NAME¶
ovs-ofctl - administer OpenFlow switches
SYNOPSIS¶
ovs-ofctl [
options]
command [
switch]
[
args...]
DESCRIPTION¶
The
ovs-ofctl program is a command line tool for monitoring and
administering OpenFlow switches. It can also show the current state of an
OpenFlow switch, including features, configuration, and table entries. It
should work with any OpenFlow switch, not just Open vSwitch.
OpenFlow Switch Management Commands¶
These commands allow
ovs-ofctl to monitor and administer an OpenFlow
switch. It is able to show the current state of a switch, including features,
configuration, and table entries.
Most of these commands take an argument that specifies the method for connecting
to an OpenFlow switch. The following connection methods are supported:
- ssl:ip[:port]
-
- tcp:ip[:port]
- The specified port on the host at the given ip, which must
be expressed as an IP address (not a DNS name) in IPv4 or IPv6 address
format. Wrap IPv6 addresses in square brackets, e.g.
tcp:[::1]:6633. For ssl, the --private-key,
--certificate, and --ca-cert options are mandatory.
- If port is not specified, it currently defaults to 6633. In the
future, the default will change to 6653, which is the IANA-defined
value.
- unix:file
- On POSIX, a Unix domain server socket named file.
- On Windows, a localhost TCP port written in file.
- file
- This is short for unix:file, as long as file does not
contain a colon.
- bridge
- This is short for
unix:/var/run/openvswitch/bridge.mgmt, as long as
bridge does not contain a colon.
- [type@]dp
- Attempts to look up the bridge associated with dp and open as
above. If type is given, it specifies the datapath provider of
dp, otherwise the default provider system is assumed.
- show switch
- Prints to the console information on switch, including information
on its flow tables and ports.
- dump-tables switch
- Prints to the console statistics for each of the flow tables used by
switch.
- dump-table-features switch
- Prints to the console features for each of the flow tables used by
switch.
- dump-ports switch [netdev]
- Prints to the console statistics for network devices associated with
switch. If netdev is specified, only the statistics
associated with that device will be printed. netdev can be an
OpenFlow assigned port number or device name, e.g. eth0.
- dump-ports-desc switch [port]
- Prints to the console detailed information about network devices
associated with switch. To dump only a specific port, specify its
number as port. Otherwise, if port is omitted, or if it is
specified as ANY, then all ports are printed. This is a subset of
the information provided by the show command.
- If the connection to switch negotiates OpenFlow 1.0, 1.2, or 1.2,
this command uses an OpenFlow extension only implemented in Open vSwitch
(version 1.7 and later).
- Only OpenFlow 1.5 and later support dumping a specific port. Earlier
versions of OpenFlow always dump all ports.
- mod-port switch port action
- Modify characteristics of port port in switch. port
may be an OpenFlow port number or name or the keyword LOCAL (the
preferred way to refer to the OpenFlow local port). The action may
be any one of the following:
- up
-
- down
- Enable or disable the interface. This is equivalent to ifconfig
up or ifconfig down on a Unix system.
- stp
-
- no-stp
- Enable or disable 802.1D spanning tree protocol (STP) on the interface.
OpenFlow implementations that don't support STP will refuse to enable
it.
- receive
-
- no-receive
-
- receive-stp
-
- no-receive-stp
- Enable or disable OpenFlow processing of packets received on this
interface. When packet processing is disabled, packets will be dropped
instead of being processed through the OpenFlow table. The receive
or no-receive setting applies to all packets except 802.1D spanning
tree packets, which are separately controlled by receive-stp or
no-receive-stp.
- forward
-
- no-forward
- Allow or disallow forwarding of traffic to this interface. By default,
forwarding is enabled.
- flood
-
- no-flood
- Controls whether an OpenFlow flood action will send traffic out
this interface. By default, flooding is enabled. Disabling flooding is
primarily useful to prevent loops when a spanning tree protocol is not in
use.
- packet-in
-
- no-packet-in
- Controls whether packets received on this interface that do not match a
flow table entry generate a ``packet in'' message to the OpenFlow
controller. By default, ``packet in'' messages are enabled.
- The show command displays (among other information) the
configuration that mod-port changes.
- get-frags switch
- Prints switch's fragment handling mode. See set-frags,
below, for a description of each fragment handling mode.
- The show command also prints the fragment handling mode among its
other output.
- set-frags switch frag_mode
- Configures switch's treatment of IPv4 and IPv6 fragments. The
choices for frag_mode are:
- normal
- Fragments pass through the flow table like non-fragmented packets. The TCP
ports, UDP ports, and ICMP type and code fields are always set to 0, even
for fragments where that information would otherwise be available
(fragments with offset 0). This is the default fragment handling mode for
an OpenFlow switch.
- drop
- Fragments are dropped without passing through the flow table.
- reassemble
- The switch reassembles fragments into full IP packets before passing them
through the flow table. Open vSwitch does not implement this fragment
handling mode.
- nx-match
- Fragments pass through the flow table like non-fragmented packets. The TCP
ports, UDP ports, and ICMP type and code fields are available for matching
for fragments with offset 0, and set to 0 in fragments with nonzero
offset. This mode is a Nicira extension.
- See the description of ip_frag, below, for a way to match on
whether a packet is a fragment and on its fragment offset.
- dump-flows switch [flows]
- Prints to the console all flow entries in switch's tables that
match flows. If flows is omitted, all flows in the switch
are retrieved. See Flow Syntax, below, for the syntax of
flows. The output format is described in Table Entry
Output.
- By default, ovs-ofctl prints flow entries in the same order that
the switch sends them, which is unlikely to be intuitive or consistent.
See the description of --sort and --rsort, under
OPTIONS below, to influence the display order.
- dump-aggregate switch [flows]
- Prints to the console aggregate statistics for flows in switch's
tables that match flows. If flows is omitted, the statistics
are aggregated across all flows in the switch's flow tables. See Flow
Syntax, below, for the syntax of flows. The output format is
described in Table Entry Output.
- queue-stats switch [port [queue]]
- Prints to the console statistics for the specified queue on
port within switch. port can be an OpenFlow port
number or name, the keyword LOCAL (the preferred way to refer to
the OpenFlow local port), or the keyword ALL. Either of port
or queue or both may be omitted (or equivalently the keyword
ALL). If both are omitted, statistics are printed for all queues on
all ports. If only queue is omitted, then statistics are printed
for all queues on port; if only port is omitted, then
statistics are printed for queue on every port where it
exists.
OpenFlow 1.1+ Group Table Commands¶
The following commands work only with switches that support OpenFlow 1.1 or
later. Because support for OpenFlow 1.1 and later is still experimental in
Open vSwitch, it is necessary to explicitly enable these protocol versions in
ovs-ofctl (using
-O) and in the switch itself (with the
protocols column in the
Bridge table). For more information, see
``Q: What versions of OpenFlow does Open vSwitch support?'' in the Open
vSwitch FAQ.
- dump-groups switch [group]
- Prints group entries in switch's tables to console. To dump only a
specific group, specify its number as group. Otherwise, if
group is omitted, or if it is specified as ALL, then all
groups are printed. Each line of output is a group entry as described in
Group Syntax below.
- Only OpenFlow 1.5 and later support dumping a specific group. Earlier
versions of OpenFlow always dump all groups.
- dump-group-features switch
- Prints to the console the group features of the switch.
- dump-group-stats switch [groups]
- Prints to the console statistics for the specified groups in the
switch's tables. If groups is omitted then statistics
for all groups are printed. See Group Syntax, below, for the syntax
of groups.
- mod-table switch table_id
flow_miss_handling
- An OpenFlow 1.0 switch looks up each packet that arrives at the switch in
table 0, then in table 1 if there is no match in table 0, then in table 2,
and so on until the packet finds a match in some table. Finally, if no
match was found, the switch sends the packet to the controller
- OpenFlow 1.1 and later offer more flexibility. This command configures the
flow table miss handling configuration for table table_id in
switch. table_id may be an OpenFlow table number between 0
and 254, inclusive, or the keyword ALL to modify all tables.
flow_miss_handling may be any one of the following:
- drop
- Drop the packet.
- continue
- Continue to the next table in the pipeline. (This is how an OpenFlow 1.0
switch always handles packets that do not match any flow, in tables other
than the last one.)
- controller
- Send to controller. (This is how an OpenFlow 1.0 switch always handles
packets that do not match any flow in the last table.)
OpenFlow 1.3+ Switch Meter Table Commands¶
These commands manage the meter table in an OpenFlow switch. In each case,
meter specifies a meter entry in the format described in
Meter
Syntax, below.
OpenFlow 1.3 introduced support for meters, so these commands only work with
switches that support OpenFlow 1.3 or later. The caveats described for groups
in the previous section also apply to meters.
- add-meter switch meter
- Add a meter entry to switch's tables. The meter syntax is
described in section Meter Syntax, below.
- mod-meter switch meter
- Modify an existing meter.
- del-meters switch
-
- del-meter switch [meter]
- Delete entries from switch's meter table. meter can specify
a single meter with syntax meter=id, or all meters with
syntax meter=all.
- dump-meters switch
-
- dump-meter switch [meter]
- Print meter configuration. meter can specify a single meter with
syntax meter=id, or all meters with syntax
meter=all.
- meter-stats switch [meter]
- Print meter statistics. meter can specify a single meter with
syntax meter=id, or all meters with syntax
meter=all.
