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.
55 Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
58 Only a single instance of \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is intended to run at a time.
59 A single \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR can manage any number of switch instances, up
60 to the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
62 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch datapaths
63 itself. Thus, external tools, such \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8), are not needed for
64 managing datapaths in conjunction with \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR, and their use
65 to modify datapaths when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is running can interfere with
66 its operation. (\fBovs\-dpctl\fR may still be useful for diagnostics.)
68 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR
69 to be useful. Please refer to the \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR file included in the
70 Open vSwitch distribution for instructions on how to build and load
71 the Open vSwitch kernel module.
74 .IP "\fB--fake-proc-net\fR"
75 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to simulate some files in \fB/proc/net/vlan\fR
76 and \fB/proc/net/bonding\fR that some legacy software expects to
77 exist. This option should only be used if such legacy software is
78 actually in use. It requires the \fBbrcompat_mod.ko\fR kernel module
83 .so lib/ssl-bootstrap.man
86 .so lib/leak-checker.man
88 .SH "RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS"
89 \fBovs\-appctl\fR(8) can send commands to a running
90 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR process. The currently supported commands are
91 described below. The command descriptions assume an understanding of
92 how to configure Open vSwitch.
94 These commands manage bridges.
95 .IP "\fBfdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
96 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
97 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
100 .IP "\fBbridge/dump-flows\fR \fIbridge\fR"
101 Lists all flows in \fIbridge\fR, including those normally hidden to
102 commands such as \fBovs-ofctl dump-flows\fR. Flows set up by mechanisms
103 such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the controller
104 since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
106 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges. To
107 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
108 detail of the bonding implementation called ``MAC hashing.'' Instead
109 of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to slaves, the bonding
110 implementation computes a function that maps an 48-bit Ethernet source
111 addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash'' value). All of the
112 Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit value are then assigned
114 .IP "\fBbond/list\fR"
115 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
117 .IP "\fBbond/show\fR \fIport\fR"
118 Lists all of the bond-specific information about the given bonded
119 \fIport\fR: updelay, downdelay, time until the next rebalance. Also
120 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
121 the time to completion of an updelay or downdelay if one is in
122 progress, whether it is the active slave, the MAC hashes assigned to
123 the slave, and the MAC learning table entries that hash to each MAC.
124 .IP "\fBbond/migrate\fR \fIport\fR \fIhash\fR \fIslave\fR"
125 Assigns a given MAC hash to a new slave. \fIport\fR specifies the
126 bond port, \fIhash\fR either the MAC hash to be migrated (as a decimal
127 number between 0 and 255) or an Ethernet address to be hashed, and
128 \fIslave\fR the new slave to be assigned.
130 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
131 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
134 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
135 .IP "\fBbond/set-active-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
136 Sets \fIslave\fR as the active slave on \fIport\fR. \fIslave\fR must
137 currently be enabled.
139 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be selected
140 if \fIslave\fR becomes disabled.
141 .IP "\fBbond/enable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
142 .IQ "\fBbond/disable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
143 Enables (or disables) \fIslave\fR on the given bond \fIport\fR, skipping any
144 updelay (or downdelay).
146 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the carrier
147 status of \fIslave\fR changes.
148 .IP "\fBbond/hash\fR \fImac\fR"
149 Returns the hash value which would be used for \fImac\fR.
151 .so lib/vlog-unixctl.man
154 .BR ovs\-brcompatd (8),
155 .BR ovsdb\-server (1),
156 \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR in the Open vSwitch distribution.