1 .TH ovs\-ofctl 8 "June 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
5 ovs\-ofctl \- administer OpenFlow switches
9 [\fIoptions\fR] \fIcommand \fR[\fIswitch\fR] [\fIargs\fR\&...]
14 program is a command line tool for monitoring and administering
15 OpenFlow switches. It can also show the current state of an OpenFlow
16 switch, including features, configuration, and table entries.
18 .SS "OpenFlow Switch Management Commands"
20 These commands allow \fBovs\-ofctl\fR to monitor and administer an OpenFlow
21 switch. It is able to show the current state of a switch, including
22 features, configuration, and table entries.
24 Most of these commands take an argument that specifies the method for
25 connecting to an OpenFlow switch. The following connection methods
29 .so lib/vconn-active.man
32 This is short for \fBunix:\fIfile\fR, as long as \fIfile\fR does not
36 This is short for \fBunix:@RUNDIR@/\fIdp\fB.mgmt\fR, as long as
37 \fIdp\fR does not contain a colon.
42 Prints to the console information on \fIswitch\fR, including
43 information on its flow tables and ports.
46 \fBstatus \fIswitch\fR [\fIkey\fR]
47 Prints to the console a series of key-value pairs that report the
48 status of \fIswitch\fR. If \fIkey\fR is specified, only the key-value
49 pairs whose key names begin with \fIkey\fR are printed. If \fIkey\fR is
50 omitted, all key-value pairs are printed.
53 \fBdump-tables \fIswitch\fR
54 Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by
58 \fBdump-ports \fIswitch\fR
59 Prints to the console statistics for each of the network devices
60 associated with \fIswitch\fR.
63 \fBmod-port \fIswitch\fR \fInetdev\fR \fIaction\fR
64 Modify characteristics of an interface monitored by \fIswitch\fR.
65 \fInetdev\fR can be referred to by its OpenFlow assigned port number or
66 the device name, e.g. \fBeth0\fR. The \fIaction\fR may be any one of the
71 Enables the interface. This is equivalent to ``ifconfig up'' on a Unix
75 Disables the interface. This is equivalent to ``ifconfig down'' on a Unix
79 When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will be sent out this
80 interface. This is the default posture for monitored ports.
83 When a \fIflood\fR action is specified, traffic will not be sent out
84 this interface. This is primarily useful to prevent loops when a
85 spanning tree protocol is not in use.
90 \fBdump-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
91 Prints to the console all flow entries in \fIswitch\fR's
92 tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted, all flows
93 in the switch are retrieved. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the
94 syntax of \fIflows\fR. The output format is described in
95 \fBTable Entry Output\fR.
98 \fBdump-aggregate \fIswitch \fR[\fIflows\fR]
99 Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in
100 \fIswitch\fR's tables that match \fIflows\fR. If \fIflows\fR is omitted,
101 the statistics are aggregated across all flows in the switch's flow
102 tables. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
103 The output format is descrbed in \fBTable Entry Output\fR.
106 \fBadd-flow \fIswitch flow\fR
107 Add the flow entry as described by \fIflow\fR to the \fIswitch\fR's
108 tables. The flow entry is in the format described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR,
112 \fBadd-flows \fIswitch file\fR
113 Add flow entries as described in \fIfile\fR to \fIswitch\fR's
114 tables. Each line in \fIfile\fR is a flow entry in the format
115 described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below.
118 \fBmod-flows \fIswitch flow\fR
119 Modify the actions in entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables
120 that match \fIflow\fR. When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option,
121 wildcards are not treated as active for matching purposes. See
122 \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the syntax of \fIflows\fR.
125 \fBdel-flows \fIswitch \fR[\fIflow\fR]
126 Deletes entries from the \fIswitch\fR's tables that match
127 \fIflow\fR. When invoked with the \fB--strict\fR option, wildcards are
128 not treated as active for matching purposes. If \fIflow\fR is
129 omitted and the \fB--strict\fR option is not used, all flows in the
130 switch's tables are removed. See \fBFlow Syntax\fR, below, for the
131 syntax of \fIflows\fR.
134 \fBmonitor \fIswitch\fR [\fImiss-len\fR [\fIsend-exp]]
135 Connects to \fIswitch\fR and prints to the console all OpenFlow
136 messages received. Usually, \fIswitch\fR should specify a connection
137 named on \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8)'s \fB-l\fR or \fB--listen\fR command line
140 If \fImiss-len\fR is provided, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR sends an OpenFlow ``set
141 configuration'' message at connection setup time that requests
142 \fImiss-len\fR bytes of each packet that misses the flow table. The
143 OpenFlow reference implementation does not send these messages to the
144 \fBovs\-ofctl monitor\fR client connection unless a nonzero value is
145 specified on this argument.
147 If \fIsend-exp\fR is specified as \fB1\fR, \fBovs\-ofctl\fR will also
148 request to be sent flow expiration messages. If this argument is
149 omitted, or \fB0\fR is specified, then \fRovs\-ofctl\fR will not request
152 This command may be useful for debugging switch or controller
155 .SS "OpenFlow Switch and Controller Commands"
157 The following commands, like those in the previous section, may be
158 applied to OpenFlow switches, using any of the connection methods
159 described in that section. Unlike those commands, these may also be
160 applied to OpenFlow controllers.
