ca_cert">
3415 Name of a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify
3416 that the switch is connected to a trustworthy controller.
3419 <column name="bootstrap_ca_cert">
3420 If set to <code>true</code>, then Open vSwitch will attempt to
3421 obtain the CA certificate from the controller on its first SSL
3422 connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is successful,
3423 it will immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then
3424 on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certificate signed
3425 by the CA certificate thus obtained. <em>This option exposes the
3426 SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the initial
3427 CA certificate.</em> It may still be useful for bootstrapping.
3430 <group title="Common Columns">
3431 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3432 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3434 <column name="external_ids"/>
3438 <table name="sFlow">
3439 <p>A set of sFlow(R) targets. sFlow is a protocol for remote
3440 monitoring of switches.</p>
3442 <column name="agent">
3443 Name of the network device whose IP address should be reported as the
3444 ``agent address'' to collectors. If not specified, the agent device is
3445 figured from the first target address and the routing table. If the
3446 routing table does not contain a route to the target, the IP address
3447 defaults to the <ref table="Controller" column="local_ip"/> in the
3448 collector's <ref table="Controller"/>. If an agent IP address cannot be
3449 determined any of these ways, sFlow is disabled.
3452 <column name="header">
3453 Number of bytes of a sampled packet to send to the collector.
3454 If not specified, the default is 128 bytes.
3457 <column name="polling">
3458 Polling rate in seconds to send port statistics to the collector.
3459 If not specified, defaults to 30 seconds.
3462 <column name="sampling">
3463 Rate at which packets should be sampled and sent to the collector.
3464 If not specified, defaults to 400, which means one out of 400
3465 packets, on average, will be sent to the collector.
3468 <column name="targets">
3469 sFlow targets in the form
3470 <code><var>ip</var>:<var>port</var></code>.
3473 <group title="Common Columns">
3474 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3475 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3477 <column name="external_ids"/>
3481 <table name="IPFIX">
3482 <p>A set of IPFIX collectors. IPFIX is a protocol that exports a
3483 number of details about flows.</p>
3485 <column name="targets">
3486 IPFIX target collectors in the form
3487 <code><var>ip</var>:<var>port</var></code>.
3490 <column name="sampling">
3491 For per-bridge packet sampling, i.e. when this row is referenced
3492 from a <ref table="Bridge"/>, the rate at which packets should
3493 be sampled and sent to each target collector. If not specified,
3494 defaults to 400, which means one out of 400 packets, on average,
3495 will be sent to each target collector. Ignored for per-flow
3496 sampling, i.e. when this row is referenced from a <ref
3497 table="Flow_Sample_Collector_Set"/>.
3500 <column name="obs_domain_id">
3501 For per-bridge packet sampling, i.e. when this row is referenced
3502 from a <ref table="Bridge"/>, the IPFIX Observation Domain ID
3503 sent in each IPFIX packet. If not specified, defaults to 0.
3504 Ignored for per-flow sampling, i.e. when this row is referenced
3505 from a <ref table="Flow_Sample_Collector_Set"/>.
3508 <column name="obs_point_id">
3509 For per-bridge packet sampling, i.e. when this row is referenced
3510 from a <ref table="Bridge"/>, the IPFIX Observation Point ID
3511 sent in each IPFIX flow record. If not specified, defaults to
3512 0. Ignored for per-flow sampling, i.e. when this row is
3513 referenced from a <ref table="Flow_Sample_Collector_Set"/>.
3516 <column name="cache_active_timeout">
3517 The maximum period in seconds for which an IPFIX flow record is
3518 cached and aggregated before being sent. If not specified,
3519 defaults to 0. If 0, caching is disabled.
3522 <column name="cache_max_flows">
3523 The maximum number of IPFIX flow records that can be cached at a
3524 time. If not specified, defaults to 0. If 0, caching is
3528 <group title="Common Columns">
3529 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3530 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3532 <column name="external_ids"/>
3536 <table name="Flow_Sample_Collector_Set">
3537 <p>A set of IPFIX collectors of packet samples generated by
3538 OpenFlow <code>sample</code> actions.</p>
3541 The ID of this collector set, unique among the bridge's
3542 collector sets, to be used as the <code>collector_set_id</code>
3543 in OpenFlow <code>sample</code> actions.
3546 <column name="bridge">
3547 The bridge into which OpenFlow <code>sample</code> actions can
3548 be added to send packet samples to this set of IPFIX collectors.
3551 <column name="ipfix">
3552 Configuration of the set of IPFIX collectors to send one flow
3553 record per sampled packet to.
3556 <group title="Common Columns">
3557 The overall purpose of these columns is described under <code>Common
3558 Columns</code> at the beginning of this document.
3560 <column name="external_ids"/>