External IDs¶

Each of the tables in this database contains a special column, named external_ids. This column has the same form and purpose each place it appears.

Summary:¶

Status:

Common Columns:

Common options:

Connection Options:

Security Configurations:

Details:¶

These columns allow a client to track the overall configuration state of the system.

nb_cfg: integer

Sequence number for client to increment. When a client modifies any part of the northbound database configuration and wishes to wait for ovn-northd and possibly all of the hypervisors to finish applying the changes, it may increment this sequence number.

sb_cfg: integer

Sequence number that ovn-northd sets to the value of nb_cfg after it finishes applying the corresponding configuration changes to the OVN_Southbound database.

hv_cfg: integer

Sequence number that ovn-northd sets to the smallest sequence number of all the chassis in the system, as reported in the Chassis table in the southbound database. Thus, hv_cfg equals nb_cfg if all chassis are caught up with the northbound configuration (which may never happen, if any chassis is down). This value can regress, if a chassis was removed from the system and rejoins before catching up.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

options: map of string-string pairs

This column provides general key/value settings. The supported options are described individually below.

These options apply when ovn-controller configures BFD on tunnels interfaces.

options : bfd-min-rx: optional string

BFD option min-rx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.

options : bfd-decay-min-rx: optional string

BFD option decay-min-rx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.

options : bfd-min-tx: optional string

BFD option min-tx value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.

options : bfd-mult: optional string

BFD option mult value to use when configuring BFD on tunnel interfaces.

options : mac_prefix: optional string

Configure a given OUI to be used as prefix when L2 address is dynamically assigned, e.g. 00:11:22

connections: set of Connections

Database clients to which the Open vSwitch database server should connect or on which it should listen, along with options for how these connections should be configured. See the Connection table for more information.

ssl: optional SSL

Global SSL configuration.

ipsec: boolean

Tunnel encryption configuration. If this column is set to be true, all OVN tunnels will be encrypted with IPsec.

Summary:¶

ports

set of Logical_Switch_Ports

load_balancer

set of Load_Balancers

acls

set of ACLs

qos_rules

set of QoSs

dns_records

set of weak reference to DNSs

Naming:

IP Address Assignment:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

ports: set of Logical_Switch_Ports

The logical ports connected to the logical switch.

It is an error for multiple logical switches to include the same logical port.

load_balancer: set of Load_Balancers

Load balance a virtual ip address to a set of logical port endpoint ip addresses.

acls: set of ACLs

Access control rules that apply to packets within the logical switch.

qos_rules: set of QoSs

QoS marking and metering rules that apply to packets within the logical switch.

dns_records: set of weak reference to DNSs

This column defines the DNS records to be used for resolving internal DNS queries within the logical switch by the native DNS resolver. Please see the DNS table.

These columns provide names for the logical switch. From OVN’s perspective, these names have no special meaning or purpose other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. (For a unique identifier for a logical switch, use its row UUID.)

(Originally, name was intended to serve the purpose of a human-friendly name, but the Neutron integration used it to uniquely identify its own switch object, in the format neutron-uuid. Later on, Neutron started propagating the friendly name of a switch as external_ids:neutron:network_name. Perhaps this can be cleaned up someday.)

name: string

A name for the logical switch.

external_ids : neutron:network_name: optional string

Another name for the logical switch.

These options control automatic IP address management (IPAM) for ports attached to the logical switch. To enable IPAM for IPv4, set other_config:subnet and optionally other_config:exclude_ips. To enable IPAM for IPv6, set other_config:ipv6_prefix. IPv4 and IPv6 may be enabled together or separately.

To request dynamic address assignment for a particular port, use the dynamic keyword in the addresses column of the port’s Logical_Switch_Port row. This requests both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, if IPAM for IPv4 and IPv6 are both enabled.

other_config : subnet: optional string

Set this to an IPv4 subnet, e.g. 192.168.0.0/24, to enable ovn-northd to automatically assign IP addresses within that subnet.

other_config : exclude_ips: optional string

To exclude some addresses from automatic IP address management, set this to a list of the IPv4 addresses or ..-delimited ranges to exclude. The addresses or ranges should be a subset of those in other_config:subnet.

Whether listed or not, ovn-northd will never allocate the first or last address in a subnet, such as 192.168.0.0 or 192.168.0.255 in 192.168.0.0/24.

Examples:

other_config : ipv6_prefix: optional string

Set this to an IPv6 prefix to enable ovn-northd to automatically assign IPv6 addresses using this prefix. The assigned IPv6 address will be generated using the IPv6 prefix and the MAC address (converted to an IEEE EUI64 identifier) of the port. The IPv6 prefix defined here should be a valid IPv6 address ending with ::.