163 \fBprobe \fItarget\fR
164 Sends a single OpenFlow echo-request message to \fItarget\fR and waits
165 for the response. With the \fB-t\fR or \fB--timeout\fR option, this
166 command can test whether an OpenFlow switch or controller is up and
170 \fBping \fItarget \fR[\fIn\fR]
171 Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to \fItarget\fR and times
172 each reply. The echo request packets consist of an OpenFlow header
173 plus \fIn\fR bytes (default: 64) of randomly generated payload. This
174 measures the latency of individual requests.
177 \fBbenchmark \fItarget n count\fR
178 Sends \fIcount\fR echo request packets that each consist of an
179 OpenFlow header plus \fIn\fR bytes of payload and waits for each
180 response. Reports the total time required. This is a measure of the
181 maximum bandwidth to \fItarget\fR for round-trips of \fIn\fR-byte
186 Some \fBovs\-ofctl\fR commands accept an argument that describes a flow or
187 flows. Such flow descriptions comprise a series
188 \fIfield\fB=\fIvalue\fR assignments, separated by commas or white
189 space. (Embedding spaces into a flow description normally requires
190 quoting to prevent the shell from breaking the description into
193 The following field assignments describe how a flow matches a packet.
194 If any of these assignments is omitted from the flow syntax, the field
195 is treated as a wildcard; thus, if all of them are omitted, the
196 resulting flow matches all packets. The string \fB*\fR or \fBANY\fR
197 may be specified to explicitly mark any of these fields as a wildcard.
198 (\fB*\fR should be quoted to protect it from shell expansion.)
200 .IP \fBin_port=\fIport_no\fR
201 Matches physical port \fIport_no\fR. Switch ports are numbered as
202 displayed by \fBovs\-ofctl show\fR.
204 .IP \fBdl_vlan=\fIvlan\fR
205 Matches IEEE 802.1q Virtual LAN tag \fIvlan\fR. Specify \fB0xffff\fR
206 as \fIvlan\fR to match packets that are not tagged with a Virtual LAN;
207 otherwise, specify a number between 0 and 4095, inclusive, as the
208 12-bit VLAN ID to match.
210 .IP \fBdl_src=\fImac\fR
211 Matches Ethernet source address \fImac\fR, which is specified as 6 pairs
212 of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g. \fB00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0\fR).
214 .IP \fBdl_dst=\fImac\fR
215 Matches Ethernet destination address \fImac\fR.
217 .IP \fBdl_type=\fIethertype\fR
218 Matches Ethernet protocol type \fIethertype\fR, which is specified as an
219 integer between 0 and 65535, inclusive, either in decimal or as a
220 hexadecimal number prefixed by \fB0x\fR (e.g. \fB0x0806\fR to match ARP
223 .IP \fBnw_src=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
224 Matches IPv4 source address \fIip\fR, which may be specified as an
225 IP address or host name (e.g. \fB192.168.1.1\fR or
226 \fBwww.example.com\fR). The optional \fInetmask\fR allows restricting a
227 match to an IPv4 address prefix. The netmask may be specified as a dotted
228 quad (e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0\fR) or as a CIDR block
229 (e.g. \fB192.168.1.0/24\fR).
231 .IP \fBnw_dst=\fIip\fR[\fB/\fInetmask\fR]
232 Matches IPv4 destination address \fIip\fR.
234 .IP \fBnw_proto=\fIproto\fR
235 Matches IP protocol type \fIproto\fR, which is specified as a decimal
236 number between 0 and 255, inclusive (e.g. 6 to match TCP packets).
238 .IP \fBtp_src=\fIport\fR
239 Matches UDP or TCP source port \fIport\fR, which is specified as a decimal
240 number between 0 and 65535, inclusive (e.g. 80 to match packets originating
243 .IP \fBtp_dst=\fIport\fR
244 Matches UDP or TCP destination port \fIport\fR.
246 .IP \fBicmp_type=\fItype\fR
247 Matches ICMP message with \fItype\fR, which is specified as a decimal
248 number between 0 and 255, inclusive.
250 .IP \fBicmp_code=\fIcode\fR
251 Matches ICMP messages with \fIcode\fR.
254 The following shorthand notations are also available:
257 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800\fR.
260 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=1\fR.
263 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=6\fR.
266 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=17\fR.
269 Same as \fBdl_type=0x0806\fR.
272 The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands require an additional field:
274 .IP \fBactions=\fR[\fItarget\fR][\fB,\fItarget\fR...]\fR
275 Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the
276 flow entry matches. If no \fItarget\fR is specified, then packets
277 matching the flow are dropped. The \fItarget\fR may be a decimal port
278 number designating the physical port on which to output the packet, or one
279 of the following keywords:
282 .IP \fBoutput\fR:\fIport\fR
283 Outputs the packet on the port specified by \fIport\fR.
286 Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing. (This
287 action is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
290 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
291 which it was received and any ports on which flooding is disabled
292 (typically, these would be ports disabled by the IEEE 802.1D spanning
296 Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
297 which it was received.
