Provided by: openvswitch-vtep_3.2.2-0ubuntu0.23.10.1_amd64 
NAME
vtep - hardware_vtep database schema
This schema specifies relations that a VTEP can use to integrate physical ports into
logical switches maintained by a network virtualization controller such as NSX.
Glossary:
VTEP VXLAN Tunnel End Point, an entity which originates and/or terminates VXLAN
tunnels.
HSC Hardware Switch Controller.
NVC Network Virtualization Controller, e.g. NSX.
VRF Virtual Routing and Forwarding instance.
Common Column
Some tables contain a column, named other_config. This column has the same form and
purpose each place that it appears, so we describe it here to save space later.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Key-value pairs for configuring rarely used or proprietary features.
Some tables do not have other_config column because no key-value pairs have
yet been defined for them.
TABLE SUMMARY
The following list summarizes the purpose of each of the tables in the hardware_vtep
database. Each table is described in more detail on a later page.
Table Purpose
Global Top-level configuration.
Manager OVSDB management connection.
Physical_Switch
A physical switch.
Tunnel A tunnel created by a physical switch.
Physical_Port
A port within a physical switch.
Logical_Binding_Stats
Statistics for a VLAN on a physical port bound to a logical network.
Logical_Switch
A layer-2 domain.
Ucast_Macs_Local
Unicast MACs (local)
Ucast_Macs_Remote
Unicast MACs (remote)
Mcast_Macs_Local
Multicast MACs (local)
Mcast_Macs_Remote
Multicast MACs (remote)
Logical_Router
A logical L3 router.
Arp_Sources_Local
ARP source addresses for logical routers
Arp_Sources_Remote
ARP source addresses for logical routers
Physical_Locator_Set
Physical_Locator_Set configuration.
Physical_Locator
Physical_Locator configuration.
ACL_entry ACL_entry configuration.
ACL ACL configuration.
Global TABLE
Top-level configuration for a hardware VTEP. There must be exactly one record in the
Global table.
Summary:
switches set of Physical_Switchs
Database Configuration:
managers set of Managers
Common Column:
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
switches: set of Physical_Switchs
The physical switch or switches managed by the VTEP.
When a physical switch integrates support for this VTEP schema, which is expected
to be the most common case, this column should point to one Physical_Switch record
that represents the switch itself. In another possible implementation, a server or
a VM presents a VTEP schema front-end interface to one or more physical switches,
presumably communicating with those physical switches over a proprietary protocol.
In that case, this column would point to one Physical_Switch for each physical
switch, and the set might change over time as the front-end server comes to
represent a differing set of switches.
Database Configuration:
These columns primarily configure the database server (ovsdb-server), not the hardware
VTEP itself.
managers: set of Managers
Database clients to which the database server should connect or to which it should
listen, along with options for how these connection should be configured. See the
Manager table for more information.
Common Column:
The overall purpose of this column is described under Common Column at the beginning of
this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Manager TABLE
Configuration for a database connection to an Open vSwitch Database (OVSDB) client.
The database server can initiate and maintain active connections to remote clients. It can
also listen for database connections.
Summary:
Core Features:
target string (must be unique within table)
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
max_backoff optional integer, at least 1,000
inactivity_probe optional integer
Status:
is_connected boolean
status : last_error optional string
status : state optional string, one of ACTIVE, BACKOFF, CONNECTING, IDLE,
or VOID
status : sec_since_connect optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
status : sec_since_disconnect
optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
status : locks_held optional string
status : locks_waiting optional string
status : locks_lost optional string
status : n_connections optional string, containing an integer, at least 2
Connection Parameters:
other_config : dscp optional string, containing an integer
Details:
Core Features:
target: string (must be unique within table)
Connection method for managers.
The following connection methods are currently supported:
ssl:host[:port]
The specified SSL port (default: 6640) on the given host, which can either
be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an IP address.
SSL key and certificate configuration happens outside the database.
tcp:host[:port]
The specified TCP port (default: 6640) on the given host, which can either
be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an IP address.
pssl:[port][:host]
Listens for SSL connections on the specified TCP port (default: 6640). If
host, which can either be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an
IP address, is specified, then connections are restricted to the resolved or
specified local IP address.
ptcp:[port][:host]
Listens for connections on the specified TCP port (default: 6640). If host,
which can either be a DNS name (if built with unbound library) or an IP
address, is specified, then connections are restricted to the resolved or
specified local IP address.
Client Failure Detection and Handling:
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 the Open vSwitch database 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, the
database server assumes the connection has been broken and attempts to reconnect.
Default is implementation-specific. A value of 0 disables inactivity probes.