- meter-features switch
- Print meter features.
OpenFlow Switch Flow Table Commands¶
These commands manage the flow table in an OpenFlow switch. In each case,
flow specifies a flow entry in the format described in
Flow
Syntax, below, and
file is a text file that contains zero or more
flows in the same syntax, one per line.
- add-flow switch flow
-
- add-flow switch - < file
-
- add-flows switch file
- Add each flow entry to switch's tables.
- [--strict] mod-flows switch flow
-
- [--strict] mod-flows switch - <
file
- Modify the actions in entries from switch's tables that match the
specified flows. With --strict, wildcards are not treated as active
for matching purposes.
- del-flows switch
-
- [--strict] del-flows switch [flow]
-
- [--strict] del-flows switch - <
file
- Deletes entries from switch's flow table. With only a switch
argument, deletes all flows. Otherwise, deletes flow entries that match
the specified flows. With --strict, wildcards are not treated as
active for matching purposes.
- [--readd] replace-flows switch file
- Reads flow entries from file (or stdin if file is
-) and queries the flow table from switch. Then it fixes up
any differences, adding flows from flow that are missing on
switch, deleting flows from switch that are not in
file, and updating flows in switch whose actions, cookie, or
timeouts differ in file.
- With --readd, ovs-ofctl adds all the flows from file,
even those that exist with the same actions, cookie, and timeout in
switch. This resets all the flow packet and byte counters to 0,
which can be useful for debugging.
- diff-flows source1 source2
- Reads flow entries from source1 and source2 and prints the
differences. A flow that is in source1 but not in source2 is
printed preceded by a -, and a flow that is in source2 but
not in source1 is printed preceded by a +. If a flow exists
in both source1 and source2 with different actions, cookie,
or timeouts, then both versions are printed preceded by - and
+, respectively.
- source1 and source2 may each name a file or a switch. If a
name begins with / or ., then it is considered to be a file
name. A name that contains : is considered to be a switch.
Otherwise, it is a file if a file by that name exists, a switch if
not.
- For this command, an exit status of 0 means that no differences were
found, 1 means that an error occurred, and 2 means that some differences
were found.
- packet-out switch in_port actions packet...
- Connects to switch and instructs it to execute the OpenFlow
actions on each packet. For the purpose of executing the
actions, the packets are considered to have arrived on in_port,
which may be an OpenFlow port number or name (e.g. eth0), the
keyword LOCAL (the preferred way to refer to the OpenFlow ``local''
port), or the keyword NONE to indicate that the packet was
generated by the switch itself.
OpenFlow Switch Group Table Commands¶
These commands manage the group table in an OpenFlow switch. In each case,
group specifies a group entry in the format described in
Group
Syntax, below, and
file is a text file that contains zero or more
groups in the same syntax, one per line.
- add-group switch group
-
- add-group switch - < file
-
- add-groups switch file
- Add each group entry to switch's tables.
- mod-group switch group
-
- mod-group switch - < file
- Modify the action buckets in entries from switch's tables for each
group entry.
- del-groups switch
-
- del-groups switch [group]
-
- del-groups switch - < file
- Deletes entries from switch's group table. With only a
switch argument, deletes all groups. Otherwise, deletes the group
for each group entry.
OpenFlow Switch Monitoring Commands¶
- snoop switch
- Connects to switch and prints to the console all OpenFlow messages
received. Unlike other ovs-ofctl commands, if switch is the
name of a bridge, then the snoop command connects to a Unix domain
socket named /var/run/openvswitch/bridge.snoop.
ovs-vswitchd listens on such a socket for each bridge and sends to
it all of the OpenFlow messages sent to or received from its configured
OpenFlow controller. Thus, this command can be used to view OpenFlow
protocol activity between a switch and its controller.
- When a switch has more than one controller configured, only the traffic to
and from a single controller is output. If none of the controllers is
configured as a master or a slave (using a Nicira extension to OpenFlow
1.0 or 1.1, or a standard request in OpenFlow 1.2 or later), then a
controller is chosen arbitrarily among them. If there is a master
controller, it is chosen; otherwise, if there are any controllers that are
not masters or slaves, one is chosen arbitrarily; otherwise, a slave
controller is chosen arbitrarily. This choice is made once at connection
time and does not change as controllers reconfigure their roles.
- If a switch has no controller configured, or if the configured controller
is disconnected, no traffic is sent, so monitoring will not show any
traffic.
- monitor switch [miss-len] [invalid_ttl]
[watch:[ spec...]]
- Connects to switch and prints to the console all OpenFlow messages
received. Usually, switch should specify the name of a bridge in
the ovs-vswitchd database.
- If miss-len is provided, ovs-ofctl sends an OpenFlow ``set
configuration'' message at connection setup time that requests
miss-len bytes of each packet that misses the flow table. Open
vSwitch does not send these and other asynchronous messages to an
ovs-ofctl monitor client connection unless a nonzero value is
specified on this argument. (Thus, if miss-len is not specified,
very little traffic will ordinarily be printed.)
- If invalid_ttl is passed, ovs-ofctl sends an OpenFlow ``set
configuration'' message at connection setup time that requests
INVALID_TTL_TO_CONTROLLER, so that ovs-ofctl monitor can
receive ``packet-in'' messages when TTL reaches zero on dec_ttl
action.
- watch:[spec...] causes ovs-ofctl to send a
``monitor request'' Nicira extension message to the switch at connection
setup time. This message causes the switch to send information about flow
table changes as they occur. The following comma-separated spec
syntax is available:
- !initial
- Do not report the switch's initial flow table contents.
- !add
- Do not report newly added flows.
- !delete
- Do not report deleted flows.
- !modify
- Do not report modifications to existing flows.
- !own
- Abbreviate changes made to the flow table by ovs-ofctl's own
connection to the switch. (These could only occur using the
ofctl/send command described below under RUNTIME MANAGEMENT
COMMANDS.)
- !actions
- Do not report actions as part of flow updates.
- table=number
- Limits the monitoring to the table with the given number between 0
and 254. By default, all tables are monitored.
- out_port=port
- If set, only flows that output to port are monitored. The
port may be an OpenFlow port number or keyword (e.g.
LOCAL).
- field=value
- Monitors only flows that have field specified as the given
value. Any syntax valid for matching on dump-flows may be
used.
- This command may be useful for debugging switch or controller
implementations. With watch:, it is particularly useful for
observing how a controller updates flow tables.
OpenFlow Switch and Controller Commands¶
The following commands, like those in the previous section, may be applied to
OpenFlow switches, using any of the connection methods described in that
section. Unlike those commands, these may also be applied to OpenFlow
controllers.
- probe target
- Sends a single OpenFlow echo-request message to target and waits
for the response. With the -t or --timeout option, this
command can test whether an OpenFlow switch or controller is up and
running.
- ping target [n]
- Sends a series of 10 echo request packets to target and times each
reply. The echo request packets consist of an OpenFlow header plus
n bytes (default: 64) of randomly generated payload. This measures
the latency of individual requests.
- benchmark target n count
- Sends count echo request packets that each consist of an OpenFlow
header plus n bytes of payload and waits for each response. Reports
the total time required. This is a measure of the maximum bandwidth to
target for round-trips of n-byte messages.
Other Commands¶
- ofp-parse file
- Reads file (or stdin if file is -) as a series
of OpenFlow messages in the binary format used on an OpenFlow connection,
and prints them to the console. This can be useful for printing OpenFlow
messages captured from a TCP stream.
- ofp-parse-pcap file [port...]
- Reads file, which must be in the PCAP format used by network
capture tools such as tcpdump or wireshark, extracts all the
TCP streams for OpenFlow connections, and prints the OpenFlow messages in
those connections in human-readable format on stdout.
- OpenFlow connections are distinguished by TCP port number. Non-OpenFlow
packets are ignored. By default, data on TCP ports 6633 and 6653 are
considered to be OpenFlow. Specify one or more port arguments to
override the default.
- This command cannot usefully print SSL encrypted traffic. It does not
understand IPv6.
Flow Syntax¶
Some
ovs-ofctl commands accept an argument that describes a flow or
flows. Such flow descriptions comprise a series
field=value assignments, separated by commas or white
space. (Embedding spaces into a flow description normally requires quoting to
prevent the shell from breaking the description into multiple arguments.)
Flow descriptions should be in
normal form. This means that a flow may
only specify a value for an L3 field if it also specifies a particular L2
protocol, and that a flow may only specify an L4 field if it also specifies
particular L2 and L3 protocol types. For example, if the L2 protocol type
dl_type is wildcarded, then L3 fields
nw_src,
nw_dst, and
nw_proto must also be wildcarded. Similarly, if
dl_type or
nw_proto (the L3 protocol type) is wildcarded, so must be
tp_dst
and
tp_src, which are L4 fields.
ovs-ofctl will warn about flows
not in normal form.
The following field assignments describe how a flow matches a packet. If any of
these assignments is omitted from the flow syntax, the field is treated as a
wildcard; thus, if all of them are omitted, the resulting flow matches all
packets. The string
* may be specified to explicitly mark any of these
fields as a wildcard. (
* should be quoted to protect it from shell
expansion.)
- in_port=port
- Matches OpenFlow port port, which may be an OpenFlow port number or
keyword (e.g. LOCAL). ovs-ofctl show.
- (The resubmit action can search OpenFlow flow tables with arbitrary
in_port values, so flows that match port numbers that do not exist
from an OpenFlow perspective can still potentially be matched.)
