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