Examples:

other_config : mac_only: optional string, either true or false

Value used to request to assign L2 address only if neither subnet nor ipv6_prefix are specified

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

Core Features:

Options:

Containers:

Port State:

Addressing:

DHCP:

Naming:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

The logical port name.

For entities (VMs or containers) that are spawned in the hypervisor, the name used here must match those used in the external_ids:iface-id in the Open_vSwitch database’s Interface table, because hypervisors use external_ids:iface-id as a lookup key to identify the network interface of that entity.

For containers that share a VIF within a VM, the name can be any unique identifier. See Containers, below, for more information.

type: string

Specify a type for this logical port. Logical ports can be used to model other types of connectivity into an OVN logical switch. The following types are defined:

options: map of string-string pairs

This column provides key/value settings specific to the logical port type. The type-specific options are described individually below.

These options apply when type is router.

options : router-port: optional string

Required. The name of the Logical_Router_Port to which this logical switch port is connected.

options : nat-addresses: optional string

This is used to send gratuitous ARPs for SNAT and DNAT IP addresses via the localnet port that is attached to the same logical switch as this type router port. This option is specified on a logical switch port that is connected to a gateway router, or a logical switch port that is connected to a distributed gateway port on a logical router.

This must take one of the following forms:

These options apply when type is localnet.

options : network_name: optional string

Required. The name of the network to which the localnet port is connected. Each hypervisor, via ovn-controller, uses its local configuration to determine exactly how to connect to this locally accessible network.

These options apply when type is l2gateway.

options : network_name: optional string

Required. The name of the network to which the l2gateway port is connected. The L2 gateway, via ovn-controller, uses its local configuration to determine exactly how to connect to this network.

options : l2gateway-chassis: optional string

Required. The chassis on which the l2gateway logical port should be bound to. ovn-controller running on the defined chassis will connect this logical port to the physical network.

These options apply when type is vtep.

options : vtep-physical-switch: optional string

Required. The name of the VTEP gateway.

options : vtep-logical-switch: optional string

Required. A logical switch name connected by the VTEP gateway.

These options apply to logical ports with type having (empty string)

options : requested-chassis: optional string

If set, identifies a specific chassis (by name or hostname) that is allowed to bind this port. Using this option will prevent thrashing between two chassis trying to bind the same port during a live migration. It can also prevent similar thrashing due to a mis-configuration, if a port is accidentally created on more than one chassis.

options : qos_max_rate: optional string

If set, indicates the maximum rate for data sent from this interface, in bit/s. The traffic will be shaped according to this limit.

options : qos_burst: optional string

If set, indicates the maximum burst size for data sent from this interface, in bits.

When a large number of containers are nested within a VM, it may be too expensive to dedicate a VIF to each container. OVN can use VLAN tags to support such cases. Each container is assigned a VLAN ID and each packet that passes between the hypervisor and the VM is tagged with the appropriate ID for the container. Such VLAN IDs never appear on a physical wire, even inside a tunnel, so they need not be unique except relative to a single VM on a hypervisor.

These columns are used for VIFs that represent nested containers using shared VIFs. For VMs and for containers that have dedicated VIFs, they are empty.

parent_name: optional string

The VM interface through which the nested container sends its network traffic. This must match the name column for some other Logical_Switch_Port.

tag_request: optional integer, in range 0 to 4,095

The VLAN tag in the network traffic associated with a container’s network interface. The client can request ovn-northd to allocate a tag that is unique within the scope of a specific parent (specified in parent_name) by setting a value of 0 in this column. The allocated value is written by ovn-northd in the tag column. (Note that these tags are allocated and managed locally in ovn-northd, so they cannot be reconstructed in the event that the database is lost.) The client can also request a specific non-zero tag and ovn-northd will honor it and copy that value to the tag column.

When type is set to localnet or l2gateway, this can be set to indicate that the port represents a connection to a specific VLAN on a locally accessible network. The VLAN ID is used to match incoming traffic and is also added to outgoing traffic.

tag: optional integer, in range 1 to 4,095

The VLAN tag allocated by ovn-northd based on the contents of the tag_request column.

up: optional boolean

This column is populated by ovn-northd, rather than by the CMS plugin as is most of this database. When a logical port is bound to a physical location in the OVN Southbound database Binding table, ovn-northd sets this column to true; otherwise, or if the port becomes unbound later, it sets it to false. This allows the CMS to wait for a VM’s (or container’s) networking to become active before it allows the VM (or container) to start.

Logical ports of router type are an exception to this rule. They are considered to be always up, that is this column is always set to true.

enabled: optional boolean

This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column is empty or is set to true, the port is enabled. If this column is set to false, the port is disabled. A disabled port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.

addresses: set of strings

Addresses owned by the logical port.