- dl_vlan=vlan
- Matches IEEE 802.1q Virtual LAN tag vlan. Specify 0xffff as
vlan to match packets that are not tagged with a Virtual LAN;
otherwise, specify a number between 0 and 4095, inclusive, as the 12-bit
VLAN ID to match.
- dl_vlan_pcp=priority
- Matches IEEE 802.1q Priority Code Point (PCP) priority, which is
specified as a value between 0 and 7, inclusive. A higher value indicates
a higher frame priority level.
- dl_src=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
-
- dl_dst=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- Matches an Ethernet source (or destination) address specified as 6 pairs
of hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g.
00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0).
- dl_src=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
-
- dl_dst=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- Matches an Ethernet destination address specified as 6 pairs of
hexadecimal digits delimited by colons (e.g. 00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0),
with a wildcard mask following the slash. Open vSwitch 1.8 and later
support arbitrary masks for source and/or destination. Earlier versions
only support masking the destination with the following masks:
- 01:00:00:00:00:00
- Match only the multicast bit. Thus,
dl_dst=01:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00 matches all multicast
(including broadcast) Ethernet packets, and
dl_dst=00:00:00:00:00:00/01:00:00:00:00:00 matches all unicast
Ethernet packets.
- fe:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
- Match all bits except the multicast bit. This is probably not useful.
- ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
- Exact match (equivalent to omitting the mask).
- 00:00:00:00:00:00
- Wildcard all bits (equivalent to dl_dst=*.)
- dl_type=ethertype
- Matches Ethernet protocol type ethertype, which is specified as an
integer between 0 and 65535, inclusive, either in decimal or as a
hexadecimal number prefixed by 0x (e.g. 0x0806 to match ARP
packets).
- nw_src=ip[/netmask]
-
- nw_dst=ip[/netmask]
- When dl_type is 0x0800 (possibly via shorthand, e.g. ip or
tcp), matches IPv4 source (or destination) address ip, which
may be specified as an IP address or host name (e.g. 192.168.1.1 or
www.example.com). The optional netmask allows restricting a
match to an IPv4 address prefix. The netmask may be specified as a dotted
quad (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or as a CIDR block (e.g.
192.168.1.0/24). Open vSwitch 1.8 and later support arbitrary
dotted quad masks; earlier versions support only CIDR masks, that is, the
dotted quads that are equivalent to some CIDR block.
- When dl_type=0x0806 or arp is specified, matches the
ar_spa or ar_tpa field, respectively, in ARP packets for
IPv4 and Ethernet.
- When dl_type=0x8035 or rarp is specified, matches the
ar_spa or ar_tpa field, respectively, in RARP packets for
IPv4 and Ethernet.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800,
0x0806, or 0x8035, the values of nw_src and nw_dst are
ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
- nw_proto=proto
-
- ip_proto=proto
- When ip or dl_type=0x0800 is specified, matches IP protocol
type proto, which is specified as a decimal number between 0 and
255, inclusive (e.g. 1 to match ICMP packets or 6 to match TCP
packets).
- When ipv6 or dl_type=0x86dd is specified, matches IPv6
header type proto, which is specified as a decimal number between 0
and 255, inclusive (e.g. 58 to match ICMPv6 packets or 6 to match TCP).
The header type is the terminal header as described in the DESIGN
document.
- When arp or dl_type=0x0806 is specified, matches the lower 8
bits of the ARP opcode. ARP opcodes greater than 255 are treated as
0.
- When rarp or dl_type=0x8035 is specified, matches the lower
8 bits of the ARP opcode. ARP opcodes greater than 255 are treated as
0.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800,
0x0806, 0x8035 or 0x86dd, the value of nw_proto is ignored (see
Flow Syntax above).
- nw_tos=tos
- Matches IP ToS/DSCP or IPv6 traffic class field tos, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive. Note that the
two lower reserved bits are ignored for matching purposes.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or
0x86dd, the value of nw_tos is ignored (see Flow Syntax
above).
- ip_dscp=dscp
- Matches IP ToS/DSCP or IPv6 traffic class field dscp, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 63, inclusive.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or
0x86dd, the value of ip_dscp is ignored (see Flow Syntax
above).
- nw_ecn=ecn
-
- ip_ecn=ecn
- Matches ecn bits in IP ToS or IPv6 traffic class fields, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 3, inclusive.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or
0x86dd, the value of nw_ecn is ignored (see Flow Syntax
above).
- nw_ttl=ttl
- Matches IP TTL or IPv6 hop limit value ttl, which is specified as a
decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive.
- When dl_type is wildcarded or set to a value other than 0x0800 or
0x86dd, the value of nw_ttl is ignored (see Flow Syntax
above).
- tp_src=port
-
- tp_dst=port
- When dl_type and nw_proto specify TCP or UDP or SCTP,
tp_src and tp_dst match the UDP or TCP or SCTP source or
destination port port, respectively, which is specified as a
decimal number between 0 and 65535, inclusive (e.g. 80 to match packets
originating from a HTTP server).
- When dl_type and nw_proto take other values, the values of
these settings are ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
- tp_src=port/mask
-
- tp_dst=port/mask
- Bitwise match on TCP (or UDP or SCTP) source or destination port,
respectively. The port and mask are 16-bit numbers written
in decimal or in hexadecimal prefixed by 0x. Each 1-bit in
mask requires that the corresponding bit in port must match.
Each 0-bit in mask causes the corresponding bit to be ignored.
- Bitwise matches on transport ports are rarely useful in isolation, but a
group of them can be used to reduce the number of flows required to match
on a range of transport ports. For example, suppose that the goal is to
match TCP source ports 1000 to 1999, inclusive. One way is to insert 1000
flows, each of which matches on a single source port. Another way is to
look at the binary representations of 1000 and 1999, as follows:
01111101000
11111001111
and then to transform those into a series of bitwise matches that accomplish
the same results:
01111101xxx
0111111xxxx
10xxxxxxxxx
110xxxxxxxx
1110xxxxxxx
11110xxxxxx
1111100xxxx
which become the following when written in the syntax required by
ovs-ofctl:
tcp,tp_src=0x03e8/0xfff8
tcp,tp_src=0x03f0/0xfff0
tcp,tp_src=0x0400/0xfe00
tcp,tp_src=0x0600/0xff00
tcp,tp_src=0x0700/0xff80
tcp,tp_src=0x0780/0xffc0
tcp,tp_src=0x07c0/0xfff0
- Only Open vSwitch 1.6 and later supports bitwise matching on transport
ports.
- Like the exact-match forms of tp_src and tp_dst described
above, the bitwise match forms apply only when dl_type and
nw_proto specify TCP or UDP or SCTP.
- tcp_flags=flags/mask
-
- tcp_flags=[+flag...][-flag...]
- Bitwise match on TCP flags. The flags and mask are 16-bit
numbers written in decimal or in hexadecimal prefixed by 0x. Each
1-bit in mask requires that the corresponding bit in flags
must match. Each 0-bit in mask causes the corresponding bit to be
ignored.
- Alternatively, the flags can be specified by their symbolic names (listed
below), each preceded by either + for a flag that must be set, or
- for a flag that must be unset, without any other delimiters
between the flags. Flags not mentioned are wildcarded. For example,
tcp,tcp_flags=+syn-ack matches TCP SYNs that are not ACKs.
- TCP protocol currently defines 9 flag bits, and additional 3 bits are
reserved (must be transmitted as zero), see RFCs 793, 3168, and 3540. The
flag bits are, numbering from the least significant bit:
- 0: fin
- No more data from sender.
- 1: syn
- Synchronize sequence numbers.
- 2: rst
- Reset the connection.
- 3: psh
- Push function.
- 4: ack
- Acknowledgement field significant.
- 5: urg
- Urgent pointer field significant.
- 6: ece
- ECN Echo.
- 7: cwr
- Congestion Windows Reduced.
- 8: ns
- Nonce Sum.
- 9-11:
- Reserved.
- 12-15:
- Not matchable, must be zero.
- icmp_type=type
-
- icmp_code=code
- When dl_type and nw_proto specify ICMP or ICMPv6,
type matches the ICMP type and code matches the ICMP code.
Each is specified as a decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive.
- When dl_type and nw_proto take other values, the values of
these settings are ignored (see Flow Syntax above).
- table=number
- For flow dump commands, limits the flows dumped to those in the table with
the given number between 0 and 254. If not specified (or if 255 is
specified as number), then flows in all tables are dumped.
- For flow table modification commands, behavior varies based on the
OpenFlow version used to connect to the switch:
- OpenFlow 1.0
- OpenFlow 1.0 does not support table for modifying flows.
ovs-ofctl will exit with an error if table (other than
table=255) is specified for a switch that only supports OpenFlow
1.0.
- In OpenFlow 1.0, the switch chooses the table into which to insert a new
flow. The Open vSwitch software switch always chooses table 0. Other Open
vSwitch datapaths and other OpenFlow implementations may choose different
tables.
- The OpenFlow 1.0 behavior in Open vSwitch for modifying or removing flows
depends on whether --strict is used. Without --strict, the
command applies to matching flows in all tables. With --strict, the
command will operate on any single matching flow in any table; it will do
nothing if there are matches in more than one table. (The distinction
between these behaviors only matters if non-OpenFlow 1.0 commands were
also used, because OpenFlow 1.0 alone cannot add flows with the same
matching criteria to multiple tables.)