Status:
is_connected: boolean
true if currently connected to this manager, 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:
VOID Connection is disabled.
BACKOFF
Attempting to reconnect at an increasing period.
CONNECTING
Attempting to connect.
ACTIVE Connected, remote host responsive.
IDLE Connection is idle. Waiting for response to keep-alive.
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 manager last successfully connected to the database
(in seconds). Value is empty if manager has never successfully connected.
status : sec_since_disconnect: optional string, containing an integer, at least 0
The amount of time since this manager last disconnected from the database (in
seconds). Value is empty if manager 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.
When multiple connections are active, status columns and key-value pairs (other
than this one) report the status of one arbitrarily chosen connection.
Connection Parameters:
Additional configuration for a connection between the manager and the database server.
other_config : dscp: optional string, containing an integer
The Differentiated Service Code Point (DSCP) is specified using 6 bits in the Type
of Service (TOS) field in the IP header. DSCP provides a mechanism to classify the
network traffic and provide Quality of Service (QoS) on IP networks. The DSCP value
specified here is used when establishing the connection between the manager and the
database server. If no value is specified, a default value of 48 is chosen. Valid
DSCP values must be in the range 0 to 63.
Physical_Switch TABLE
A physical switch that implements a VTEP.
Summary:
ports set of Physical_Ports
tunnels set of Tunnels
Network Status:
management_ips set of strings
tunnel_ips set of strings
Identification:
name string (must be unique within table)
description string
Error Notification:
switch_fault_status : mac_table_exhaustion
none
switch_fault_status : tunnel_exhaustion
none
switch_fault_status : lr_switch_bindings_fault
none
switch_fault_status : lr_static_routes_fault
none
switch_fault_status : lr_creation_fault
none
switch_fault_status : lr_support_fault
none
switch_fault_status : unspecified_fault
none
switch_fault_status : unsupported_source_node_replication
none
Common Column:
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
ports: set of Physical_Ports
The physical ports within the switch.
tunnels: set of Tunnels
Tunnels created by this switch as instructed by the NVC.
Network Status:
management_ips: set of strings
IPv4 or IPv6 addresses at which the switch may be contacted for management
purposes.
tunnel_ips: set of strings
IPv4 or IPv6 addresses on which the switch may originate or terminate tunnels.
This column is intended to allow a Manager to determine the Physical_Switch that
terminates the tunnel represented by a Physical_Locator.
Identification:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Symbolic name for the switch, such as its hostname.
description: string
An extended description for the switch, such as its switch login banner.
Error Notification:
An entry in this column indicates to the NVC that this switch has encountered a fault. The
switch must clear this column when the fault has been cleared.
switch_fault_status : mac_table_exhaustion: none
Indicates that the switch has been unable to process MAC entries requested by the
NVC due to lack of table resources.
switch_fault_status : tunnel_exhaustion: none
Indicates that the switch has been unable to create tunnels requested by the NVC
due to lack of resources.
switch_fault_status : lr_switch_bindings_fault: none
Indicates that the switch has been unable to create the logical router interfaces
requested by the NVC due to conflicting configurations or a lack of hardware
resources.
switch_fault_status : lr_static_routes_fault: none
Indicates that the switch has been unable to create the static routes requested by
the NVC due to conflicting configurations or a lack of hardware resources.
switch_fault_status : lr_creation_fault: none
Indicates that the switch has been unable to create the logical router requested by
the NVC due to conflicting configurations or a lack of hardware resources.
switch_fault_status : lr_support_fault: none
Indicates that the switch does not support logical routing.
switch_fault_status : unspecified_fault: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in the switch but that no more specific
information is available.
switch_fault_status : unsupported_source_node_replication: none
Indicates that the requested source node replication mode cannot be supported by
the physical switch; this specifically means in this context that the physical
switch lacks the capability to support source node replication mode. This error
occurs when a controller attempts to set source node replication mode for one of
the logical switches that the physical switch is keeping context for. An NVC that
observes this error should take appropriate action (for example reverting the
logical switch to service node replication mode). It is recommended that an NVC be
proactive and test for support of source node replication by using a test logical
switch on vtep physical switch nodes and then trying to change the replication mode
to source node on this logical switch, checking for error. The NVC could remember
this capability per vtep physical switch. Using mixed replication modes on a given
logical switch is not recommended. Service node replication mode is considered a
basic requirement since it only requires sending a packet to a single transport
node, hence it is not expected that a switch should report that service node mode
cannot be supported.
Common Column:
The overall purpose of this column is described under Common Column at the beginning of
this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Tunnel TABLE
A tunnel created by a Physical_Switch.