Each element in the set must take one of the following forms:

dynamic_addresses: optional string

Addresses assigned to the logical port by ovn-northd, if dynamic is specified in addresses. Addresses will be of the same format as those that populate the addresses column. Note that dynamically assigned addresses are constructed and managed locally in ovn-northd, so they cannot be reconstructed in the event that the database is lost.

port_security: set of strings

This column controls the addresses from which the host attached to the logical port (``the host’’) is allowed to send packets and to which it is allowed to receive packets. If this column is empty, all addresses are permitted.

Each element in the set must begin with one Ethernet address. This would restrict the host to sending packets from and receiving packets to the ethernet addresses defined in the logical port’s port_security column. It also restricts the inner source MAC addresses that the host may send in ARP and IPv6 Neighbor Discovery packets. The host is always allowed to receive packets to multicast and broadcast Ethernet addresses.

Each element in the set may additionally contain one or more IPv4 or IPv6 addresses (or both), with optional masks. If a mask is given, it must be a CIDR mask. In addition to the restrictions described for Ethernet addresses above, such an element restricts the IPv4 or IPv6 addresses from which the host may send and to which it may receive packets to the specified addresses. A masked address, if the host part is zero, indicates that the host is allowed to use any address in the subnet; if the host part is nonzero, the mask simply indicates the size of the subnet. In addition:

If an element includes an IPv4 address, but no IPv6 addresses, then IPv6 traffic is not allowed. If an element includes an IPv6 address, but no IPv4 address, then IPv4 and ARP traffic is not allowed.

This column uses the same lexical syntax as the match column in the OVN Southbound database’s Pipeline table. Multiple addresses within an element may be space or comma separated.

This column is provided as a convenience to cloud management systems, but all of the features that it implements can be implemented as ACLs using the ACL table.

Examples:

dhcpv4_options: optional weak reference to DHCP_Options

This column defines the DHCPv4 Options to be included by the ovn-controller when it replies to the DHCPv4 requests. Please see the DHCP_Options table.

dhcpv6_options: optional weak reference to DHCP_Options

This column defines the DHCPv6 Options to be included by the ovn-controller when it replies to the DHCPv6 requests. Please see the DHCP_Options table.

external_ids : neutron:port_name: optional string

This column gives an optional human-friendly name for the port. This name has no special meaning or purpose other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the northbound database.

Neutron copies this from its own port object’s name. (Neutron ports do are not assigned human-friendly names by default, so it will often be empty.)

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

The ovn-northd program copies all these pairs into the external_ids column of the Port_Binding table in OVN_Southbound database.

Summary:¶

name

string (must be unique within table)

addresses

set of strings

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

A name for the address set. Names are ASCII and must match [a-zA-Z_.][a-zA-Z_.0-9]*.

addresses: set of strings

The set of addresses in string form.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

name

string (must be unique within table)

ports

set of weak reference to Logical_Switch_Ports

acls

set of ACLs

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

A name for the port group. Names are ASCII and must match [a-zA-Z_.][a-zA-Z_.0-9]*.

ports: set of weak reference to Logical_Switch_Ports

The logical switch ports belonging to the group in uuids.

acls: set of ACLs

Access control rules that apply to the port group. Applying an ACL to a port group has the same effect as applying the ACL to all logical lswitches that the ports of the port group belong to.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

name

string

vips

map of string-string pairs

protocol

optional string, either tcp or udp

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string

A name for the load balancer. This name has no special meaning or purpose other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the ovn-nb database.

vips: map of string-string pairs

A map of virtual IP addresses (and an optional port number with : as a separator) associated with this load balancer and their corresponding endpoint IP addresses (and optional port numbers with : as separators) separated by commas. If the destination IP address (and port number) of a packet leaving a container or a VM matches the virtual IP address (and port number) provided here as a key, then OVN will statefully replace the destination IP address by one of the provided IP address (and port number) in this map as a value. IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported for load balancing; however a VIP of one address family may not be mapped to a destination IP address of a different family. If specifying an IPv6 address with a port, the address portion must be enclosed in square brackets. Examples for keys are "192.168.1.4" and "[fd0f::1]:8800". Examples for value are "10.0.0.1, 10.0.0.2" and "20.0.0.10:8800, 20.0.0.11:8800".

When the Load_Balancer is added to the logical_switch, the VIP has to be in a different subnet than the one used for the logical_switch. Since VIP is in a different subnet, you should connect your logical switch to either a OVN logical router or a real router (this is because the client can now send a packet with VIP as the destination IP address and router’s mac address as the destination MAC address).

protocol: optional string, either tcp or udp

Valid protocols are tcp or udp. This column is useful when a port number is provided as part of the vips column. If this column is empty and a port number is provided as part of vips column, OVN assumes the protocol to be tcp.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

priority

integer, in range 0 to 32,767

direction

string, either from-lport or to-lport

match

string

action

string, one of allow-related, allow, drop, or reject

Logging:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

priority: integer, in range 0 to 32,767

The ACL rule’s priority. Rules with numerically higher priority take precedence over those with lower. If two ACL rules with the same priority both match, then the one actually applied to a packet is undefined.