- OpenFlow 1.0 with table_id extension
- Open vSwitch implements an OpenFlow extension that allows the controller
to specify the table on which to operate. ovs-ofctl automatically
enables the extension when table is specified and OpenFlow 1.0 is
used. ovs-ofctl automatically detects whether the switch supports
the extension. As of this writing, this extension is only known to be
implemented by Open vSwitch.
- With this extension, ovs-ofctl operates on the requested table when
table is specified, and acts as described for OpenFlow 1.0 above
when no table is specified (or for table=255).
- OpenFlow 1.1
- OpenFlow 1.1 requires flow table modification commands to specify a table.
When table is not specified (or table=255 is specified),
ovs-ofctl defaults to table 0.
- OpenFlow 1.2 and later
- OpenFlow 1.2 and later allow flow deletion commands, but not other flow
table modification commands, to operate on all flow tables, with the
behavior described above for OpenFlow 1.0.
- metadata=value[/mask]
- Matches value either exactly or with optional mask in the
metadata field. value and mask are 64-bit integers, by
default in decimal (use a 0x prefix to specify hexadecimal).
Arbitrary mask values are allowed: a 1-bit in mask indicates
that the corresponding bit in value must match exactly, and a 0-bit
wildcards that bit. Matching on metadata was added in Open vSwitch
1.8.
The following shorthand notations are also available:
- ip
- Same as dl_type=0x0800.
- icmp
- Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=1.
- tcp
- Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=6.
- udp
- Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=17.
- sctp
- Same as dl_type=0x0800,nw_proto=132.
- arp
- Same as dl_type=0x0806.
- rarp
- Same as dl_type=0x8035.
The following field assignments require support for the NXM (Nicira Extended
Match) extension to OpenFlow. When one of these is specified,
ovs-ofctl
will automatically attempt to negotiate use of this extension. If the switch
does not support NXM, then
ovs-ofctl will report a fatal error.
- vlan_tci=tci[/mask]
- Matches modified VLAN TCI tci. If mask is omitted,
tci is the exact VLAN TCI to match; if mask is specified,
then a 1-bit in mask indicates that the corresponding bit in
tci must match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit. Both
tci and mask are 16-bit values that are decimal by default;
use a 0x prefix to specify them in hexadecimal.
- The value that vlan_tci matches against is 0 for a packet that has
no 802.1Q header. Otherwise, it is the TCI value from the 802.1Q header
with the CFI bit (with value 0x1000) forced to 1.
- Examples:
- vlan_tci=0
- Match only packets without an 802.1Q header.
- vlan_tci=0xf123
- Match packets tagged with priority 7 in VLAN 0x123.
- vlan_tci=0x1123/0x1fff
- Match packets tagged with VLAN 0x123 (and any priority).
- vlan_tci=0x5000/0xf000
- Match packets tagged with priority 2 (in any VLAN).
- vlan_tci=0/0xfff
- Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with VLAN 0 (and any
priority).
- vlan_tci=0x5000/0xe000
- Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with priority 2 (in any
VLAN).
- vlan_tci=0/0xefff
- Match packets with no 802.1Q header or tagged with VLAN 0 and priority
0.
- Some of these matching possibilities can also be achieved with
dl_vlan and dl_vlan_pcp.
- ip_frag=frag_type
- When dl_type specifies IP or IPv6, frag_type specifies what
kind of IP fragments or non-fragments to match. The following values of
frag_type are supported:
- no
- Matches only non-fragmented packets.
- yes
- Matches all fragments.
- first
- Matches only fragments with offset 0.
- later
- Matches only fragments with nonzero offset.
- not_later
- Matches non-fragmented packets and fragments with zero offset.
- The ip_frag match type is likely to be most useful in
nx-match mode. See the description of the set-frags command,
above, for more details.
- arp_spa=ip[/netmask]
-
- arp_tpa=ip[/netmask]
- When dl_type specifies either ARP or RARP, arp_spa and
arp_tpa match the source and target IPv4 address, respectively. An
address may be specified as an IP address or host name (e.g.
192.168.1.1 or www.example.com). The optional netmask
allows restricting a match to an IPv4 address prefix. The netmask may be
specified as a dotted quad (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or as a
CIDR block (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24).
- arp_sha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
-
- arp_tha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- When dl_type specifies either ARP or RARP, arp_sha and
arp_tha match the source and target hardware address, respectively.
An address is specified as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits delimited by
colons (e.g. 00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0).
- arp_sha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
-
- arp_tha=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx/xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- When dl_type specifies either ARP or RARP, arp_sha and
arp_tha match the source and target hardware address, respectively.
An address is specified as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits delimited by
colons (e.g. 00:0A:E4:25:6B:B0), with a wildcard mask following the
slash.
- ipv6_src=ipv6[/netmask]
-
- ipv6_dst=ipv6[/netmask]
- When dl_type is 0x86dd (possibly via shorthand, e.g., ipv6
or tcp6), matches IPv6 source (or destination) address ipv6,
which may be specified as defined in RFC 2373. The preferred format is
x
:x:x:x:x:x:x:x,
where x are the hexadecimal values of the eight 16-bit pieces of
the address. A single instance of :: may be used to indicate
multiple groups of 16-bits of zeros. The optional netmask allows
restricting a match to an IPv6 address prefix. A netmask is specified as
an IPv6 address (e.g. 2001:db8:3c4d:1::/ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::) or a
CIDR block (e.g. 2001:db8:3c4d:1::/64). Open vSwitch 1.8 and later
support arbitrary masks; earlier versions support only CIDR masks, that
is, CIDR block and IPv6 addresses that are equivalent to CIDR blocks.
- ipv6_label=label
- When dl_type is 0x86dd (possibly via shorthand, e.g., ipv6
or tcp6), matches IPv6 flow label label.
- nd_target=ipv6[/netmask]
- When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6
Neighbor Discovery (ICMPv6 type 135 or 136), matches the target address
ipv6. ipv6 is in the same format described earlier for the
ipv6_src and ipv6_dst fields.
- nd_sll=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6
Neighbor Solicitation (ICMPv6 type 135), matches the source link-layer
address option. An address is specified as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits
delimited by colons.
- nd_tll=xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
- When dl_type, nw_proto, and icmp_type specify IPv6
Neighbor Advertisement (ICMPv6 type 136), matches the target link-layer
address option. An address is specified as 6 pairs of hexadecimal digits
delimited by colons.
- mpls_bos=bos
- When dl_type is 0x8847 or 0x8848 (possibly via shorthand e.g.,
mpls or mplsm), matches the bottom-of-stack bit of the
outer-most MPLS label stack entry. Valid values are 0 and 1.
- If 1 then for a packet with a well-formed MPLS label stack the
bottom-of-stack bit indicates that the outer label stack entry is also the
inner-most label stack entry and thus that is that there is only one label
stack entry present. Conversely, if 0 then for a packet with a well-formed
MPLS label stack the bottom-of-stack bit indicates that the outer label
stack entry is not the inner-most label stack entry and thus there is more
than one label stack entry present.
- mpls_label=label
- When dl_type is 0x8847 or 0x8848 (possibly via shorthand e.g.,
mpls or mplsm), matches the label of the outer MPLS label
stack entry. The label is a 20-bit value that is decimal by default; use a
0x prefix to specify them in hexadecimal.
- mpls_tc=tc
- When dl_type is 0x8847 or 0x8848 (possibly via shorthand e.g.,
mpls or mplsm), matches the traffic-class of the outer MPLS
label stack entry. Valid values are between 0 (lowest) and 7
(highest).
- tun_id=tunnel-id[/mask]
-
- tunnel_id=tunnel-id[/mask]
- Matches tunnel identifier tunnel-id. Only packets that arrive over
a tunnel that carries a key (e.g. GRE with the RFC 2890 key extension and
a nonzero key value) will have a nonzero tunnel ID. If mask is
omitted, tunnel-id is the exact tunnel ID to match; if mask
is specified, then a 1-bit in mask indicates that the corresponding
bit in tunnel-id must match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that
bit.
- tun_src=ip[/netmask]
-
- tun_dst=ip[/netmask]
- Matches tunnel IPv4 source (or destination) address ip. Only
packets that arrive over a tunnel will have nonzero tunnel addresses. The
address may be specified as an IP address or host name (e.g.
192.168.1.1 or www.example.com). The optional netmask
allows restricting a match to a masked IPv4 address. The netmask may be
specified as a dotted quad (e.g. 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0) or as a
CIDR block (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24).
- regidx=value[/mask]
- Matches value either exactly or with optional mask in
register number idx. The valid range of idx depends on the
switch. value and mask are 32-bit integers, by default in
decimal (use a 0x prefix to specify hexadecimal). Arbitrary
mask values are allowed: a 1-bit in mask indicates that the
corresponding bit in value must match exactly, and a 0-bit
wildcards that bit.
- When a packet enters an OpenFlow switch, all of the registers are set to
0. Only explicit Nicira extension actions change register values.
- pkt_mark=value[/mask]
- Matches packet metadata mark value either exactly or with optional
mask. The mark is associated data that may be passed into other
system components in order to facilitate interaction between subsystems.
On Linux this corresponds to the skb mark but the exact implementation is
platform-dependent.
Defining IPv6 flows (those with
dl_type equal to 0x86dd) requires support
for NXM. The following shorthand notations are available for IPv6-related
flows:
- ipv6
- Same as dl_type=0x86dd.