299 .IP \fBcontroller\fR:\fImax_len\fR
300 Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in''
301 message. If \fImax_len\fR is a number, then it specifies the maximum
302 number of bytes that should be sent. If \fImax_len\fR is \fBALL\fR or
303 omitted, then the entire packet is sent.
306 Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the
307 \fBof\fIn\fR network device (see \fBCONTACTING THE CONTROLLER\fR in
308 \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8) for information on the \fBof\fIn\fR network device).
311 Discards the packet, so no further processing or forwarding takes place.
312 If a drop action is used, no other actions may be specified.
314 .IP \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR:\fIvlan_vid\fR
315 Modifies the VLAN id on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
316 as necessary to match the value specified. If the VLAN tag is added,
317 a priority of zero is used (see the \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR action to set
320 .IP \fBmod_vlan_pcp\fR:\fIvlan_pcp\fR
321 Modifies the VLAN priority on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
322 as necessary to match the value specified. Valid values are between 0
323 (lowest) and 7 (highest). If the VLAN tag is added, a vid of zero is used
324 (see the \fBmod_vlan_vid\fR action to set this).
327 Strips the VLAN tag from a packet if it is present.
329 .IP \fBmod_dl_src\fB:\fImac\fR
330 Sets the source Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.
332 .IP \fBmod_dl_dst\fB:\fImac\fR
333 Sets the destination Ethernet address to \fImac\fR.
335 .IP \fBmod_nw_src\fB:\fIip\fR
336 Sets the IPv4 source address to \fIip\fR.
338 .IP \fBmod_nw_dst\fB:\fIip\fR
339 Sets the IPv4 destination address to \fIip\fR.
341 .IP \fBmod_tp_src\fB:\fIport\fR
342 Sets the TCP or UDP source port to \fIport\fR.
344 .IP \fBmod_tp_dst\fB:\fIport\fR
345 Sets the TCP or UDP destination port to \fIport\fR.
349 (The OpenFlow protocol supports other actions that \fBovs\-ofctl\fR does
350 not yet expose to the user.)
353 The \fBadd-flow\fR, \fBadd-flows\fR, and \fBdel-flows\fR commands
354 support an additional optional field:
356 .IP \fBpriority=\fIvalue\fR
357 The priority at which a wildcarded entry will match in comparison to
358 others. \fIvalue\fR is a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive. A higher
359 \fIvalue\fR will match before a lower one. An exact-match entry will always
360 have priority over an entry containing wildcards, so it has an implicit
361 priority value of 65535. When adding a flow, if the field is not specified,
362 the flow's priority will default to 32768.
365 The \fBadd-flow\fR and \fBadd-flows\fR commands support additional
369 \fBidle_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
370 Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of
371 inactivity. A value of 0 prevents a flow from expiring due to
372 inactivity. The default is 60 seconds.
374 .IP \fBhard_timeout=\fIseconds\fR
375 Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds,
376 regardless of activity. A value of 0 (the default) gives the flow no
377 hard expiration deadline.
380 The \fBdump-flows\fR, \fBdump-aggregate\fR, \fBdel-flow\fR
381 and \fBdel-flows\fR commands support one additional optional field:
384 \fBout_port=\fIport\fR
385 If set, a matching flow must include an output action to \fIport\fR.
388 The \fBdump-flows\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands support an
389 additional optional field:
391 .IP \fBtable=\fInumber\fR
392 If specified, limits the flows about which statistics are gathered to
393 those in the table with the given \fInumber\fR. Tables are numbered
394 as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.
396 If this field is not specified, or if \fInumber\fR is given as
397 \fB255\fR, statistics are gathered about flows from all tables.
399 .SS "Table Entry Output"
401 The \fBdump-tables\fR and \fBdump-aggregate\fR commands print information
402 about the entries in a datapath's tables. Each line of output is a
403 unique flow entry, which begins with some common information:
406 The number of seconds the entry has been in the table.
409 The table that contains the flow. When a packet arrives, the switch
410 begins searching for an entry at the lowest numbered table. Tables are
411 numbered as shown by the \fBdump-tables\fR command.
414 The priority of the entry in relation to other entries within the same
415 table. A higher value will match before a lower one.
418 The number of packets that have matched the entry.
421 The total number of bytes from packets that have matched the entry.
424 The rest of the line consists of a description of the flow entry as
425 described in \fBFlow Syntax\fR, above.
431 Uses strict matching when running flow modification commands.
439 The following examples assume that an OpenFlow switch on the local
440 host has been configured to listen for management connections on a
441 Unix domain socket named \fB@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR, e.g. by
442 specifying \fB--listen=punix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR on the
443 \fBovs\-openflowd\fR(8) command line.
446 \fBovs\-ofctl dump-tables unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
447 Prints out the switch's table stats. (This is more interesting after
448 some traffic has passed through.)
451 \fBovs\-ofctl dump-flows unix:@RUNDIR@/openflow.sock\fR
452 Prints the flow entries in the switch.
457 .BR ovs\-controller (8),
458 .BR ovs\-vswitchd (8)