Return traffic from an allow-related flow is always allowed and cannot be changed through an ACL.

direction: string, either from-lport or to-lport

Direction of the traffic to which this rule should apply:

match: string

The packets that the ACL should match, in the same expression language used for the match column in the OVN Southbound database’s Logical_Flow table. The outport logical port is only available in the to-lport direction (the inport is available in both directions).

By default all traffic is allowed. When writing a more restrictive policy, it is important to remember to allow flows such as ARP and IPv6 neighbor discovery packets.

Note that you can not create an ACL matching on a port with type=router or type=localnet.

action: string, one of allow-related, allow, drop, or reject

The action to take when the ACL rule matches:

These columns control whether and how OVN logs packets that match an ACL.

log: boolean

If set to true, packets that match the ACL will trigger a log message on the transport node or nodes that perform ACL processing. Logging may be combined with any action.

If set to false, the remaining columns in this group have no significance.

name: optional string, at most 63 characters long

This name, if it is provided, is included in log records. It provides the administrator and the cloud management system a way to associate a log record with a particular ACL.

severity: optional string, one of alert, debug, info, notice, or warning

The severity of the ACL. The severity levels match those of syslog, in decreasing level of severity: alert, warning, notice, info, or debug. When the column is empty, the default is info.

meter: optional string

The name of a meter to rate-limit log messages for the ACL. The string must match the name column of a row in the Meter table. By default, log messages are not rate-limited.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

ports

set of Logical_Router_Ports

static_routes

set of Logical_Router_Static_Routes

enabled

optional boolean

nat

set of NATs

load_balancer

set of Load_Balancers

Naming:

Options:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

ports: set of Logical_Router_Ports

The router’s ports.

static_routes: set of Logical_Router_Static_Routes

Zero or more static routes for the router.

enabled: optional boolean

This column is used to administratively set router state. If this column is empty or is set to true, the router is enabled. If this column is set to false, the router is disabled. A disabled router has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.

nat: set of NATs

One or more NAT rules for the router. NAT rules only work on Gateway routers, and on distributed routers with one logical router port with a redirect-chassis specified.

load_balancer: set of Load_Balancers

Load balance a virtual ip address to a set of logical port ip addresses. Load balancer rules only work on the Gateway routers.

These columns provide names for the logical router. From OVN’s perspective, these names have no special meaning or purpose other than to provide convenience for human interaction with the northbound database. There is no requirement for the name to be unique. (For a unique identifier for a logical router, use its row UUID.)

(Originally, name was intended to serve the purpose of a human-friendly name, but the Neutron integration used it to uniquely identify its own router object, in the format neutron-uuid. Later on, Neutron started propagating the friendly name of a router as external_ids:neutron:router_name. Perhaps this can be cleaned up someday.)

name: string

A name for the logical router.

external_ids : neutron:router_name: optional string

Another name for the logical router.

Additional options for the logical router.

options : chassis: optional string

If set, indicates that the logical router in question is a Gateway router (which is centralized) and resides in the set chassis. The same value is also used by ovn-controller to uniquely identify the chassis in the OVN deployment and comes from external_ids:system-id in the Open_vSwitch table of Open_vSwitch database.

The Gateway router can only be connected to a distributed router via a switch if SNAT and DNAT are to be configured in the Gateway router.

options : dnat_force_snat_ip: optional string

If set, indicates the IP address to use to force SNAT a packet that has already been DNATed in the gateway router. When multiple gateway routers are configured, a packet can potentially enter any of the gateway router, get DNATted and eventually reach the logical switch port. For the return traffic to go back to the same gateway router (for unDNATing), the packet needs a SNAT in the first place. This can be achieved by setting the above option with a gateway specific IP address.

options : lb_force_snat_ip: optional string

If set, indicates the IP address to use to force SNAT a packet that has already been load-balanced in the gateway router. When multiple gateway routers are configured, a packet can potentially enter any of the gateway routers, get DNATted as part of the load- balancing and eventually reach the logical switch port. For the return traffic to go back to the same gateway router (for unDNATing), the packet needs a SNAT in the first place. This can be achieved by setting the above option with a gateway specific IP address.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

priority

integer, in range 0 to 32,767

direction

string, either from-lport or to-lport

match

string

action

map of string-integer pairs, key must be dscp, value in range 0 to 63

bandwidth

map of string-integer pairs, key either burst or rate, value in range 1 to 4,294,967,295

external_ids

map of string-string pairs

Details:¶

priority: integer, in range 0 to 32,767

The QoS rule’s priority. Rules with numerically higher priority take precedence over those with lower. If two QoS rules with the same priority both match, then the one actually applied to a packet is undefined.

