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
25 .so ovsdb/remote-passive.man
27 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR retrieves its configuration from \fIdatabase\fR at
28 startup. It sets up Open vSwitch datapaths and then operates
29 switching across each bridge described in its configuration files. As
30 the database changes, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR automatically updates its
31 configuration to match.
33 Upon receipt of a SIGHUP signal, \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR reopens its log
34 file, if one was specified on the command line.
36 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR switches may be configured with any of the following
40 L2 switching with MAC learning.
43 NIC bonding with automatic fail-over and source MAC-based TX load
50 Port mirroring, with optional VLAN tagging.
53 NetFlow v5 flow logging.
59 Connectivity to an external OpenFlow controller, such as NOX.
62 Only a single instance of \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is intended to run at a time.
63 A single \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR can manage any number of switch instances, up
64 to the maximum number of supported Open vSwitch datapaths.
66 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR does all the necessary management of Open vSwitch datapaths
67 itself. Thus, external tools, such \fBovs\-dpctl\fR(8), are not needed for
68 managing datapaths in conjunction with \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR, and their use
69 to modify datapaths when \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR is running can interfere with
70 its operation. (\fBovs\-dpctl\fR may still be useful for diagnostics.)
72 An Open vSwitch datapath kernel module must be loaded for \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR
73 to be useful. Please refer to the \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR file included in the
74 Open vSwitch distribution for instructions on how to build and load
75 the Open vSwitch kernel module.
78 .IP "\fB--mlockall\fR"
79 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to call the \fBmlockall()\fR function, to
80 attempt to lock all of its process memory into physical RAM,
81 preventing the kernel from paging any of its memory to disk. This
82 helps to avoid networking interruptions due to system memory pressure.
84 Some systems do not support \fBmlockall()\fR at all, and other systems
85 only allow privileged users, such as the superuser, to use it.
86 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR emits a log message if \fBmlockall()\fR is
87 unavailable or unsuccessful.
89 .IP "\fB--fake-proc-net\fR"
90 Causes \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR to simulate some files in \fB/proc/net/vlan\fR
91 and \fB/proc/net/bonding\fR that some legacy software expects to
92 exist. This option should only be used if such legacy software is
93 actually in use. It requires the \fBbrcompat_mod.ko\fR kernel module
97 .SS "Public Key Infrastructure Options"
99 .so lib/ssl-bootstrap.man
102 .so lib/leak-checker.man
104 .SH "RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS"
105 \fBovs\-appctl\fR(8) can send commands to a running
106 \fBovs\-vswitchd\fR process. The currently supported commands are
107 described below. The command descriptions assume an understanding of
108 how to configure Open vSwitch.
109 .SS "BRIDGE COMMANDS"
110 These commands manage bridges.
111 .IP "\fBfdb/show\fR \fIbridge\fR"
112 Lists each MAC address/VLAN pair learned by the specified \fIbridge\fR,
113 along with the port on which it was learned and the age of the entry,
116 .IP "\fBbridge/dump-flows\fR \fIbridge\fR"
117 Lists all flows in \fIbridge\fR, including those normally hidden to
118 commands such as \fBovs-ofctl dump-flows\fR. Flows set up by mechanisms
119 such as in-band control and fail-open are hidden from the controller
120 since it is not allowed to modify or override them.
122 These commands manage bonded ports on an Open vSwitch's bridges. To
123 understand some of these commands, it is important to understand a
124 detail of the bonding implementation called ``MAC hashing.'' Instead
125 of directly assigning Ethernet source addresses to slaves, the bonding
126 implementation computes a function that maps an 48-bit Ethernet source
127 addresses into an 8-bit value (a ``MAC hash'' value). All of the
128 Ethernet addresses that map to a single 8-bit value are then assigned
130 .IP "\fBbond/list\fR"
131 Lists all of the bonds, and their slaves, on each bridge.
133 .IP "\fBbond/show\fR \fIport\fR"
134 Lists all of the bond-specific information about the given bonded
135 \fIport\fR: updelay, downdelay, time until the next rebalance. Also
136 lists information about each slave: whether it is enabled or disabled,
137 the time to completion of an updelay or downdelay if one is in
138 progress, whether it is the active slave, the MAC hashes assigned to
139 the slave, and the MAC learning table entries that hash to each MAC.
140 .IP "\fBbond/migrate\fR \fIport\fR \fIhash\fR \fIslave\fR"
141 Assigns a given MAC hash to a new slave. \fIport\fR specifies the
142 bond port, \fIhash\fR either the MAC hash to be migrated (as a decimal
143 number between 0 and 255) or an Ethernet address to be hashed, and
144 \fIslave\fR the new slave to be assigned.
146 The reassignment is not permanent: rebalancing or fail-over will
147 cause the MAC hash to be shifted to a new slave in the usual
150 A MAC hash cannot be migrated to a disabled slave.
151 .IP "\fBbond/set-active-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
152 Sets \fIslave\fR as the active slave on \fIport\fR. \fIslave\fR must
153 currently be enabled.
155 The setting is not permanent: a new active slave will be selected
156 if \fIslave\fR becomes disabled.
157 .IP "\fBbond/enable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
158 .IQ "\fBbond/disable-slave\fR \fIport\fR \fIslave\fR"
159 Enables (or disables) \fIslave\fR on the given bond \fIport\fR, skipping any
160 updelay (or downdelay).
162 This setting is not permanent: it persists only until the carrier
163 status of \fIslave\fR changes.
164 .IP "\fBbond/hash\fR \fImac\fR"
165 Returns the hash value which would be used for \fImac\fR.
167 .so lib/vlog-unixctl.man
170 .BR ovs\-brcompatd (8),
171 .BR ovsdb\-server (1),
172 \fBINSTALL.Linux\fR in the Open vSwitch distribution.