Summary:
local Physical_Locator
remote Physical_Locator
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD):
BFD Local Configuration:
bfd_config_local : bfd_dst_mac
optional string
bfd_config_local : bfd_dst_ip
optional string
BFD Remote Configuration:
bfd_config_remote : bfd_dst_mac
optional string
bfd_config_remote : bfd_dst_ip
optional string
BFD Parameters:
bfd_params : enable optional string, either true or false
bfd_params : min_rx optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
bfd_params : min_tx optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
bfd_params : decay_min_rx
optional string, containing an integer
bfd_params : forwarding_if_rx
optional string, either true or false
bfd_params : cpath_down optional string, either true or false
bfd_params : check_tnl_key
optional string, either true or false
BFD Status:
bfd_status : enabled optional string, either true or false
bfd_status : state optional string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
bfd_status : forwarding optional string, either true or false
bfd_status : diagnostic optional string
bfd_status : remote_state
optional string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
bfd_status : remote_diagnostic
optional string
bfd_status : info optional string
Details:
local: Physical_Locator
Tunnel end-point local to the physical switch.
remote: Physical_Locator
Tunnel end-point remote to the physical switch.
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD):
BFD, defined in RFC 5880, allows point to point detection of connectivity failures by
occasional transmission of BFD control messages. VTEPs are expected to implement BFD.
BFD operates by regularly transmitting BFD control messages at a rate negotiated
independently in each direction. Each endpoint specifies the rate at which it expects to
receive control messages, and the rate at which it’s willing to transmit them. An endpoint
which fails to receive BFD control messages for a period of three times the expected
reception rate will signal a connectivity fault. In the case of a unidirectional
connectivity issue, the system not receiving BFD control messages will signal the problem
to its peer in the messages it transmits.
A hardware VTEP is expected to use BFD to determine reachability of devices at the end of
the tunnels with which it exchanges data. This can enable the VTEP to choose a functioning
service node among a set of service nodes providing high availability. It also enables the
NVC to report the health status of tunnels.
In many cases the BFD peer of a hardware VTEP will be an Open vSwitch instance. The Open
vSwitch implementation of BFD aims to comply faithfully with the requirements put forth in
RFC 5880. Open vSwitch does not implement the optional Authentication or ``Echo Mode’’
features.
BFD Local Configuration:
The HSC writes the key-value pairs in the bfd_config_local column to specify the local
configurations to be used for BFD sessions on this tunnel.
bfd_config_local : bfd_dst_mac: optional string
Set to an Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to set the MAC expected as
destination for received BFD packets. The default is 00:23:20:00:00:01.
bfd_config_local : bfd_dst_ip: optional string
Set to an IPv4 address to set the IP address that is expected as destination for
received BFD packets. The default is 169.254.1.0.
BFD Remote Configuration:
The bfd_config_remote column is the remote counterpart of the bfd_config_local column. The
NVC writes the key-value pairs in this column.
bfd_config_remote : bfd_dst_mac: optional string
Set to an Ethernet address in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx to set the destination MAC
to be used for transmitted BFD packets. The default is 00:23:20:00:00:01.
bfd_config_remote : bfd_dst_ip: optional string
Set to an IPv4 address to set the IP address used as destination for transmitted
BFD packets. The default is 169.254.1.1.
BFD Parameters:
The NVC sets up key-value pairs in the bfd_params column to enable and configure BFD.
bfd_params : enable: optional string, either true or false
True to enable BFD on this Tunnel. If not specified, BFD will not be enabled by
default.
bfd_params : min_rx: optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
The shortest interval, in milliseconds, at which this BFD session offers to receive
BFD control messages. The remote endpoint may choose to send messages at a slower
rate. Defaults to 1000.
bfd_params : min_tx: optional string, containing an integer, at least 1
The shortest interval, in milliseconds, at which this BFD session is willing to
transmit BFD control messages. Messages will actually be transmitted at a slower
rate if the remote endpoint is not willing to receive as quickly as specified.
Defaults to 100.
bfd_params : decay_min_rx: optional string, containing an integer
An alternate receive interval, in milliseconds, that must be greater than or equal
to bfd_params:min_rx. The implementation should switch from bfd_params:min_rx to
bfd_params:decay_min_rx when there is no obvious incoming data traffic at the
tunnel, to reduce the CPU and bandwidth cost of monitoring an idle tunnel. This
feature may be disabled by setting a value of 0. This feature is reset whenever
bfd_params:decay_min_rx or bfd_params:min_rx changes.
bfd_params : forwarding_if_rx: optional string, either true or false
When true, traffic received on the Tunnel is used to indicate the capability of
packet I/O. BFD control packets are still transmitted and received. At least one
BFD control packet must be received every 100 * bfd_params:min_rx amount of time.