direction: string, either from-lport or to-lport

The value of this field is similar to ACL column in the OVN Northbound database’s ACL table.

match: string

The packets that the QoS rules should match, in the same expression language used for the match column in the OVN Southbound database’s Logical_Flow table. The outport logical port is only available in the to-lport direction (the inport is available in both directions).

action: map of string-integer pairs, key must be dscp, value in range 0 to 63

When specified, matching flows will have DSCP marking applied.

bandwidth: map of string-integer pairs, key either burst or rate, value in range 1 to 4,294,967,295

When specified, matching packets will have bandwidth metering applied. Traffic over the limit will be dropped.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

name

string (must be unique within table)

unit

string, either kbps or pktps

bands

set of 1 or more Meter_Bands

external_ids

map of string-string pairs

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

A name for this meter.

Names that begin with "__" (two underscores) are reserved for OVN internal use and should not be added manually.

unit: string, either kbps or pktps

The unit for rate and burst_rate parameters in the bands entry. kbps specifies kilobits per second, and pktps specifies packets per second.

bands: set of 1 or more Meter_Bands

The bands associated with this meter. Each band specifies a rate above which the band is to take the action action. If multiple bands’ rates are exceeded, then the band with the highest rate among the exceeded bands is selected.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

action

string, must be drop

rate

integer, in range 1 to 4,294,967,295

burst_size

integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295

external_ids

map of string-string pairs

Details:¶

action: string, must be drop

The action to execute when this band matches. The only supported action is drop.

rate: integer, in range 1 to 4,294,967,295

The rate limit for this band, in kilobits per second or bits per second, depending on whether the parent Meter entry’s unit column specified kbps or pktps.

burst_size: integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295

The maximum burst allowed for the band in kilobits or packets, depending on whether kbps or pktps was selected in the parent Meter entry’s unit column. If the size is zero, the switch is free to select some reasonable value depending on its configuration.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

name

string (must be unique within table)

gateway_chassis

set of Gateway_Chassiss

networks

set of 1 or more strings

mac

string

enabled

optional boolean

ipv6_ra_configs:

Options:

Attachment:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

A name for the logical router port.

In addition to provide convenience for human interaction with the northbound database, this column is used as reference by its patch port in Logical_Switch_Port or another logical router port in Logical_Router_Port.

gateway_chassis: set of Gateway_Chassiss

If set, this indicates that this logical router port represents a distributed gateway port that connects this router to a logical switch with a localnet port. There may be at most one such logical router port on each logical router.

Several Gateway_Chassis can be referenced for a given logical router port. A single Gateway_Chassis is functionally equivalent to setting options:redirect-chassis. Refer to the description of options:redirect-chassis for additional details on gateway handling.

Defining more than one Gateway_Chassis will enable gateway high availability. Only one gateway will be active at a time. OVN chassis will use BFD to monitor connectivity to a gateway. If connectivity to the active gateway is interrupted, another gateway will become active. The priority column specifies the order that gateways will be chosen by OVN.

networks: set of 1 or more strings

The IP addresses and netmasks of the router. For example, 192.168.0.1/24 indicates that the router’s IP address is 192.168.0.1 and that packets destined to 192.168.0.x should be routed to this port.

A logical router port always adds a link-local IPv6 address (fe80::/64) automatically generated from the interface’s MAC address using the modified EUI-64 format.

mac: string

The Ethernet address that belongs to this router port.

enabled: optional boolean

This column is used to administratively set port state. If this column is empty or is set to true, the port is enabled. If this column is set to false, the port is disabled. A disabled port has all ingress and egress traffic dropped.

This column defines the IPv6 ND RA address mode and ND MTU Option to be included by ovn-controller when it replies to the IPv6 Router solicitation requests.

ipv6_ra_configs : address_mode: optional string

The address mode to be used for IPv6 address configuration. The supported values are:

ipv6_ra_configs : mtu: optional string

The recommended MTU for the link. Default is 0, which means no MTU Option will be included in RA packet replied by ovn-controller. Per RFC 2460, the mtu value is recommended no less than 1280, so any mtu value less than 1280 will be considered as no MTU Option.

ipv6_ra_configs : send_periodic: optional string

If set to true, then this router interface will send router advertisements periodically. The default is false.

ipv6_ra_configs : max_interval: optional string

The maximum number of seconds to wait between sending periodic router advertisements. This option has no effect if ipv6_ra_configs:send_periodic is false. The default is 600.

ipv6_ra_configs : min_interval: optional string

The minimum number of seconds to wait between sending periodic router advertisements. This option has no effect if ipv6_ra_configs:send_periodic is false. The default is one-third of ipv6_ra_configs:max_interval, i.e. 200 seconds if that key is unset.

