Install openvswitch if you need OpenFlow virtual switch function. It contains ovs-vswitchd, ovsdb-server and helper utilities such as ovs-vsctl, ovs-ofctl, ovs-ctl etc.
Linux kernel datapath module openvswitch.ko will also be installed along with package openvswitch. Tunnel encap support for gre, geneve, vxlan can be included by installing kmod-openvswitch-{gre,geneve,vxlan} respectively
For OVN deployment
openvswitch-ovn-north for ovs-northd, ovsdb-server, ovn helper utitliesopenvswitch-ovn-host for ovn-controller and openvswitchOpen vSwitch provides a few very useful helper script in /usr/share/openvswitch/scripts/. A simple initscript is provided. It's mainly a wrapper around ovs-ctl and ovn-ctl with simple knobs from /etc/config/openvswitch. Procd is not used here.
/etc/init.d/openvswitch start /etc/init.d/openvswitch stop /etc/init.d/openvswitch stop north /etc/init.d/openvswitch restart ovs /etc/init.d/openvswitch status
Use ovs-ctl and ovn-ctl directly for more functionalities
The Open vSwitch build system uses regexp and conditional-compilation heuristics to support building the shipped kernel module source code against a wide range of kernels, as of openvswitch-2.10, the list is supposed to include vanilla linux 3.10 to 4.15, plus a few distro kernels.
It may NOT work
For these reasons, the in-tree datapath modules are NOT visible/enabled by default.
Building and using in-tree datapath modules requires some level of devel abilities to proceed. You are expected to configure build options and build the code on your own
E.g. pair openvswitch userspace with in-tree datapath module
CONFIG_DEVEL=y CONFIG_PACKAGE_openvswitch=y # CONFIG_PACKAGE_kmod-openvswitch is not set CONFIG_PACKAGE_kmod-openvswitch-intree=y
E.g. replace in-tree datapath module with upstream version
opkg remove --force-depends kmod-openvswitch-intree opkg install kmod-openvswitch ovs-ctl force-reload-kmod
There are 5 config section types in package openvswitch: ovs ovn_northd, ovn_controller & ovs_bridge.
Each of these supports a disabled option, which should be set to 0 to launch the respective daemons.
The ovs section section also supports the options below, to configure a set of SSL CA, certificate and private key. After adding these to Open vSwitch, you may specify ssl: connection methods for e.g. the OpenFlow controller. Note that Open vSwitch only reads these files during startup, so it needs to be restarted after adding or changing these options.
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| disabled | boolean | no | 0 | If set to 1, do not configure SSL |
| ca | string | no | (none) | Path to CA certificate |
| cert | string | no | (none) | Path to certificate |
| key | string | no | (none) | Path to private key |
The ovs_bridge section also supports the options below, for initialising a virtual bridge with an OpenFlow controller.
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| disabled | boolean | no | 0 | If set to true, disable initialisation of the named bridge |
| name | string | no | Inherits UCI config block name | The name of the switch in the OVS daemon |
| controller | string | no | (none) | The endpoint of an OpenFlow controller for this bridge |
| datapath_id | string | no | (none) | The OpenFlow datapath ID for this bridge |
| datapath_desc | string | no | (none) | The OpenFlow datapath description for this bridge |
| drop_unknown_ports | boolean | no | 0 | Remove ports not defined in UCI from the bridge |
| fail_mode | string | no | standalone | The bridge failure mode |
| ports | list | no | (none) | List of ports to add to the bridge |
The ovs_port section can be used to add ports to a bridge. It supports the options below.
| Name | Type | Required | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| disabled | boolean | no | 0 | If set to 1, do not add the port to the bridge |
| bridge | string | yes | (none) | Name of the bridge to add the port to |
| port | string | yes | (none) | Name of the port to add to the bridge |
| ofport | integer | no | (none) | OpenFlow port number to be used by the port |
| tag | integer | no | (none) | 802.1Q VLAN tag to set on the port |
| type | string | no | (none) | Port type, e.g. internal, erspan, type, ... |