Otherwise, even if traffic is received, the bfd_params:forwarding will be false.
bfd_params : cpath_down: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to notify the remote endpoint that traffic should not be forwarded to
this system for some reason other than a connectivity failure on the interface
being monitored. The typical underlying reason is ``concatenated path down,’’ that
is, that connectivity beyond the local system is down. Defaults to false.
bfd_params : check_tnl_key: optional string, either true or false
Set to true to make BFD accept only control messages with a tunnel key of zero. By
default, BFD accepts control messages with any tunnel key.
BFD Status:
The VTEP sets key-value pairs in the bfd_status column to report the status of BFD on this
tunnel. When BFD is not enabled, with bfd_params:enable, the HSC clears all key-value
pairs from bfd_status.
bfd_status : enabled: optional string, either true or false
Set to true if the BFD session has been successfully enabled. Set to false if the
VTEP cannot support BFD or has insufficient resources to enable BFD on this tunnel.
The NVC will disable the BFD monitoring on the other side of the tunnel once this
value is set to false.
bfd_status : state: optional string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
Reports the state of the BFD session. The BFD session is fully healthy and
negotiated if UP.
bfd_status : forwarding: optional string, either true or false
Reports whether the BFD session believes this Tunnel may be used to forward
traffic. Typically this means the local session is signaling UP, and the remote
system isn’t signaling a problem such as concatenated path down.
bfd_status : diagnostic: optional string
A diagnostic code specifying the local system’s reason for the last change in
session state. The error messages are defined in section 4.1 of [RFC 5880].
bfd_status : remote_state: optional string, one of admin_down, down, init, or up
Reports the state of the remote endpoint’s BFD session.
bfd_status : remote_diagnostic: optional string
A diagnostic code specifying the remote system’s reason for the last change in
session state. The error messages are defined in section 4.1 of [RFC 5880].
bfd_status : info: optional string
A short message providing further information about the BFD status (possibly
including reasons why BFD could not be enabled).
Physical_Port TABLE
A port within a Physical_Switch.
Summary:
vlan_bindings map of integer-Logical_Switch pairs, key in range 0 to 4,095
acl_bindings map of integer-ACL pairs, key in range 0 to 4,095
vlan_stats map of integer-Logical_Binding_Stats pairs, key in range 0
to 4,095
Identification:
name string
description string
Error Notification:
port_fault_status : invalid_vlan_map
none
port_fault_status : invalid_ACL_binding
none
port_fault_status : unspecified_fault
none
Common Column:
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
vlan_bindings: map of integer-Logical_Switch pairs, key in range 0 to 4,095
Identifies how VLANs on the physical port are bound to logical switches. If, for
example, the map contains a (VLAN, logical switch) pair, a packet that arrives on
the port in the VLAN is considered to belong to the paired logical switch. A value
of zero in the VLAN field means that untagged traffic on the physical port is
mapped to the logical switch.
acl_bindings: map of integer-ACL pairs, key in range 0 to 4,095
Attach Access Control Lists (ACLs) to the physical port. The column consists of a
map of VLAN tags to ACLs. If the value of the VLAN tag in the map is 0, this means
that the ACL is associated with the entire physical port. Non-zero values mean that
the ACL is to be applied only on packets carrying that VLAN tag value. Switches
will not necessarily support matching on the VLAN tag for all ACLs, and unsupported
ACL bindings will cause errors to be reported. The binding of an ACL to a specific
VLAN and the binding of an ACL to the entire physical port should not be combined
on a single physical port. That is, a mix of zero and non-zero keys in the map is
not recommended.
vlan_stats: map of integer-Logical_Binding_Stats pairs, key in range 0 to 4,095
Statistics for VLANs bound to logical switches on the physical port. An
implementation that fully supports such statistics would populate this column with
a mapping for every VLAN that is bound in vlan_bindings. An implementation that
does not support such statistics or only partially supports them would not populate
this column or partially populate it, respectively. A value of zero in the VLAN
field refers to untagged traffic on the physical port.
Identification:
name: string
Symbolic name for the port. The name ought to be unique within a given
Physical_Switch, but the database is not capable of enforcing this.
description: string
An extended description for the port.
