1 How to Install Open vSwitch on Linux
2 ====================================
4 This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a
5 generic Linux host host. If you want to install Open vSwitch on a
6 Citrix XenServer 5.5.0, see INSTALL.XenServer instead.
8 This version of Open vSwitch should be built manually with "configure"
9 and "make". Debian packaging for Open vSwitch is also included, but
10 they have not been recently tested, and so Debian packages are not a
11 recommended way to use this version of Open vSwitch.
16 To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution,
17 you will need the following software:
19 - A make program, e.g. GNU make. BSD make should also work.
21 - The GNU C compiler. We generally test with version 4.1, 4.2, or
24 - libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to
25 connect the Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is
26 required to establish confidentiality and authenticity in the
27 connections from an Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. To
28 enable, configure with --enable-ssl=yes.
30 To compile the kernel module (which is required for operation), you
31 must also install the following:
33 - A supported Linux kernel version. Please refer to README for a
34 list of supported versions.
36 The Open vSwitch datapath requires bridging support
37 (CONFIG_BRIDGE) to be built as a kernel module. (This is common
38 in kernels provided by Linux distributions.) The bridge module
39 must not be loaded or in use. If the bridge module is running
40 (check with "lsmod | grep bridge"), you must remove it ("rmmod
41 bridge") before starting the datapath.
43 For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel
44 configuration options NET_CLS_ACT, NET_CLS_U32, NET_SCH_INGRESS,
45 and NET_ACT_POLICE, either built-in or as modules.
46 (NET_CLS_POLICE is obsolete and not needed.)
48 - To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that
49 was used to build that kernel.
51 - A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image
52 the module is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example,
53 each linux-image package containing a kernel binary has a
54 corresponding linux-headers package with the required build
57 If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a
58 distribution tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system,
59 you will also need the following software:
61 - Autoconf version 2.60 or later.
63 - Automake version 1.10 or later.
65 - pkg-config. We test with version 0.22.
67 Installation Requirements
68 -------------------------
70 The machine on which Open vSwitch is to be installed must have the
73 - libc compatible with the libc used for build.
75 - libssl compatible with the libssl used for build, if OpenSSL was
78 - The Linux kernel version configured as part of the build.
80 - For optional support of ingress policing, the "tc" program from
81 iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at
82 http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2).
84 - For debugging purposes, Open vSwitch expects that "tcpdump" is
85 installed as /usr/sbin/tcpdump. If tcpdump is not installed, or
86 if it is installed in a different location, then some Open
87 vSwitch log messages will not be as detailed.
89 Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux
90 ==============================================
92 Once you have installed all the prerequisites listed above in the Base
93 Prerequisites section, follow the procedure below to build.
95 1. In the top source directory, configure the package by running the
96 configure script. You can usually invoke configure without any
101 By default all files are installed under /usr/local. If you want
102 to install into, e.g., /usr and /var instead of /usr/local and
103 /usr/local/var, add options as shown here:
105 % ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var
107 To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user
108 programs, also specify it on the configure command line, like so:
110 % ./configure CC=gcc-4.2
112 To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the
113 kernel-based switch, pass the location of the kernel build
114 directory on --with-l26. For example, to build for a running
115 instance of Linux 2.6:
117 % ./configure --with-l26=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build
119 If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other
120 than the architecture of the machine used for the build, you may
121 specify the kernel architecture string using the KARCH variable
122 when invoking the configure script. For example, to build for MIPS
125 % ./configure --with-l26=/path/to/linux-2.6 KARCH=mips
127 The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors
128 additional environment variables. For a full list, invoke
129 configure with the --help option.
131 2. Run make in the top source directory:
135 3. Become root by running "su" or another program.
137 4. Run "make install" to install the executables and manpages into the
138 running system, by default under /usr/local.
140 5. If you built kernel modules, you may load them with "insmod", e.g.:
142 % insmod datapath/linux-2.6/openvswitch_mod.ko
144 You may need to specify a full path to insmod, e.g. /sbin/insmod.
145 To verify that the modules have been loaded, run "/sbin/lsmod" and
146 check that openvswitch_mod is listed.
151 Open vSwitch is configured primarily through a configuration file,
152 whose name is specified on the ovs-vswitchd command line. Please
153 refer to ovs-vswitchd(8) and ovs-vswitchd.conf(5) for information on
154 how to start ovs-vswitchd and the syntax of its configuration file,
157 At runtime, you may make ovs-vswitchd reload its configuration file
158 and update its configuration accordingly by sending it a SIGHUP
159 signal. The ovs-appctl utility can also be used to do this with a
162 % ovs-appctl -t <pid> -e vswitchd/reload
164 where <pid> is ovs-vswitchd's process ID. In the latter case,
165 ovs-appctl will not exit until the reload and reconfiguration is
171 Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.