Additional options for the logical router port.

options : redirect-chassis: optional string

If set, this indicates that this logical router port represents a distributed gateway port that connects this router to a logical switch with a localnet port. There may be at most one such logical router port on each logical router.

Even when a redirect-chassis is specified, the logical router port still effectively resides on each chassis. However, due to the implications of the use of L2 learning in the physical network, as well as the need to support advanced features such as one-to-many NAT (aka IP masquerading), a subset of the logical router processing is handled in a centralized manner on the specified redirect-chassis.

When this option is specified, the peer logical switch port’s addresses must be set to router. With this setting, the external_macs specified in NAT rules are automatically programmed in the peer logical switch’s destination lookup on the chassis where the logical_port resides. In addition, the logical router’s MAC address is automatically programmed in the peer logical switch’s destination lookup flow on the redirect-chassis.

When this option is specified and it is desired to generate gratuitous ARPs for NAT addresses, then the peer logical switch port’s options:nat-addresses should be set to router.

While options:redirect-chassis is still supported for backwards compatibility, it is now preferred to specify one or more gateway_chassis instead. It is functionally equivalent, but allows you to specify multiple chassis to enable high availability.

options : reside-on-redirect-chassis: optional string

Generally routing is distributed in OVN. The packet from a logical port which needs to be routed hits the router pipeline in the source chassis. For the East-West traffic, the packet is sent directly to the destination chassis. For the outside traffic the packet is sent to the gateway chassis.

When this option is set, OVN considers this only if

When this option is set to true, then the packet which needs to be routed hits the router pipeline in the chassis hosting the distributed gateway router port. The source chassis pushes out this traffic via the localnet port. With this the East-West traffic is no more distributed and will always go through the gateway chassis.

Without this option set, for any traffic destined to outside from a logical port which belongs to a logical switch with localnet port, the source chassis will send the traffic to the gateway chassis via the tunnel port instead of the localnet port and this could cause MTU issues.

A given router port serves one of two purposes:

peer: optional string

For a router port used to connect two logical routers, this identifies the other router port in the pair by name.

For a router port attached to a logical switch, this column is empty.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

ip_prefix

string

policy

optional string, either dst-ip or src-ip

nexthop

string

output_port

optional string

Common Columns:

Details:¶

ip_prefix: string

IP prefix of this route (e.g. 192.168.100.0/24).

policy: optional string, either dst-ip or src-ip

If it is specified, this setting describes the policy used to make routing decisions. This setting must be one of the following strings:

If not specified, the default is dst-ip.

nexthop: string

Nexthop IP address for this route. Nexthop IP address should be the IP address of a connected router port or the IP address of a logical port.

output_port: optional string

The name of the Logical_Router_Port via which the packet needs to be sent out. This is optional and when not specified, OVN will automatically figure this out based on the nexthop. When this is specified and there are multiple IP addresses on the router port and none of them are in the same subnet of nexthop, OVN chooses the first IP address as the one via which the nexthop is reachable.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

type

string, one of dnat, dnat_and_snat, or snat

external_ip

string

external_mac

optional string

logical_ip

string

logical_port

optional string

Common Columns:

Details:¶

type: string, one of dnat, dnat_and_snat, or snat

Type of the NAT rule.

external_ip: string

An IPv4 address.

external_mac: optional string

A MAC address.

This is only used on the gateway port on distributed routers. This must be specified in order for the NAT rule to be processed in a distributed manner on all chassis. If this is not specified for a NAT rule on a distributed router, then this NAT rule will be processed in a centralized manner on the gateway port instance on the redirect-chassis.

This MAC address must be unique on the logical switch that the gateway port is attached to. If the MAC address used on the logical_port is globally unique, then that MAC address can be specified as this external_mac.

logical_ip: string

An IPv4 network (e.g 192.168.1.0/24) or an IPv4 address.

logical_port: optional string

The name of the logical port where the logical_ip resides.

This is only used on distributed routers. This must be specified in order for the NAT rule to be processed in a distributed manner on all chassis. If this is not specified for a NAT rule on a distributed router, then this NAT rule will be processed in a centralized manner on the gateway port instance on the redirect-chassis.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

cidr

string

DHCPv4 options:

DHCPv6 options:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

cidr: string

The DHCPv4/DHCPv6 options will be included if the logical port has its IP address in this cidr.