- tcp6
- Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=6.
- udp6
- Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=17.
- sctp6
- Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=132.
- icmp6
- Same as dl_type=0x86dd,nw_proto=58.
Finally, field assignments to
duration,
n_packets, or
n_bytes are ignored to allow output from the
dump-flows command
to be used as input for other commands that parse flows.
The
add-flow,
add-flows, and
mod-flows commands require an
additional field, which must be the final field specified:
- actions=[action][,action...]
- Specifies a comma-separated list of actions to take on a packet when the
flow entry matches. If no action is specified, then packets
matching the flow are dropped. The following forms of action are
supported:
- port
-
- output:port
- Outputs the packet to OpenFlow port number port. If port is
the packet's input port, the packet is not output.
- output:src[start..end]
- Outputs the packet to the OpenFlow port number read from src, which
must be an NXM field as described above. For example,
output:NXM_NX_REG0[16..31] outputs to the OpenFlow port number
written in the upper half of register 0. If the port number is the
packet's input port, the packet is not output.
- This form of output was added in Open vSwitch 1.3.0. This form of
output uses an OpenFlow extension that is not supported by standard
OpenFlow switches.
- normal
- Subjects the packet to the device's normal L2/L3 processing. (This action
is not implemented by all OpenFlow switches.)
- flood
- Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
which it was received and any ports on which flooding is disabled
(typically, these would be ports disabled by the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree
protocol).
- all
- Outputs the packet on all switch physical ports other than the port on
which it was received.
- local
- Outputs the packet on the ``local port,'' which corresponds to the network
device that has the same name as the bridge.
- in_port
- Outputs the packet on the port from which it was received.
- controller(key=value...)
- Sends the packet to the OpenFlow controller as a ``packet in'' message.
The supported key-value pairs are:
- max_len=nbytes
- Limit to nbytes the number of bytes of the packet to send to the
controller. By default the entire packet is sent.
- reason=reason
- Specify reason as the reason for sending the message in the
``packet in'' message. The supported reasons are action (the
default), no_match, and invalid_ttl.
- id=controller-id
- Specify controller-id, a 16-bit integer, as the connection ID of
the OpenFlow controller or controllers to which the ``packet in'' message
should be sent. The default is zero. Zero is also the default connection
ID for each controller connection, and a given controller connection will
only have a nonzero connection ID if its controller uses the
NXT_SET_CONTROLLER_ID Nicira extension to OpenFlow.
- Any reason other than action and any nonzero
controller-id uses a Nicira vendor extension that, as of this
writing, is only known to be implemented by Open vSwitch (version 1.6 or
later).
- controller
-
- controller[:nbytes]
- Shorthand for controller() or
controller(max_len=nbytes ), respectively.
- enqueue(port,queue)
- Enqueues the packet on the specified queue within port port,
which must be an OpenFlow port number or keyword (e.g. LOCAL). The
number of supported queues depends on the switch; some OpenFlow
implementations do not support queuing at all.
- drop
- Discards the packet, so no further processing or forwarding takes place.
If a drop action is used, no other actions may be specified.
- mod_vlan_vid:vlan_vid
- Modifies the VLAN id on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified as
necessary to match the value specified. If the VLAN tag is added, a
priority of zero is used (see the mod_vlan_pcp action to set
this).
- mod_vlan_pcp:vlan_pcp
- Modifies the VLAN priority on a packet. The VLAN tag is added or modified
as necessary to match the value specified. Valid values are between 0
(lowest) and 7 (highest). If the VLAN tag is added, a vid of zero is used
(see the mod_vlan_vid action to set this).
- strip_vlan
- Strips the VLAN tag from a packet if it is present.
- push_vlan:ethertype
- Push a new VLAN tag onto the packet. Ethertype is used as the the
Ethertype for the tag. Only ethertype 0x8100 should be used. (0x88a8 which
the spec allows isn't supported at the moment.) A priority of zero and the
tag of zero are used for the new tag.
- push_mpls:ethertype
- Changes the packet's Ethertype to ethertype, which must be either
0x8847 or 0x8848, and pushes an MPLS LSE.
- If the packet does not already contain any MPLS labels then an initial
label stack entry is pushed. The label stack entry's label is 2 if the
packet contains IPv6 and 0 otherwise, its default traffic control value is
the low 3 bits of the packet's DSCP value (0 if the packet is not IP), and
its TTL is copied from the IP TTL (64 if the packet is not IP).
- If the packet does already contain an MPLS label, pushes a new outermost
label as a copy of the existing outermost label.
- A limitation of the implementation is that processing of actions will stop
if push_mpls follows another push_mpls unless there is a
pop_mpls in between.
- pop_mpls:ethertype
- Strips the outermost MPLS label stack entry. Currently the implementation
restricts ethertype to a non-MPLS Ethertype and thus
pop_mpls should only be applied to packets with an MPLS label stack
depth of one. A further limitation is that processing of actions will stop
if pop_mpls follows another pop_mpls unless there is a
push_mpls in between.
- mod_dl_src:mac
- Sets the source Ethernet address to mac.
- mod_dl_dst:mac
- Sets the destination Ethernet address to mac.
- mod_nw_src:ip
- Sets the IPv4 source address to ip.
- mod_nw_dst:ip
- Sets the IPv4 destination address to ip.
- mod_tp_src:port
- Sets the TCP or UDP or SCTP source port to port.
- mod_tp_dst:port
- Sets the TCP or UDP or SCTP destination port to port.
- mod_nw_tos:tos
- Sets the DSCP bits in the IPv4 ToS/DSCP or IPv6 traffic class field to
tos, which must be a multiple of 4 between 0 and 255. This action
does not modify the two least significant bits of the ToS field (the ECN
bits).
- mod_nw_ecn:ecn
- Sets the ECN bits in the IPv4 ToS or IPv6 traffic class field to
ecn, which must be a value between 0 and 3, inclusive. This action
does not modify the six most significant bits of the field (the DSCP
bits).
- Requires OpenFlow 1.1 or later.
- mod_nw_ttl:ttl
- Sets the IPv4 TTL or IPv6 hop limit field to ttl, which is
specified as a decimal number between 0 and 255, inclusive. Switch
behavior when setting ttl to zero is not well specified,
though.
- Requires OpenFlow 1.1 or later.
- The following actions are Nicira vendor extensions that, as of this
writing, are only known to be implemented by Open vSwitch:
- resubmit:port
-
- resubmit([port],[table])
- Re-searches this OpenFlow flow table (or the table whose number is
specified by table) with the in_port field replaced by
port (if port is specified) and executes the actions found,
if any, in addition to any other actions in this flow entry.
- Recursive resubmit actions are obeyed up to an
implementation-defined maximum depth. Open vSwitch 1.0.1 and earlier did
not support recursion; Open vSwitch before 1.2.90 did not support
table.
- set_tunnel:id
-
- set_tunnel64:id
- If outputting to a port that encapsulates the packet in a tunnel and
supports an identifier (such as GRE), sets the identifier to id. If
the set_tunnel form is used and id fits in 32 bits, then
this uses an action extension that is supported by Open vSwitch 1.0 and
later. Otherwise, if id is a 64-bit value, it requires Open vSwitch
1.1 or later.
- set_queue:queue
- Sets the queue that should be used to queue when packets are
output. The number of supported queues depends on the switch; some
OpenFlow implementations do not support queuing at all.
- pop_queue
- Restores the queue to the value it was before any set_queue actions
were applied.
- dec_ttl
-
- dec_ttl[(id1,id2)]
- Decrement TTL of IPv4 packet or hop limit of IPv6 packet. If the TTL or
hop limit is initially zero or decrementing would make it so, no decrement
occurs, as packets reaching TTL zero must be rejected. Instead, a
``packet-in'' message with reason code OFPR_INVALID_TTL is sent to
each connected controller that has enabled receiving them, if any.
Processing the current set of actions then stops. However, if the current
set of actions was reached through ``resubmit'' then remaining actions in
outer levels resume processing. This action also optionally supports the
ability to specify a list of valid controller ids. Each of controllers in
the list will receive the ``packet_in'' message only if they have
registered to receive the invalid ttl packets. If controller ids are not
specified, the ``packet_in'' message will be sent only to the controllers
having controller id zero which have registered for the invalid ttl
packets.
- set_mpls_label:label
- Set the label of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet.
label should be a 20-bit value that is decimal by default; use a
0x prefix to specify them in hexadecimal.
- set_mpls_tc:tc
- Set the traffic-class of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet.
tc should be a in the range 0 to 7 inclusive.
- set_mpls_ttl:ttl
- Set the TTL of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet. ttl
should be in the range 0 to 255 inclusive.
- dec_mpls_ttl
- Decrement TTL of the outer MPLS label stack entry of a packet. If the TTL
is initially zero or decrementing would make it so, no decrement occurs.
Instead, a ``packet-in'' message with reason code OFPR_INVALID_TTL
is sent to the main controller (id zero), if it has enabled receiving
them. Processing the current set of actions then stops. However, if the
current set of actions was reached through ``resubmit'' then remaining
actions in outer levels resume processing.
- note:[hh]...
- Does nothing at all. Any number of bytes represented as hex digits
hh may be included. Pairs of hex digits may be separated by periods
for readability. The note action's format doesn't include an exact
length for its payload, so the provided bytes will be padded on the right
by enough bytes with value 0 to make the total number 6 more than a
multiple of 8.