Error Notification:
An entry in this column indicates to the NVC that the physical port has encountered a
fault. The switch must clear this column when the error has been cleared.
port_fault_status : invalid_vlan_map: none
Indicates that a VLAN-to-logical-switch mapping requested by the controller could
not be instantiated by the switch because of a conflict with local configuration.
port_fault_status : invalid_ACL_binding: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in associating an ACL with a port.
port_fault_status : unspecified_fault: none
Indicates that an error has occurred on the port but that no more specific
information is available.
Common Column:
The overall purpose of this column is described under Common Column at the beginning of
this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Logical_Binding_Stats TABLE
Reports statistics for the Logical_Switch with which a VLAN on a Physical_Port is
associated.
Summary:
Statistics:
packets_from_local integer
bytes_from_local integer
packets_to_local integer
bytes_to_local integer
Details:
Statistics:
These statistics count only packets to which the binding applies.
packets_from_local: integer
Number of packets sent by the Physical_Switch.
bytes_from_local: integer
Number of bytes in packets sent by the Physical_Switch.
packets_to_local: integer
Number of packets received by the Physical_Switch.
bytes_to_local: integer
Number of bytes in packets received by the Physical_Switch.
Logical_Switch TABLE
A logical Ethernet switch, whose implementation may span physical and virtual media,
possibly crossing L3 domains via tunnels; a logical layer-2 domain; an Ethernet broadcast
domain.
Summary:
Per Logical-Switch Tunnel Key:
tunnel_key optional integer
Replication Mode:
replication_mode optional string, either service_node or source_node
Identification:
name string (must be unique within table)
description string
Common Column:
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
Per Logical-Switch Tunnel Key:
Tunnel protocols tend to have a field that allows the tunnel to be partitioned into sub-
tunnels: VXLAN has a VNI, GRE and STT have a key, CAPWAP has a WSI, and so on. We call
these generically ``tunnel keys.’’ Given that one needs to use a tunnel key at all, there
are at least two reasonable ways to assign their values:
• Per Logical_Switch+Physical_Locator pair. That is, each logical switch may
be assigned a different tunnel key on every Physical_Locator. This model is
especially flexible.
In this model, Physical_Locator carries the tunnel key. Therefore, one
Physical_Locator record will exist for each logical switch carried at a
given IP destination.
• Per Logical_Switch. That is, every tunnel associated with a particular
logical switch carries the same tunnel key, regardless of the
Physical_Locator to which the tunnel is addressed. This model may ease
switch implementation because it imposes fewer requirements on the hardware
datapath.
In this model, Logical_Switch carries the tunnel key. Therefore, one
Physical_Locator record will exist for each IP destination.
tunnel_key: optional integer
This column is used only in the tunnel key per Logical_Switch model (see above),
because only in that model is there a tunnel key associated with a logical switch.
For vxlan_over_ipv4 encapsulation, when the tunnel key per Logical_Switch model is
in use, this column is the VXLAN VNI that identifies a logical switch. It must be
in the range 0 to 16,777,215.
Replication Mode:
For handling L2 broadcast, multicast and unknown unicast traffic, packets can be sent to
all members of a logical switch referenced by a physical switch. There are different modes
to replicate the packets. The default mode of replication is to send the traffic to a
service node, which can be a hypervisor, server or appliance, and let the service node
handle replication to other transport nodes (hypervisors or other VTEP physical switches).
This mode is called service node replication. An alternate mode of replication, called
source node replication involves the source node sending to all other transport nodes.
Hypervisors are always responsible for doing their own replication for locally attached
VMs in both modes. Service node replication mode is the default and considered a basic
requirement because it only requires sending the packet to a single transport node.
replication_mode: optional string, either service_node or source_node
This optional column defines the replication mode per Logical_Switch. There are 2
valid values, service_node and source_node. If the column is not set, the
replication mode defaults to service_node.
Identification:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Symbolic name for the logical switch.
description: string
An extended description for the logical switch, such as its switch login banner.
Common Column:
The overall purpose of this column is described under Common Column at the beginning of
this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Ucast_Macs_Local TABLE
Mapping of unicast MAC addresses to tunnels (physical locators). This table is written by
the HSC, so it contains the MAC addresses that have been learned on physical ports by a
VTEP.
Summary:
MAC string
logical_switch Logical_Switch
locator Physical_Locator
ipaddr string
Details:
MAC: string
A MAC address that has been learned by the VTEP.
logical_switch: Logical_Switch
The Logical switch to which this mapping applies.
locator: Physical_Locator
The physical locator to be used to reach this MAC address. In this table, the
physical locator will be one of the tunnel IP addresses of the appropriate VTEP.
ipaddr: string
The IP address to which this MAC corresponds. Optional field for the purpose of ARP
supression.