The CMS should define the set of DHCPv4 options as key/value pairs in the options column of this table. For ovn-controller to include these DHCPv4 options, the dhcpv4_options of Logical_Switch_Port should refer to an entry in this table.

The following options must be defined.

options : server_id: optional string

The IP address for the DHCP server to use. This should be in the subnet of the offered IP. This is also included in the DHCP offer as option 54, ``server identifier.’’

options : server_mac: optional string

The Ethernet address for the DHCP server to use.

options : lease_time: optional string, containing an integer, in range 0 to 4,294,967,295

The offered lease time in seconds,

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 51.

Below are the supported DHCPv4 options whose values are an IPv4 address, e.g. 192.168.1.1. Some options accept multiple IPv4 addresses enclosed within curly braces, e.g. {192.168.1.2, 192.168.1.3}. Please refer to RFC 2132 for more details on DHCPv4 options and their codes.

options : router: optional string

The IP address of a gateway for the client to use. This should be in the subnet of the offered IP. The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 3.

options : netmask: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 1.

options : dns_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 6.

options : log_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 7.

options : lpr_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 9.

options : swap_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 16.

options : policy_filter: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 21.

options : router_solicitation: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 32.

options : nis_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 41.

options : ntp_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 42.

options : tftp_server: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 66.

options : classless_static_route: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 121.

This option can contain one or more static routes, each of which consists of a destination descriptor and the IP address of the router that should be used to reach that destination. Please see RFC 3442 for more details.

Example: {30.0.0.0/24,10.0.0.10, 0.0.0.0/0,10.0.0.1}

options : ms_classless_static_route: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 249. This option is similar to classless_static_route supported by Microsoft Windows DHCPv4 clients.

These options accept a Boolean value, expressed as 0 for false or 1 for true.

options : ip_forward_enable: optional string, either 0 or 1

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 19.

options : router_discovery: optional string, either 0 or 1

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 31.

options : ethernet_encap: optional string, either 0 or 1

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 36.

These options accept a nonnegative integer value.

options : default_ttl: optional string, containing an integer, in range 0 to 255

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 23.

options : tcp_ttl: optional string, containing an integer, in range 0 to 255

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 37.

options : mtu: optional string, containing an integer, in range 68 to 65,535

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 26.

options : T1: optional string, containing an integer, in range 68 to 4,294,967,295

This specifies the time interval from address assignment until the client begins trying to renew its address. The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 58.

options : T2: optional string, containing an integer, in range 68 to 4,294,967,295

This specifies the time interval from address assignment until the client begins trying to rebind its address. The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 59.

These options accept a string value.

options : wpad: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 252. This option is used as part of web proxy auto discovery to provide a URL for a web proxy.

options : bootfile_name: optional string

The DHCPv4 option code for this option is 67. This option is used to identify a bootfile.

OVN also implements native DHCPv6 support. The CMS should define the set of DHCPv6 options as key/value pairs. The define DHCPv6 options will be included in the DHCPv6 response to the DHCPv6 Solicit/Request/Confirm packet from the logical ports having the IPv6 addresses in the cidr.

The following options must be defined.

options : server_id: optional string

The Ethernet address for the DHCP server to use. This is also included in the DHCPv6 reply as option 2, ``Server Identifier’’ to carry a DUID identifying a server between a client and a server. ovn-controller defines DUID based on Link-layer Address [DUID-LL].

Below are the supported DHCPv6 options whose values are an IPv6 address, e.g. aef0::4. Some options accept multiple IPv6 addresses enclosed within curly braces, e.g. {aef0::4, aef0::5}. Please refer to RFC 3315 for more details on DHCPv6 options and their codes.

options : dns_server: optional string

The DHCPv6 option code for this option is 23. This option specifies the DNS servers that the VM should use.

These options accept string values.

options : domain_search: optional string

The DHCPv6 option code for this option is 24. This option specifies the domain search list the client should use to resolve hostnames with DNS.

Example: "ovn.org".

options : dhcpv6_stateless: optional string

This option specifies the OVN native DHCPv6 will work in stateless mode, which means OVN native DHCPv6 will not offer IPv6 addresses for VM/VIF ports, but only reply other configurations, such as DNS and domain search list. When setting this option with string value "true", VM/VIF will configure IPv6 addresses by stateless way. Default value for this option is false.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

Core Features:

Client Failure Detection and Handling:

Status:

Common Columns:

Details:¶

target: string (must be unique within table)

Connection methods for clients.

