How to Install Open vSwitch on Linux ==================================== This document describes how to build and install Open vSwitch on a generic Linux host. If you want to install Open vSwitch on a Citrix XenServer version 5.5.0, see INSTALL.XenServer instead. This version of Open vSwitch should be built manually with "configure" and "make". Debian packaging for Open vSwitch is also included, but they have not been recently tested, and so Debian packages are not a recommended way to use this version of Open vSwitch. Build Requirements ------------------ To compile the userspace programs in the Open vSwitch distribution, you will need the following software: - A make program, e.g. GNU make. BSD make should also work. - The GNU C compiler. We generally test with version 4.1, 4.2, or 4.3. - libssl, from OpenSSL, is optional but recommended if you plan to connect the Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. libssl is required to establish confidentiality and authenticity in the connections from an Open vSwitch to an OpenFlow controller. To enable, configure with --enable-ssl=yes. To compile the kernel module, you must also install the following. If you cannot build or install the kernel module, you may use the userspace-only implementation, at a cost in performance. The userspace implementation may also lack some features. Refer to INSTALL.userspace for more information. - A supported Linux kernel version. Please refer to README for a list of supported versions. The Open vSwitch datapath requires bridging support (CONFIG_BRIDGE) to be built as a kernel module. (This is common in kernels provided by Linux distributions.) The bridge module must not be loaded or in use. If the bridge module is running (check with "lsmod | grep bridge"), you must remove it ("rmmod bridge") before starting the datapath. For optional support of ingress policing, you must enable kernel configuration options NET_CLS_ACT, NET_CLS_U32, NET_SCH_INGRESS, and NET_ACT_POLICE, either built-in or as modules. (NET_CLS_POLICE is obsolete and not needed.) - To build a kernel module, you need the same version of GCC that was used to build that kernel. - A kernel build directory corresponding to the Linux kernel image the module is to run on. Under Debian and Ubuntu, for example, each linux-image package containing a kernel binary has a corresponding linux-headers package with the required build infrastructure. If you are working from a Git tree or snapshot (instead of from a distribution tarball), or if you modify the Open vSwitch build system, you will also need the following software: - Autoconf version 2.64 or later. - Automake version 1.10 or later. - pkg-config. We test with version 0.22. - Python 2.x, for x >= 4. Installation Requirements ------------------------- The machine on which Open vSwitch is to be installed must have the following software: - libc compatible with the libc used for build. - libssl compatible with the libssl used for build, if OpenSSL was used for the build. - The Linux kernel version configured as part of the build. - For optional support of ingress policing, the "tc" program from iproute2 (part of all major distributions and available at http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Net:Iproute2). - For debugging purposes, Open vSwitch expects that "tcpdump" is installed as /usr/sbin/tcpdump. If tcpdump is not installed, or if it is installed in a different location, then some Open vSwitch log messages will not be as detailed. Building and Installing Open vSwitch for Linux ============================================== Once you have installed all the prerequisites listed above in the Base Prerequisites section, follow the procedure below to build. 1. If you pulled the sources directly from an Open vSwitch Git tree, run boot.sh in the top source directory: % ./boot.sh 2. In the top source directory, configure the package by running the configure script. You can usually invoke configure without any arguments: % ./configure By default all files are installed under /usr/local. If you want to install into, e.g., /usr and /var instead of /usr/local and /usr/local/var, add options as shown here: % ./configure --prefix=/usr --localstatedir=/var To use a specific C compiler for compiling Open vSwitch user programs, also specify it on the configure command line, like so: % ./configure CC=gcc-4.2 To build the Linux kernel module, so that you can run the kernel-based switch, pass the location of the kernel build directory on --with-l26. For example, to build for a running instance of Linux 2.6: % ./configure --with-l26=/lib/modules/`uname -r`/build If you wish to build the kernel module for an architecture other than the architecture of the machine used for the build, you may specify the kernel architecture string using the KARCH variable when invoking the configure script. For example, to build for MIPS with Linux 2.6: % ./configure --with-l26=/path/to/linux-2.6 KARCH=mips The configure script accepts a number of other options and honors additional environment variables. For a full list, invoke configure with the --help option. 3. Run make in the top source directory: % make 4. Become root by running "su" or another program. 5. Run "make install" to install the executables and manpages into the running system, by default under /usr/local. 6. If you built kernel modules, you may load them with "insmod", e.g.: % insmod datapath/linux-2.6/openvswitch_mod.ko You may need to specify a full path to insmod, e.g. /sbin/insmod. To verify that the modules have been loaded, run "/sbin/lsmod" and check that openvswitch_mod is listed. 7. Initialize the configuration database using ovsdb-tool, e.g.: % ovsdb-tool create /usr/local/etc/ovs-vswitchd.conf.db vswitchd/vswitch.ovsschema Startup ======= Before starting ovs-vswitchd itself, you need to start its configuration database, ovsdb-server. Configure it to use the database you created during step 7 of installation, above, and to listen on a Unix domain socket, e.g.: % ovsdb-server /usr/local/etc/ovs-vswitchd.conf.db --remote=punix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock Then initialize the database with "ovs-vsctl init". This is only necessary the first time after you create the database with ovsdb-tool (but running it at any time is harmless): % ovs-vsctl init Then start the main Open vSwitch daemon, telling it to connect to the same Unix domain socket: % ovs-vswitchd unix:/usr/local/var/run/openvswitch/db.sock Now you may use ovs-vsctl to set up bridges and other Open vSwitch features. For example, to create a bridge named br0 and add ports eth0 and vif1.0 to it: % ovs-vsctl add-br br0 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 eth0 % ovs-vsctl add-port br0 vif1.0 Please refer to ovs-vsctl(8) for more details. Bug Reporting ------------- Please report problems to bugs@openvswitch.org.