7 .TH ovs\-vswitchd 8 "June 2009" "Open vSwitch" "Open vSwitch Manual"
11 ovs\-vswitchd \- Open vSwitch daemon
18 A daemon that manages and controls any number of Open vSwitch switches
21 The mandatory \fIdatabase\fR argument specifies the
22 \fBovsdb\-server\fR from which \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR's configuration
23 should be retrieved. It takes one of the following forms:
24 .so ovsdb/remote-active.man
26 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR retrieves its configuration from \fIdatabase\fR at
27 startup. It sets up Open vSwitch datapaths and then operates
28 switching across each bridge described in its configuration files. As
29 the database changes, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR automatically updates its
30 configuration to match.
32 Upon receipt of a SIGHUP signal, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR reopens its log
33 file, if one was specified on the command line.
35 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR switches may be configured with any of the following
39 L2 switching with MAC learning.
42 NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX load
49 Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
52 NetFlow v5 flow logging.
58 Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
61 Only a single instance of \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is intended to run at a time.
62 A single \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR can manage any number of switch instances, up
63 to the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
65 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch datapaths
66 itself. Thus, external tools, such \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8), are not needed for
67 managing datapaths in conjunction with \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR, and their use
68 to modify datapaths when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is running can interfere with
69 its operation. (\fBovs\-dpctl\fR may still be useful for diagnostics.)
71 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR
72 to be useful. Please refer to the \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR file included in the
73 Open vSwitch distribution for instructions on how to build and load
74 the Open vSwitch kernel module.
77 .IP "\fB--fake-proc-net\fR"
78 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to simulate some files in \fB/proc/net/vlan\fR
79 and \fB/proc/net/bonding\fR that some legacy software expects to
80 exist. This option should only be used if such legacy software is
81 actually in use. It requires the \fBbrcompat_mod.ko\fR kernel module
86 .so lib/ssl-bootstrap.man
89 .so lib/leak-checker.man
91 .SH "RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS"
92 \fBovs\-appctl\fR(8) can send commands to a running
93 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR process. The currently supported commands are
94 described below. The command descriptions assume an understanding of
95 how to configure Open vSwitch.
97 These commands manage bridges.
98 .IP "\fBfdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
99 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
100 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
103 .IP "\fBbridge/dump-flows\fR \fIbridge\fR"
104 Lists all flows in \fIbridge\fR, including those normally hidden to
105 commands such as \fBovs-ofctl dump-flows\fR. Flows set up by mechanisms
106 such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the controller
107 since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
109 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges. To
110 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
111 detail of the bonding implementation called ``MAC hashing.'' Instead
112 of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to slaves, the bonding
113 implementation computes a function that maps an 48-bit Ethernet source
114 addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash'' value). All of the
115 Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit value are then assigned
117 .IP "\fBbond/list\fR"
118 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
120 .IP "\fBbond/show\fR \fIport\fR"
121 Lists all of the bond-specific information about the given bonded
122 \fIport\fR: updelay, downdelay, time until the next rebalance. Also
123 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
124 the time to completion of an updelay or downdelay if one is in
125 progress, whether it is the active slave, the MAC hashes assigned to
126 the slave, and the MAC learning table entries that hash to each MAC.
127 .IP "\fBbond/migrate\fR \fIport\fR \fIhash\fR \fIslave\fR"
128 Assigns a given MAC hash to a new slave. \fIport\fR specifies the
129 bond port, \fIhash\fR either the MAC hash to be migrated (as a decimal
130 number between 0 and 255) or an Ethernet address to be hashed, and
131 \fIslave\fR the new slave to be assigned.
133 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
134 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
137 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
138 .IP "\fBbond/set-active-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
139 Sets \fIslave\fR as the active slave on \fIport\fR. \fIslave\fR must
140 currently be enabled.
142 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be selected
143 if \fIslave\fR becomes disabled.
144 .IP "\fBbond/enable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
145 .IQ "\fBbond/disable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
146 Enables (or disables) \fIslave\fR on the given bond \fIport\fR, skipping any
147 updelay (or downdelay).
149 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the carrier
150 status of \fIslave\fR changes.
151 .IP "\fBbond/hash\fR \fImac\fR"
152 Returns the hash value which would be used for \fImac\fR.
154 .so lib/vlog-unixctl.man
157 .BR ovs\-brcompatd (8),
158 .BR ovsdb\-server (1),
159 \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR in the Open vSwitch distribution.