The following connection methods are currently supported:

When multiple clients are configured, the target values must be unique. Duplicate target values yield unspecified results.

max_backoff: optional integer, at least 1,000

Maximum number of milliseconds to wait between connection attempts. Default is implementation-specific.

inactivity_probe: optional integer

Maximum number of milliseconds of idle time on connection to the client before sending an inactivity probe message. If Open vSwitch does not communicate with the client for the specified number of seconds, it will send a probe. If a response is not received for the same additional amount of time, Open vSwitch assumes the connection has been broken and attempts to reconnect. Default is implementation-specific. A value of 0 disables inactivity probes.

Key-value pair of is_connected is always updated. Other key-value pairs in the status columns may be updated depends on the target type.

When target specifies a connection method that listens for inbound connections (e.g. ptcp: or punix:), both n_connections and is_connected may also be updated while the remaining key-value pairs are omitted.

On the other hand, when target specifies an outbound connection, all key-value pairs may be updated, except the above-mentioned two key-value pairs associated with inbound connection targets. They are omitted.

is_connected: boolean

true if currently connected to this client, false otherwise.

status : last_error: optional string

A human-readable description of the last error on the connection to the manager; i.e. strerror(errno). This key will exist only if an error has occurred.

status : state: optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE, or VOID

The state of the connection to the manager:

These values may change in the future. They are provided only for human consumption.

status : sec_since_connect: optional string, containing an integer, at least 0

The amount of time since this client last successfully connected to the database (in seconds). Value is empty if client has never successfully been connected.

status : sec_since_disconnect: optional string, containing an integer, at least 0

The amount of time since this client last disconnected from the database (in seconds). Value is empty if client has never disconnected.

status : locks_held: optional string

Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection holds. Omitted if the connection does not hold any locks.

status : locks_waiting: optional string

Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection is currently waiting to acquire. Omitted if the connection is not waiting for any locks.

status : locks_lost: optional string

Space-separated list of the names of OVSDB locks that the connection has had stolen by another OVSDB client. Omitted if no locks have been stolen from this connection.

status : n_connections: optional string, containing an integer, at least 2

When target specifies a connection method that listens for inbound connections (e.g. ptcp: or pssl:) and more than one connection is actually active, the value is the number of active connections. Otherwise, this key-value pair is omitted.

status : bound_port: optional string, containing an integer

When target is ptcp: or pssl:, this is the TCP port on which the OVSDB server is listening. (This is particularly useful when target specifies a port of 0, allowing the kernel to choose any available port.)

The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of this document.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

other_config: map of string-string pairs

Summary:¶

records

map of string-string pairs

external_ids

map of string-string pairs

Details:¶

records: map of string-string pairs

Key-value pair of DNS records with DNS query name as the key and value as a string of IP address(es) separated by comma or space.

Example: "vm1.ovn.org" = "10.0.0.4 aef0::4"

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.

Summary:¶

private_key

string

certificate

string

ca_cert

string

bootstrap_ca_cert

boolean

ssl_protocols

string

ssl_ciphers

string

Common Columns:

Details:¶

private_key: string

Name of a PEM file containing the private key used as the switch’s identity for SSL connections to the controller.

certificate: string

Name of a PEM file containing a certificate, signed by the certificate authority (CA) used by the controller and manager, that certifies the switch’s private key, identifying a trustworthy switch.

ca_cert: string

Name of a PEM file containing the CA certificate used to verify that the switch is connected to a trustworthy controller.

bootstrap_ca_cert: boolean

If set to true, then Open vSwitch will attempt to obtain the CA certificate from the controller on its first SSL connection and save it to the named PEM file. If it is successful, it will immediately drop the connection and reconnect, and from then on all SSL connections must be authenticated by a certificate signed by the CA certificate thus obtained. This option exposes the SSL connection to a man-in-the-middle attack obtaining the initial CA certificate. It may still be useful for bootstrapping.

ssl_protocols: string

List of SSL protocols to be enabled for SSL connections. The default when this option is omitted is TLSv1,TLSv1.1,TLSv1.2.

ssl_ciphers: string

List of ciphers (in OpenSSL cipher string format) to be supported for SSL connections. The default when this option is omitted is HIGH:!aNULL:!MD5.

The overall purpose of these columns is described under Common Columns at the beginning of this document.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

Summary:¶

name

string (must be unique within table)

chassis_name

string

priority

integer, in range 0 to 32,767

options

map of string-string pairs

Common Columns:

Details:¶

name: string (must be unique within table)

Name of the Gateway_Chassis.

A suggested, but not required naming convention is ${port_name}_${chassis_name}.

chassis_name: string

Name of the chassis that we want to redirect traffic through for the associated logical router port. The value must match the name column of the Chassis table in the OVN_Southbound database.

priority: integer, in range 0 to 32,767

This is the priority of a chassis among all Gateway_Chassis belonging to the same logical router port.

options: map of string-string pairs

Reserved for future use.

external_ids: map of string-string pairs

See External IDs at the beginning of this document.