Ucast_Macs_Remote TABLE
Mapping of unicast MAC addresses to tunnels (physical locators). This table is written by
the NVC, so it contains the MAC addresses that the NVC has learned. These include VM MAC
addresses, in which case the physical locators will be hypervisor IP addresses. The NVC
will also report MACs that it has learned from other HSCs in the network, in which case
the physical locators will be tunnel IP addresses of the corresponding VTEPs.
Summary:
MAC string
logical_switch Logical_Switch
locator Physical_Locator
ipaddr string
Details:
MAC: string
A MAC address that has been learned by the NVC.
logical_switch: Logical_Switch
The Logical switch to which this mapping applies.
locator: Physical_Locator
The physical locator to be used to reach this MAC address. In this table, the
physical locator will be either a hypervisor IP address or a tunnel IP addresses of
another VTEP.
ipaddr: string
The IP address to which this MAC corresponds. Optional field for the purpose of ARP
supression.
Mcast_Macs_Local TABLE
Mapping of multicast MAC addresses to tunnels (physical locators). This table is written
by the HSC, so it contains the MAC addresses that have been learned on physical ports by a
VTEP. These may be learned by IGMP snooping, for example. This table also specifies how to
handle unknown unicast and broadcast packets.
Summary:
MAC string
logical_switch Logical_Switch
locator_set Physical_Locator_Set
ipaddr string
Details:
MAC: string
A MAC address that has been learned by the VTEP.
The keyword unknown-dst is used as a special ``Ethernet address’’ that indicates
the locations to which packets in a logical switch whose destination addresses do
not otherwise appear in Ucast_Macs_Local (for unicast addresses) or
Mcast_Macs_Local (for multicast addresses) should be sent.
logical_switch: Logical_Switch
The Logical switch to which this mapping applies.
locator_set: Physical_Locator_Set
The physical locator set to be used to reach this MAC address. In this table, the
physical locator set will be contain one or more tunnel IP addresses of the
appropriate VTEP(s).
ipaddr: string
The IP address to which this MAC corresponds. Optional field for the purpose of ARP
supression.
Mcast_Macs_Remote TABLE
Mapping of multicast MAC addresses to tunnels (physical locators). This table is written
by the NVC, so it contains the MAC addresses that the NVC has learned. This table also
specifies how to handle unknown unicast and broadcast packets.
Multicast packet replication may be handled by a service node, in which case the physical
locators will be IP addresses of service nodes. If the VTEP supports replication onto
multiple tunnels, using source node replication, then this may be used to replicate
directly onto VTEP-hypervisor or VTEP-VTEP tunnels.
Summary:
MAC string
logical_switch Logical_Switch
locator_set Physical_Locator_Set
ipaddr string
Details:
MAC: string
A MAC address that has been learned by the NVC.
The keyword unknown-dst is used as a special ``Ethernet address’’ that indicates
the locations to which packets in a logical switch whose destination addresses do
not otherwise appear in Ucast_Macs_Remote (for unicast addresses) or
Mcast_Macs_Remote (for multicast addresses) should be sent.
logical_switch: Logical_Switch
The Logical switch to which this mapping applies.
locator_set: Physical_Locator_Set
The physical locator set to be used to reach this MAC address. In this table, the
physical locator set will be either a set of service nodes when service node
replication is used or the set of transport nodes (defined as hypervisors or VTEPs)
participating in the associated logical switch, when source node replication is
used. When service node replication is used, the VTEP should send packets to one
member of the locator set that is known to be healthy and reachable, which could be
determined by BFD. When source node replication is used, the VTEP should send
packets to all members of the locator set.
ipaddr: string
The IP address to which this MAC corresponds. Optional field for the purpose of ARP
supression.
Logical_Router TABLE
A logical router, or VRF. A logical router may be connected to one or more logical
switches. Subnet addresses and interface addresses may be configured on the interfaces.
Summary:
switch_binding map of string-Logical_Switch pairs
static_routes map of string-string pairs
acl_binding map of string-ACL pairs
Identification:
name string (must be unique within table)
description string
Error Notification:
LR_fault_status : invalid_ACL_binding
none
LR_fault_status : unspecified_fault
none
Common Column:
other_config map of string-string pairs
Details:
switch_binding: map of string-Logical_Switch pairs
Maps from an IPv4 or IPv6 address prefix in CIDR notation to a logical switch.