- move:src[start..end]->dst[start..end]
- Copies the named bits from field src to field dst.
src and dst must be NXM field names as defined in
nicira-ext.h, e.g. NXM_OF_UDP_SRC or NXM_NX_REG0.
Each start and end pair, which are inclusive, must specify
the same number of bits and must fit within its respective field.
Shorthands for [start..end] exist: use
[bit] to specify a single bit or [] to specify
an entire field.
- Examples: move:NXM_NX_REG0[0..5]->NXM_NX_REG1[26..31] copies the
six bits numbered 0 through 5, inclusive, in register 0 into bits 26
through 31, inclusive;
move:NXM_NX_REG0[0..15]->NXM_OF_VLAN_TCI[] copies the least
significant 16 bits of register 0 into the VLAN TCI field.
- load:value->dst[start..end]
- Writes value to bits start through end, inclusive, in
field dst.
- Example: load:55->NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] loads value 55 (bit pattern
110111) into bits 0 through 5, inclusive, in register 2.
- push:src[start..end]
- Pushes start to end bits inclusive, in fields on top of the
stack.
- Example: push:NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] push the value stored in register 2
bits 0 through 5, inclusive, on to the internal stack.
- pop:dst[start..end]
- Pops from the top of the stack, retrieves the start to end
bits inclusive, from the value popped and store them into the
corresponding bits in dst.
- Example: pop:NXM_NX_REG2[0..5] pops the value from top of the
stack. Set register 2 bits 0 through 5, inclusive, based on bits 0 through
5 from the value just popped.
- set_field:value->dst
- Writes the literal value into the field dst, which should be
specified as a name used for matching. (This is similar to load but
more closely matches the set-field action defined in OpenFlow 1.2 and
above.)
- Example: set_field:00:11:22:33:44:55->eth_src.
- multipath(fields, basis,
algorithm , n_links, arg,
dst [start..end])
- Hashes fields using basis as a universal hash parameter,
then the applies multipath link selection algorithm (with parameter
arg) to choose one of n_links output links numbered 0
through n_links minus 1, and stores the link into
dst[ start..end], which must be
an NXM field as described above.
- Currently, fields must be either eth_src or
symmetric_l4 and algorithm must be one of modulo_n,
hash_threshold, hrw, and iter_hash. Only the
iter_hash algorithm uses arg.
- Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
- bundle(fields, basis,
algorithm, slave_type, slaves:[s1,
s2, ...])
- Hashes fields using basis as a universal hash parameter,
then applies the bundle link selection algorithm to choose one of
the listed slaves represented as slave_type. Currently the only
supported slave_type is ofport. Thus, each s1 through
sN should be an OpenFlow port number. Outputs to the selected
slave.
- Currently, fields must be either eth_src or
symmetric_l4 and algorithm must be one of hrw and
active_backup.
- Example: bundle(eth_src,0,hrw,ofport,slaves:4,8) uses an Ethernet
source hash with basis 0, to select between OpenFlow ports 4 and 8 using
the Highest Random Weight algorithm.
- Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
- bundle_load(fields, basis,
algorithm , slave_type,
dst[start..end],
slaves:[s1 , s2, ...])
- Has the same behavior as the bundle action, with one exception.
Instead of outputting to the selected slave, it writes its selection to
dst[start..end], which must be
an NXM field as described above.
- Example: bundle_load(eth_src, 0, hrw, ofport, NXM_NX_REG0[],
slaves:4, 8) uses an Ethernet source hash with basis 0, to select
between OpenFlow ports 4 and 8 using the Highest Random Weight algorithm,
and writes the selection to NXM_NX_REG0[].
- Refer to nicira-ext.h for more details.
- learn(argument[,argument]...)
- This action adds or modifies a flow in an OpenFlow table, similar to
ovs-ofctl --strict mod-flows. The arguments specify the flow's
match fields, actions, and other properties, as follows. At least one
match criterion and one action argument should ordinarily be
specified.
- idle_timeout=seconds
-
- hard_timeout=seconds
-
- priority=value
- These key-value pairs have the same meaning as in the usual
ovs-ofctl flow syntax.
- fin_idle_timeout=seconds
-
- fin_hard_timeout=seconds
- Adds a fin_timeout action with the specified arguments to the new
flow. This feature was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.90.
- table=number
- The table in which the new flow should be inserted. Specify a decimal
number between 0 and 254. The default, if table is unspecified, is
table 1.
- field=value
-
- field[start..end]=src[start..end]
-
- field[start..end]
- Adds a match criterion to the new flow.
- The first form specifies that field must match the literal
value, e.g. dl_type=0x0800. All of the fields and values for
ovs-ofctl flow syntax are available with their usual meanings.
- The second form specifies that
field[start..end] in the new
flow must match src[start..end]
taken from the flow currently being processed.
- The third form is a shorthand for the second form. It specifies that
field [start..end] in the new
flow must match
field[start..end] taken from the
flow currently being processed.
- load:value->dst[start..end]
-
- load:src[start..end]->dst[start..end]
- Adds a load action to the new flow.
- The first form loads the literal value into bits start
through end, inclusive, in field dst. Its syntax is the same
as the load action described earlier in this section.
- The second form loads
src[start..end], a value from
the flow currently being processed, into bits start through
end, inclusive, in field dst.
- output:field[start..end]
- Add an output action to the new flow's actions, that outputs to the
OpenFlow port taken from
field[start..end ], which must
be an NXM field as described above.
- For best performance, segregate learned flows into a table (using
table= number) that is not used for any other flows except
possibly for a lowest-priority ``catch-all'' flow, that is, a flow with no
match criteria. (This is why the default table is 1, to keep the
learned flows separate from the primary flow table 0.)
- apply_actions([action][,action...])
- Applies the specific action(s) immediately. The syntax of actions are same
to actions= field.
- clear_actions
- Clears all the actions in the action set immediately.
- write_actions([action][,action...])
- Add the specific actions to the action set. The syntax of actions
is the same as in the actions= field. The action set is carried
between flow tables and then executed at the end of the pipeline.
- The actions in the action set are applied in the following order, as
required by the OpenFlow specification, regardless of the order in which
they were added to the action set. Except as specified otherwise below,
the action set only holds at most a single action of each type. When more
than one action of a single type is written to the action set, the one
written later replaces the earlier action:
- 1.
- strip_vlan
-
- pop_mpls
- 2.
- push_mpls
- 3.
- push_vlan
- 4.
- dec_ttl
-
- dec_mpls_ttl
- 5.
- load
-
- mod_dl_dst
-
- mod_dl_src
-
- mod_nw_dst
-
- mod_nw_src
-
- mod_nw_tos
-
- mod_nw_ecn
-
- mod_nw_ttl
-
- mod_tp_dst
-
- mod_tp_src
-
- mod_vlan_pcp
-
- mod_vlan_vid
-
- set_field
-
- set_tunnel
-
- set_tunnel64
-
- The action set can contain any number of these actions, with cumulative
effect. That is, when multiple actions modify the same part of a field,
the later modification takes effect, and when they modify different parts
of a field (or different fields), then both modifications are
applied.
- 6.
- set_queue
- 7.
- group
-
- output
-
- If both actions are present, then group is executed and
output is ignored, regardless of the order in which they were added
to the action set. (If neither action is present, the action set has no
real effect, because the modified packet is not sent anywhere and thus the
modifications are not visible.)
- Only the actions listed above may be written to the action set.
- write_metadata:value[/mask]
- Updates the metadata field for the flow. If mask is omitted, the
metadata field is set exactly to value; if mask is
specified, then a 1-bit in mask indicates that the corresponding
bit in the metadata field will be replaced with the corresponding bit from
value. Both value and mask are 64-bit values that are
decimal by default; use a 0x prefix to specify them in
hexadecimal.
- meter:meter_id
- Apply the meter_id before any other actions. If a meter band rate
is exceeded, the packet may be dropped, or modified, depending on the
meter band type. See the description of the Meter Table Commands,
above, for more details.
- goto_table:table
- Indicates the next table in the process pipeline.
- fin_timeout(argument[,argument])
- This action changes the idle timeout or hard timeout, or both, of this
OpenFlow rule when the rule matches a TCP packet with the FIN or RST flag.
When such a packet is observed, the action reduces the rule's timeouts to
those specified on the action. If the rule's existing timeout is already
shorter than the one that the action specifies, then that timeout is
unaffected.
- argument takes the following forms:
- idle_timeout=seconds
- Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of
inactivity.
- hard_timeout=seconds
- Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds, regardless of
activity. ( seconds specifies time since the flow's creation, not
since the receipt of the FIN or RST.)
- This action was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.90.
- sample(argument[,argument]...)
- Samples packets and sends one sample for every sampled packet.
- argument takes the following forms:
- probability=packets
- The number of sampled packets out of 65535. Must be greater or equal to
1.
- collector_set_id=id
- The unsigned 32-bit integer identifier of the set of sample collectors to
send sampled packets to. Defaults to 0.
- obs_domain_id=id
- When sending samples to IPFIX collectors, the unsigned 32-bit integer
Observation Domain ID sent in every IPFIX flow record. Defaults to 0.
- obs_point_id=id
- When sending samples to IPFIX collectors, the unsigned 32-bit integer
Observation Point ID sent in every IPFIX flow record. Defaults to 0.
- Refer to ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(8) for more details on configuring
sample collector sets.