Multiple prefixes may map to the same switch. By writing a 32-bit (or 128-bit for
v6) address with a /N prefix length, both the router’s interface address and the
subnet prefix can be configured. For example, 192.68.1.1/24 creates a /24 subnet
for the logical switch attached to the interface and assigns the address 192.68.1.1
to the router interface.
static_routes: map of string-string pairs
One or more static routes, mapping IP prefixes to next hop IP addresses.
acl_binding: map of string-ACL pairs
Maps ACLs to logical router interfaces. The router interfaces are indicated using
IP address notation, and must be the same interfaces created in the switch_binding
column. For example, an ACL could be associated with the logical router interface
with an address of 192.68.1.1 as defined in the example above.
Identification:
name: string (must be unique within table)
Symbolic name for the logical router.
description: string
An extended description for the logical router.
Error Notification:
An entry in this column indicates to the NVC that the HSC has encountered a fault in
configuring state related to the logical router.
LR_fault_status : invalid_ACL_binding: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in associating an ACL with a logical router
port.
LR_fault_status : unspecified_fault: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in configuring the logical router but that no
more specific information is available.
Common Column:
The overall purpose of this column is described under Common Column at the beginning of
this document.
other_config: map of string-string pairs
Arp_Sources_Local TABLE
MAC address to be used when a VTEP issues ARP requests on behalf of a logical router.
A distributed logical router is implemented by a set of VTEPs (both hardware VTEPs and
vswitches). In order for a given VTEP to populate the local ARP cache for a logical
router, it issues ARP requests with a source MAC address that is unique to the VTEP. A
single per-VTEP MAC can be re-used across all logical networks. This table contains the
MACs that are used by the VTEPs of a given HSC. The table provides the mapping from MAC to
physical locator for each VTEP so that replies to the ARP requests can be sent back to the
correct VTEP using the appropriate physical locator.
Summary:
src_mac string
locator Physical_Locator
Details:
src_mac: string
The source MAC to be used by a given VTEP.
locator: Physical_Locator
The Physical_Locator to use for replies to ARP requests from this MAC address.
Arp_Sources_Remote TABLE
MAC address to be used when a remote VTEP issues ARP requests on behalf of a logical
router.
This table is the remote counterpart of Arp_sources_local. The NVC writes this table to
notify the HSC of the MACs that will be used by remote VTEPs when they issue ARP requests
on behalf of a distributed logical router.
Summary:
src_mac string
locator Physical_Locator
Details:
src_mac: string
The source MAC to be used by a given VTEP.
locator: Physical_Locator
The Physical_Locator to use for replies to ARP requests from this MAC address.
Physical_Locator_Set TABLE
A set of one or more Physical_Locators.
This table exists only because OVSDB does not have a way to express the type ``map from
string to one or more Physical_Locator records.’’
Summary:
locators immutable set of 1 or more Physical_Locators
Details:
locators: immutable set of 1 or more Physical_Locators
Physical_Locator TABLE
Identifies an endpoint to which logical switch traffic may be encapsulated and forwarded.
The vxlan_over_ipv4 encapsulation, the only encapsulation defined so far, can use either
tunnel key model described in the ``Per Logical-Switch Tunnel Key’’ section in the
Logical_Switch table. When the tunnel key per Logical_Switch model is in use, the
tunnel_key column in the Logical_Switch table is filled with a VNI and the tunnel_key
column in this table is empty; in the key-per-tunnel model, the opposite is true. The
former model is older, and thus likely to be more widely supported. See the ``Per Logical-
Switch Tunnel Key’’ section in the Logical_Switch table for further discussion of the
model.
Summary:
encapsulation_type immutable string, must be vxlan_over_ipv4
dst_ip immutable string
tunnel_key optional integer
Details:
encapsulation_type: immutable string, must be vxlan_over_ipv4
The type of tunneling encapsulation.
dst_ip: immutable string
For vxlan_over_ipv4 encapsulation, the IPv4 address of the VXLAN tunnel endpoint.
We expect that this column could be used for IPv4 or IPv6 addresses in
encapsulations to be introduced later.
tunnel_key: optional integer
This column is used only in the tunnel key per Logical_Switch+Physical_Locator
model (see above).
For vxlan_over_ipv4 encapsulation, when the Logical_Switch+Physical_Locator model
is in use, this column is the VXLAN VNI. It must be in the range 0 to 16,777,215.
ACL_entry TABLE
Describes the individual entries that comprise an Access Control List.
Each entry in the table is a single rule to match on certain header fields. While there
are a large number of fields that can be matched on, most hardware cannot match on
arbitrary combinations of fields. It is common to match on either L2 fields (described
below in the L2 group of columns) or L3/L4 fields (the L3/L4 group of columns) but not
both. The hardware switch controller may log an error if an ACL entry requires it to match
on an incompatible mixture of fields.