- This action was added in Open vSwitch 1.10.90.
- exit
- This action causes Open vSwitch to immediately halt execution of further
actions. Those actions which have already been executed are unaffected.
Any further actions, including those which may be in other tables, or
different levels of the resubmit call stack, are ignored. Actions
in the action set is still executed (specify clear_actions before
exit to discard them).
An opaque identifier called a cookie can be used as a handle to identify a set
of flows:
- cookie=value
- A cookie can be associated with a flow using the add-flow,
add-flows, and mod-flows commands. value can be any
64-bit number and need not be unique among flows. If this field is
omitted, a default cookie value of 0 is used.
- cookie=value/mask
- When using NXM, the cookie can be used as a handle for querying,
modifying, and deleting flows. value and mask may be
supplied for the del-flows, mod-flows, dump-flows,
and dump-aggregate commands to limit matching cookies. A 1-bit in
mask indicates that the corresponding bit in cookie must
match exactly, and a 0-bit wildcards that bit. A mask of -1 may be used to
exactly match a cookie.
- The mod-flows command can update the cookies of flows that match a
cookie by specifying the cookie field twice (once with a mask for
matching and once without to indicate the new value):
- ovs-ofctl mod-flows br0 cookie=1,actions=normal
- Change all flows' cookies to 1 and change their actions to
normal.
- ovs-ofctl mod-flows br0 cookie=1/-1,cookie=2,actions=normal
- Update cookies with a value of 1 to 2 and change their actions to
normal.
- The ability to match on cookies was added in Open vSwitch 1.5.0.
The following additional field sets the priority for flows added by the
add-flow and
add-flows commands. For
mod-flows and
del-flows when
--strict is specified, priority must match along
with the rest of the flow specification. For
mod-flows without
--strict, priority is only significant if the command creates a new
flow, that is, non-strict
mod-flows does not match on priority and will
not change the priority of existing flows. Other commands do not allow
priority to be specified.
- priority=value
- The priority at which a wildcarded entry will match in comparison to
others. value is a number between 0 and 65535, inclusive. A higher
value will match before a lower one. An exact-match entry will
always have priority over an entry containing wildcards, so it has an
implicit priority value of 65535. When adding a flow, if the field is not
specified, the flow's priority will default to 32768.
- OpenFlow leaves behavior undefined when two or more flows with the same
priority can match a single packet. Some users expect ``sensible''
behavior, such as more specific flows taking precedence over less specific
flows, but OpenFlow does not specify this and Open vSwitch does not
implement it. Users should therefore take care to use priorities to ensure
the behavior that they expect.
The
add-flow,
add-flows, and
mod-flows commands support the
following additional options. These options affect only new flows. Thus, for
add-flow and
add-flows, these options are always significant,
but for
mod-flows they are significant only if the command creates a
new flow, that is, their values do not update or affect existing flows.
- idle_timeout=seconds
- Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds of inactivity.
A value of 0 (the default) prevents a flow from expiring due to
inactivity.
- hard_timeout=seconds
- Causes the flow to expire after the given number of seconds, regardless of
activity. A value of 0 (the default) gives the flow no hard expiration
deadline.
- send_flow_rem
- Marks the flow with a flag that causes the switch to generate a ``flow
removed'' message and send it to interested controllers when the flow
later expires or is removed.
- check_overlap
- Forces the switch to check that the flow match does not overlap that of
any different flow with the same priority in the same table. (This check
is expensive so it is best to avoid it.)
The
dump-flows,
dump-aggregate,
del-flow and
del-flows commands support one additional optional field:
- out_port=port
- If set, a matching flow must include an output action to port,
which must be an OpenFlow port number or name (e.g. local).
Table Entry Output¶
The
dump-tables and
dump-aggregate commands print information
about the entries in a datapath's tables. Each line of output is a flow entry
as described in
Flow Syntax, above, plus some additional fields:
- duration=secs
- The time, in seconds, that the entry has been in the table. secs
includes as much precision as the switch provides, possibly to nanosecond
resolution.
- n_packets
- The number of packets that have matched the entry.
- n_bytes
- The total number of bytes from packets that have matched the entry.
The following additional fields are included only if the switch is Open vSwitch
1.6 or later and the NXM flow format is used to dump the flow (see the
description of the
--flow-format option below). The values of these
additional fields are approximations only and in particular
idle_age
will sometimes become nonzero even for busy flows.
- hard_age=secs
- The integer number of seconds since the flow was added or modified.
hard_age is displayed only if it differs from the integer part of
duration. (This is separate from duration because
mod-flows restarts the hard_timeout timer without zeroing
duration.)
- idle_age=secs
- The integer number of seconds that have passed without any packets passing
through the flow.
Group Syntax¶
Some
ovs-ofctl commands accept an argument that describes a group or
groups. Such flow descriptions comprise a series
field=value assignments, separated by commas or white
space. (Embedding spaces into a group description normally requires quoting to
prevent the shell from breaking the description into multiple arguments.).
Unless noted otherwise only the last instance of each field is honoured.
- group_id=id
- The integer group id of group. When this field is specified in
del-groups or dump-groups, the keyword "all" may
be used to designate all groups. This field is required.
- type=type
- The type of the group. This add-group, add-groups and
del-groups command require this field. The following keywords
designated the allowed types:
- all
- Execute all buckets in the group.
- select
- Execute one bucket in the group. The switch should select the bucket in
such a way that should implement equal load sharing is achieved. The
switch may optionally select the bucket based on bucket weights.
- indirect
- Executes the one bucket in the group.
- ff
-
- fast_failover
- Executes the first live bucket in the group which is associated with a
live port or group.
- bucket=bucket_parameters
- The add-group, add-groups and mod-group commands
require at least one bucket field. Bucket fields must appear after all
other fields. Multiple bucket fields to specify multiple buckets. The
order in which buckets are specified corresponds to their order in the
group. If the type of the group is "indirect" then only one
group may be specified. bucket_parameters consists of a list of
field =value assignments, separated by commas or
white space followed by a comma-separated list of actions. The syntax of
actions are same to actions= field described in Flow Syntax
above. The fields for bucket_parameters are:
- weight=value
- The relative weight of the bucket as an integer. This may be used by the
switch during bucket select for groups whose type is
select.
- watch_port=port
- Port used to determine liveness of group. This or the watch_group
field is required for groups whose type is ff or
fast_failover.
- watch_group=group_id
- Group identifier of group used to determine liveness of group. This or the
watch_port field is required for groups whose type is
ff or fast_failover.
Meter Syntax¶
The meter table commands accept an argument that describes a meter. Such meter
descriptions comprise a series
field=value assignments,
separated by commas or white space. (Embedding spaces into a group description
normally requires quoting to prevent the shell from breaking the description
into multiple arguments.). Unless noted otherwise only the last instance of
each field is honoured.
- meter=id
- The integer meter id of the meter. When this field is specified in
del-meter, dump-meter, or meter-stats, the keyword
"all" may be used to designate all meters. This field is
required, exept for meter-stats, which dumps all stats when this
field is not specified.
- kbps
-
- pktps
- The unit for the meter band rate parameters, either kilobits per second,
or packets per second, respectively. One of these must be specified. The
burst size unit corresponds to the rate unit by dropping the "per
second", i.e., burst is in units of kilobits or packets,
respectively.
- burst
- Specify burst size for all bands, or none of them, if this flag is not
given.
- stats
- Collect meter and band statistics.
- bands=band_parameters
- The add-meter and mod-meter commands require at least one
band specification. Bands must appear after all other fields.
- type=type
- The type of the meter band. This keyword starts a new band specification.
Each band specifies a rate above which the band is to take some action.
The action depends on the band type. If multiple bands' rate is exceeded,
then the band with the highest rate among the exceeded bands is selected.
The following keywords designate the allowed meter band types:
- drop
- Drop packets exceeding the band's rate limit.
- The other band_parameters are:
- rate=value
- The relative rate limit for this band, in kilobits per second or packets
per second, depending on the meter flags defined above.
- burst_size=port
- The maximum burst allowed for the band. If unspecified, the switch is free
to select some reasonable value depending on it's configuration.
OPTIONS¶
- --strict
- Uses strict matching when running flow modification commands.
- -O [version[,version]...]
-
- --protocols=[version[,version]...]
- Sets the OpenFlow protocol versions that are allowed when establishing an
OpenFlow session.
- The following versions are considered to be ready for general use. These
protocol versions are enabled by default:
- •
- OpenFlow10, for OpenFlow 1.0.
- Support for the following protocol versions is provided for testing and
development purposes. They are not enabled by default:
- •
- OpenFlow11, for OpenFlow 1.1.
- •
- OpenFlow12, for OpenFlow 1.2.
- •
- OpenFlow13, for OpenFlow 1.3.
- -F format[,format...]
-
- --flow-format=format[,format...]
- ovs-ofctl supports the following individual flow formats, any
number of which may be listed as format:
- OpenFlow10-table_id
- This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 flow format. All OpenFlow switches and
all versions of Open vSwitch support this flow format.
- OpenFlow10+table_id
- This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 flow format plus a Nicira extension that
allows ovs-ofctl to specify the flow table in which a particular
flow should be placed. Open vSwitch 1.2 and later supports this flow
format.
- NXM-table_id (Nicira Extended Match)
- This Nicira extension to OpenFlow is flexible and extensible. It supports
all of the Nicira flow extensions, such as tun_id and registers.
Open vSwitch 1.1 and later supports this flow format.
- NXM+table_id (Nicira Extended Match)
- This combines Nicira Extended match with the ability to place a flow in a
specific table. Open vSwitch 1.2 and later supports this flow format.
- OXM-OpenFlow12
-
- OXM-OpenFlow13
-
- OXM-OpenFlow14
- These are the standard OXM (OpenFlow Extensible Match) flow format in
OpenFlow 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4, respectively.
- ovs-ofctl also supports the following abbreviations for collections
of flow formats:
- any
- Any supported flow format.
- OpenFlow10
- OpenFlow10-table_id or OpenFlow10+table_id.
- NXM
- NXM-table_id or NXM+table_id.
- OXM
- OXM-OpenFlow12, OXM-OpenFlow13, or
OXM-OpenFlow14.
- For commands that modify the flow table, ovs-ofctl by default
negotiates the most widely supported flow format that supports the flows
being added. For commands that query the flow table, ovs-ofctl by
default uses the most advanced format supported by the switch.
- This option, where format is a comma-separated list of one or more
of the formats listed above, limits ovs-ofctl's choice of flow
format. If a command cannot work as requested using one of the specified
flow formats, ovs-ofctl will report a fatal error.
- -P format
-
- --packet-in-format=format
- ovs-ofctl supports the following packet_in formats, in order of
increasing capability:
- openflow10
- This is the standard OpenFlow 1.0 packet in format. It should be supported
by all OpenFlow switches.
- nxm (Nicira Extended Match)
- This packet_in format includes flow metadata encoded using the NXM
format.
- Usually, ovs-ofctl prefers the nxm packet_in format, but
will allow the switch to choose its default if nxm is unsupported.
When format is one of the formats listed in the above table,
ovs-ofctl will insist on the selected format. If the switch does
not support the requested format, ovs-ofctl will report a fatal
error. This option only affects the monitor command.
- --timestamp
- Print a timestamp before each received packet. This option only affects
the monitor, snoop, and ofp-parse-pcap commands.
- -m
-
- --more
- Increases the verbosity of OpenFlow messages printed and logged by
ovs-ofctl commands. Specify this option more than once to increase
verbosity further.
- --sort[=field]
-
- --rsort[=field]
- Display output sorted by flow field in ascending ( --sort)
or descending ( --rsort) order, where field is any of the
fields that are allowed for matching or priority to sort by
priority. When field is omitted, the output is sorted by priority.
Specify these options multiple times to sort by multiple fields.
- Any given flow will not necessarily specify a value for a given field.
This requires special treatement:
- •
- A flow that does not specify any part of a field that is used for sorting
is sorted after all the flows that do specify the field. For example,
--sort=tcp_src will sort all the flows that specify a TCP source
port in ascending order, followed by the flows that do not specify a TCP
source port at all.
- •
- A flow that only specifies some bits in a field is sorted as if the
wildcarded bits were zero. For example, --sort=nw_src would sort a
flow that specifies nw_src=192.168.0.0/24 the same as
nw_src=192.168.0.0.
- These options currently affect only dump-flows output. The
following options are valid on POSIX based platforms.
- --pidfile[=pidfile]
- Causes a file (by default, ovs-ofctl.pid) to be created indicating
the PID of the running process. If the pidfile argument is not
specified, or if it does not begin with /, then it is created in
/var/run/openvswitch.
- If --pidfile is not specified, no pidfile is created.
- --overwrite-pidfile
- By default, when --pidfile is specified and the specified pidfile
already exists and is locked by a running process, ovs-ofctl
refuses to start. Specify --overwrite-pidfile to cause it to
instead overwrite the pidfile.
- When --pidfile is not specified, this option has no effect.
- --detach
- Causes ovs-ofctl to detach itself from the foreground session and
run as a background process. ovs-ofctl detaches only when executing
the monitor or snoop commands.
- --monitor
- Creates an additional process to monitor the ovs-ofctl daemon. If
the daemon dies due to a signal that indicates a programming error (
SIGABRT, SIGALRM, SIGBUS, SIGFPE,
SIGILL, SIGPIPE, SIGSEGV, SIGXCPU, or
SIGXFSZ) then the monitor process starts a new copy of it. If the
daemon dies or exits for another reason, the monitor process exits.
- This option is normally used with --detach, but it also functions
without it.
- --no-chdir
- By default, when --detach is specified, ovs-ofctl changes
its current working directory to the root directory after it detaches.
Otherwise, invoking ovs-ofctl from a carelessly chosen directory
would prevent the administrator from unmounting the file system that holds
that directory.
- Specifying --no-chdir suppresses this behavior, preventing
ovs-ofctl from changing its current working directory. This may be
useful for collecting core files, since it is common behavior to write
core dumps into the current working directory and the root directory is
not a good directory to use.
- This option has no effect when --detach is not specified.
- --unixctl=socket
- Sets the name of the control socket on which ovs-ofctl listens for
runtime management commands (see RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS,
below). If socket does not begin with /, it is interpreted
as relative to /var/run/openvswitch. If --unixctl is not
used at all, the default socket is
/var/run/openvswitch/ovs-ofctl.pid.ctl, where
pid is ovs-ofctl's process ID.
- On Windows, uses a kernel chosen TCP port on the localhost to listen for
runtime management commands. The kernel chosen TCP port value is written
in a file whose absolute path is pointed by socket. If
--unixctl is not used at all, the file is created as
ovs-ofctl.ctl in the configured OVS_RUNDIR directory.
- Specifying none for socket disables the control socket
feature.
Public Key Infrastructure Options¶
- -p privkey.pem
-
- --private-key=privkey.pem
- Specifies a PEM file containing the private key used as ovs-ofctl's
identity for outgoing SSL connections.
- -c cert.pem
-
- --certificate=cert.pem
- Specifies a PEM file containing a certificate that certifies the private
key specified on -p or --private-key to be trustworthy. The
certificate must be signed by the certificate authority (CA) that the peer
in SSL connections will use to verify it.
- -C cacert.pem
-
- --ca-cert=cacert.pem
- Specifies a PEM file containing the CA certificate that ovs-ofctl
should use to verify certificates presented to it by SSL peers. (This may
be the same certificate that SSL peers use to verify the certificate
specified on -c or --certificate, or it may be a different
one, depending on the PKI design in use.)
- -C none
-
- --ca-cert=none
- Disables verification of certificates presented by SSL peers. This
introduces a security risk, because it means that certificates cannot be
verified to be those of known trusted hosts.
- -v[spec]
-
- --verbose=[spec]
- Sets logging levels. Without any spec, sets the log level for every
module and facility to dbg. Otherwise, spec is a list of
words separated by spaces or commas or colons, up to one from each
category below:
- •
- A valid module name, as displayed by the vlog/list command on
ovs-appctl(8), limits the log level change to the specified
module.
- •
- syslog, console, or file, to limit the log level
change to only to the system log, to the console, or to a file,
respectively.
- On Windows platform, syslog is accepted as a word and is only
useful along with the --syslog-target option (the word has no
effect otherwise).
- •
- off, emer, err, warn, info, or
dbg, to control the log level. Messages of the given severity or
higher will be logged, and messages of lower severity will be filtered
out. off filters out all messages. See ovs-appctl(8) for a
definition of each log level.
- Case is not significant within spec.
- Regardless of the log levels set for file, logging to a file will
not take place unless --log-file is also specified (see
below).
- For compatibility with older versions of OVS, any is accepted as a
word but has no effect.
- -v
-
- --verbose
- Sets the maximum logging verbosity level, equivalent to
--verbose=dbg.
- -vPATTERN:facility:pattern
-
- --verbose=PATTERN:facility:pattern
- Sets the log pattern for facility to pattern. Refer to
ovs-appctl(8) for a description of the valid syntax for
pattern.
- --log-file[=file]
- Enables logging to a file. If file is specified, then it is used as
the exact name for the log file. The default log file name used if
file is omitted is /var/log/openvswitch/ovs-ofctl.log.
- --syslog-target=host:port
- Send syslog messages to UDP port on host, in addition to the
system syslog. The host must be a numerical IP address, not a
hostname.
- -h
-
- --help
- Prints a brief help message to the console.
- -V
-
- --version
- Prints version information to the console.
RUNTIME MANAGEMENT COMMANDS¶
ovs-appctl(8) can send commands to a running
ovs-ofctl process.
The supported commands are listed below.
- exit
- Causes ovs-ofctl to gracefully terminate. This command applies only
when executing the monitor or snoop commands.
- ofctl/set-output-file file
- Causes all subsequent output to go to file instead of stderr. This
command applies only when executing the monitor or snoop
commands.
- ofctl/send ofmsg...
- Sends each ofmsg, specified as a sequence of hex digits that
express an OpenFlow message, on the OpenFlow connection. This command is
useful only when executing the monitor command.
- ofctl/barrier
- Sends an OpenFlow barrier request on the OpenFlow connection and waits for
a reply. This command is useful only for the monitor command.
EXAMPLES¶
The following examples assume that
ovs-vswitchd has a bridge named
br0 configured.
- ovs-ofctl dump-tables br0
- Prints out the switch's table stats. (This is more interesting after some
traffic has passed through.)
- ovs-ofctl dump-flows br0
- Prints the flow entries in the switch.
SEE ALSO¶
ovs-appctl(8),
ovs-vswitchd(8)
ovs-vswitchd.conf.db(8)