Summary:
sequence integer
L2 fields:
source_mac optional string
dest_mac optional string
ethertype optional string
L3/L4 fields:
source_ip optional string
source_mask optional string
dest_ip optional string
dest_mask optional string
protocol optional integer
source_port_min optional integer
source_port_max optional integer
dest_port_min optional integer
dest_port_max optional integer
tcp_flags optional integer
tcp_flags_mask optional integer
icmp_type optional integer
icmp_code optional integer
direction string, either egress or ingress
action string, either deny or permit
Error Notification:
acle_fault_status : invalid_acl_entry
none
acle_fault_status : unspecified_fault
none
Details:
sequence: integer
The sequence number for the ACL entry for the purpose of ordering entries in an
ACL. Lower numbered entries are matched before higher numbered entries.
L2 fields:
source_mac: optional string
Source MAC address, in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
dest_mac: optional string
Destination MAC address, in the form xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
ethertype: optional string
Ethertype in hexadecimal, in the form 0xAAAA
L3/L4 fields:
source_ip: optional string
Source IP address, in the form xx.xx.xx.xx for IPv4 or appropriate colon-separated
hexadecimal notation for IPv6.
source_mask: optional string
Mask that determines which bits of source_ip to match on, in the form xx.xx.xx.xx
for IPv4 or appropriate colon-separated hexadecimal notation for IPv6.
dest_ip: optional string
Destination IP address, in the form xx.xx.xx.xx for IPv4 or appropriate colon-
separated hexadecimal notation for IPv6.
dest_mask: optional string
Mask that determines which bits of dest_ip to match on, in the form xx.xx.xx.xx for
IPv4 or appropriate colon-separated hexadecimal notation for IPv6.
protocol: optional integer
Protocol number in the IPv4 header, or value of the "next header" field in the IPv6
header.
source_port_min: optional integer
Lower end of the range of source port values. The value specified is included in
the range.
source_port_max: optional integer
Upper end of the range of source port values. The value specified is included in
the range.
dest_port_min: optional integer
Lower end of the range of destination port values. The value specified is included
in the range.
dest_port_max: optional integer
Upper end of the range of destination port values. The value specified is included
in the range.
tcp_flags: optional integer
Integer representing the value of TCP flags to match. For example, the SYN flag is
the second least significant bit in the TCP flags. Hence a value of 2 would
indicate that the "SYN" flag should be set (assuming an appropriate mask).
tcp_flags_mask: optional integer
Integer representing the mask to apply when matching TCP flags. For example, a
value of 2 would imply that the "SYN" flag should be matched and all other flags
ignored.
icmp_type: optional integer
ICMP type to be matched.
icmp_code: optional integer
ICMP code to be matched.
direction: string, either egress or ingress
Direction of traffic to match on the specified port, either "ingress" (toward the
logical switch or router) or "egress" (leaving the logical switch or router).
action: string, either deny or permit
Action to take for this rule, either "permit" or "deny".
Error Notification:
An entry in this column indicates to the NVC that the ACL could not be configured as
requested. The switch must clear this column when the error has been cleared.
acle_fault_status : invalid_acl_entry: none
Indicates that an ACL entry requested by the controller could not be instantiated
by the switch, e.g. because it requires an unsupported combination of fields to be
matched.
acle_fault_status : unspecified_fault: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in configuring the ACL entry but no more
specific information is available.
ACL TABLE
Access Control List table. Each ACL is constructed as a set of entries from the ACL_entry
table. Packets that are not matched by any entry in the ACL are allowed by default.
Summary:
acl_entries set of 1 or more ACL_entrys
acl_name string (must be unique within table)
Error Notification:
acl_fault_status : invalid_acl
none
acl_fault_status : resource_shortage
none
acl_fault_status : unspecified_fault
none
Details:
acl_entries: set of 1 or more ACL_entrys
A set of references to entries in the ACL_entry table.
acl_name: string (must be unique within table)
A human readable name for the ACL, which may (for example) be displayed on the
switch CLI.
Error Notification:
An entry in this column indicates to the NVC that the ACL could not be configured as
requested. The switch must clear this column when the error has been cleared.
acl_fault_status : invalid_acl: none
Indicates that an ACL requested by the controller could not be instantiated by the
switch, e.g., because it requires an unsupported combination of fields to be
matched.
acl_fault_status : resource_shortage: none
Indicates that an ACL requested by the controller could not be instantiated by the
switch due to a shortage of resources (e.g. TCAM space).
acl_fault_status : unspecified_fault: none
Indicates that an error has occurred in configuring the ACL but no more specific
information is available.